anyone starting chemo in Nov 2005

Margerie

Kim,

Hoping for good results! You are in my thoughts always.

Hugs,

Margerie

Odalys

Passing this on to all my sisters...http://www.mayyoubeblessedmovie.com/

Love and Hugs,

kim825

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes for Samantha. She had a great day yesterday at her party. She received a lot of Dora gifts and Princess Barbie gifts.
Thank you for the prayer chain. I know all the prayers helps.

Kim

Mary-Lou

Odalys

Funny, Mary Lou. There is a sister on these boards that uses that quote as her signature line. It makes me smile every time.

Mary-Lou

It made me smile too!

kim825

We went today for the results. I wish I had better news to report. I really did have a bad feeling of this drug I was on. I just felt it was not working, call it a hunch. There was some good news, the bump on the head where I had radiation is significantly smaller.
There are new spots on the lungs and some of my old spots are growing. There is also a little fluid on the right lung. If it starts to give me problems we can have it drained. A couple of new bone spots showed up. One being on the hip. Again not giving me any problems. And a new spot showed up on my liver. It showed up on the PET Scan but not the CAT Scan. It is relatively small in size.
So we started a new treatment today. It will be a WEEKLY treatment of Carboplatan and Abraxine (I don't think I am spelling them correctly). A third drug will be added later called Avastin. Anyone have some info about these drugs? I had my first treatment today and it wasn't too bad. My doctor said to me that it is really good that I am not symtomatic and we will not leave one stone underturned. My doctor is looking into some clinical trials that maybe I'd fit into. We told him it doesn't matter where we have to go, we will go!!! So lets hope and pray that this is the drug that will shrink all this crap in me.
So Anthony and I are exhausted from the day and just going to take a nap. The kids are coming home early because of the impending snow and will probably be home tomorrow.

Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts,
Kim

Mary-Lou

Kim - With tears in my eyes, and a lump in my throat I pray for you and your family.

This just isn't fair for you , my dear sister, to have to face in the very prime of life. It just breaks my heart. I wish there was more I could do.



Odalys - I loved the movie. It made me cry too..... It was so beautiful..........

Odalys

(((((Kim)))))
My heart is aching for you. Darn disease!!! Please know I will continue to pray for you and your family every day.

Margerie

I am so sorry Kim!! I am glad to hear all that radiation was worth the trouble.

I hope you can have a great snow day with your family tomorrow and drink hot chocolate and play together. I bet you are exhasted. Maybe watch some great movies together.

I think Avastin is like Herceptin, a monoclonal antibody that attacks some epidermal growth factor protein. If it is, hard to keep all these drugs apart so many similar names, it probably won't have any severe side effects.

I know Flea (posts on recur threads) had horrible lung lesions, plueral effusion and did some clinical trial in FL and is doing very well now. I am glad your onc is willing to research more treatment options for you.

I hope they find that magic bullet for you soon!

Hugs,

Margerie

AnnaM

My dear sister Kim, I am so sorry you are going through all this, but I am glad to hear you will be starting Avastin. I have heard good things about that drug. You continue to be in my prayers. I joined a small church back in November and I put your name in our prayer box there, too. You are strong, but hopefully knowing that so many of us are praying for you will give you added strength. I send you love and love and love today and every day.

Anna

AnnaM

Dear sisters, our new little dog, Ghilly, arrived this morning and she is not house trained, so let me tell you I have been busy and it isn't easy trying to train a dog to do her business outdoors when there's an ice storm going on! So if I am not as visible as I'd like to be, please know I am being kept pretty busy just now.

Happily busy, but busy all the same.

Anna

kim825

Thank you, thank you thank for for all the love, support and prayers. It does make things better to know all the people out there praying and loving me. It give me strength that you wouldn't believe. Strength and courage to fight this beast. I am hoping I am having my "magic bullet" right now.
Happy Valentine's Day to all my sisters. Hope you have a nice day.
Anna, have fun with Gilly. My neighbor is trying to train her 2 dogs and I see how hard it is w/o the ice/snow storm. Good luck.

love,
Kim

Odalys

I hope everyone is having a good Valentine's day.



Love and hugs,

AnnaM

Yikes, it is so cold here! Yikes, yikes, yikes!

Kim, I hope you aren't freezing up there even further north! I hope the sun shines on you today.

Love, Anna

Odalys

I've been thinking about all my sisters that live up North. I hope you're all safe and warm inside your homes. This is one ugly winter.

We will experience some of the effects of this winter blast tonight as the temps will dip into the 40's and remain there over the weekend. Oh dear...I think I better bring out my winter coat...LOL!

Sending warm (((((hugs))))) to all my sisters today.


PS: Kim - I'm not sure if you have read the success stories thread (it's very inspirational) so here is the link in case you want to check it out... http://community.breastcancer.org/ubbthr...part=1&vc=1

AnnaM

Yep, very cold up here. We're taking little dog to the groomer's so maybe we'll be able to see her eyes for a change....

This housetraining sure is a challenge, esp. with only solid ice everyplace you can see outside our house. (Did I say we live out on a country road?) I figure if we can learn to control things on ice, then everything else will be a breeze..., no?

Odalys, I'm a little envious of your just now thinking about bringing out that winter coat. I am actually wearing long underwear under my jeans today. Brrrr.

Love to all my sisters.

Anna

Anonymous

Wow.....lots of stuff to catch up on. I am just aching for your sucky news, my dearest Kim. I pray for you even more now.

Yay for the new doggy!!!! Where is a picture, Anna?!

Margerie, I am fascinated by your medical expertise. I love to read your answers to questions. I can't understand them, but I love to read them!

We had a fantastic vacation in California. Went to Disney/Universal Studios, and came home to an unbelievable blizzard. We checked our messages after waking up close to noon, and learned that a dear, sweet little boy from church died on Valentines Day. He was a special needs boy-he had so many hurdles, but we felt even more connected to him because our baby is special needs. His mom and dad adopted him a few years ago. They said that he went to sleep and never woke up.
So, instead of trying to recover from a joyous but exhausting trip, we went to a funeral for a 5 year old boy. So sad.
Lots to tell about vacation, but gotta go to bed as usual~
Love and prayers, Deb

Odalys

Debbie- Glad to have you back from a well deserved vacation. Any pics? So sorry about the little boy's death. Sad to hear a child has died but I know the heavens has acquired another angel. I hope your finger is feeling better tonight. Keep us posted.

Anna - Hope the weather is better in your area. We had a very cold night yesterday. In some areas the temps dropped into the 20's...burrrrrrr. This is not exactly Fl weather. I had to turn on the heater last night cause the house was very cold. It was in the low forty's outside our door. I bet the doggy is keeping you busy. Can't wait to see some pics of the little bundle of fur.

MaryLou - glad to hear you went back to work. I bet you must feel so good getting out of the house.

Kim and Margerie - You're in my thoughts and prayers.

Lat56 - Hope your computer problems have been resolved.

Okay, I almost fell asleep typing this note. Time for bed. Good night dear sisters.

Love and hugs,

Margerie

Just got back from 4 days of remodeling/getting our vacation home ready. Did I mention I am supposed to be resting from my surgery? I am not a very good patient. I ended up with 2 hernias (related to my DIEP, was lifting a turky at Thanksgiving and shouldn't have) and had them repaired and also did the Stage 2 of me reconstruction. Good news is he revised my "love handles" left over from Stage 1 of the reconstruction, he lipo'd the outside of my thighs and he lifted my right breast a little to match my left perfectly. Bad news- hernia repair surgery HURTS (worse than my flap harvesting at Stage 1- was totally unprepared) and lipo HURTS too. And (if this is my biggest problem right now I know I am a lucky dog) I have to wait until June for my nipples because the revision ended up having an incison right in the middle of where of it goes. Oh well, they will be worth waiting for. I did see the tattoo colors and they are beautiful! And I am holding him to his "there is no recovery" from nipple recon statement. I also told my ps (love him!) to feel free to slap me if I ever ask him to do lipo again- too much pain! WHat a woos I am- but pain meds don't help my pain.

Bundle up everyone- we are having pretty nice weather. The kids skiid all day yesterday.

Margerie

Odalys

Margerie - had to laugh while reading your post. They say healthcare professionals (specially doctors and nurses) make the worst patients. One of my best friends (who is a nurse) had lipo done and agrees it really hurts. She was also very bruised for a while. BTW- she ended up getting pregnant after her lipo and now says she won't go through that again! Glad to see your energy level is back and you can tackle home improvement projects. Do you have a "Honey-Do-List"? Jose's list keeps growing.

Ladies - I'm going for a job interview tomorrow. It's for an administrative position at a local hospital. The person who I would be reporting to is also a bc survivor and knows about my dx. This makes it so much easier. I'll keep you posted. Also, Thursday will be a very busy day as I will be going in for doctor's visit, f/u mammo, and bone density. Wow...time flies. I can't wait to get all this done. I'm on pins and needles and my nerves will be shot until I get all my test results. You know how it is.

Hugs,

Margerie

Odalys,

Good luck on your interview and your tests. WHich one is more nerve racking- I guess the tests!

Kim- how are you? And Deb- have you been flipping off too many people and that is why your middle finger is sore? Just kidding.

I actually got a spider bite or something on the back of my neck and it is killing me! I have to put a heat pad on it. I will feel silly at my post op appointment with my surgeon, if my chief complaint is pain from a spider bite.

Having chemo brain problems- like forgetting to tell DH his parents are driving up to visit from LA. Took me 3 days to remember to tell him! I need to carry post-its.

P.S. I am a terrible patient. I just take out my sutures when I decide it's time!

Odalys

Hi ladies,
Good news... f/u mammo was good and surgeon gave me the all clear. Woohoo...NED. I will see him in May again and if all clear...every six months. As I celebrate this milestone, I pray that all my sisters will reach this milestone soon.

I could see how excited the surgeon was. We laughed and talked about the day he gave me the bad news. He still remembers I was soooo upset, I kicked the examining table when he told me I would need chemo and another surgery to clear the margins. He tried so hard to reassure me everything would be okay but all I could do was cry. Wow...it was probably very hard for him to deliver such news. It's been 18 months and he remembers it so clearly.

He is such a character, always wanting to know where am working. He wants me to work for that hospital so I can give him special treatment...for example...cut him some slack if he is late completing his medical records. What a riot! He hasn't forgotten I turned down an administrative position when first diagnosed.

Margerie - Thanks for the good Karma. Interview went well but the pay is the same as what I'm earning now and I would have to pay over $800 for family health insurance. Yikes... that would mean over $10,000 a year in health insurance alone. No thanks! Besides, I really like what I do know. It would take a lot to get me to go back to the rat race. God did have a better plan for me! I hope you are feeling better from the spider bite. You are so funny...please leave those sutures alone.

Debbie - Have you seen a doctor for the finger pain? How are you feeling now?

Anna - I hope the weather is behaving. I wish I could send you some sunshine. Our temps were up in the 70-80 range today and will continue like that over the weekend. How is the puppy behaving?

Kim - How are you feeling? You're always in my thoughts.

MaryLou and Lat56 - Hope you are both doing well. I miss you.

Got to go now, need to do some laundry...yuck. Love and hugs,

Anonymous

Odalys! Yay!!! I rejoice with you over your good news! That really is fantastic-I just know that we will all cheer excitedly each time one of us gets the all clear.

Margerie-heehee.....no, I haven't been flipping off people before my middle finger started hurting, but now that it hurts, I give everyone the "bird" when I say, "My finger has been hurting....."

No, I had an appointment to go see my doctor about it this morning, but I cancelled it because I had to teach a class and was afraid it would not work out timewise. My finger is actually feeling better, and I think that it is due to how I hold Daniel sometimes by holding him front and center. When I do that, I usually clutch one hand to the other so I can relax my arm muscles.

Oh, the pictures we have! I haven't even looked at all of them on the camera yet, so I need to pick some good ones to post. We had such a blast-Daniel met every Disney character as well as all the Universal Studios characters. He got "special" treatment at Universal when "Marilyn Monroe" and her bodyguard both took us all over the park to cut in front of everyone and introduce Daniel to SpongeBob, Dora, Diego, Shrek and Donkey. I think it is because the bodyguard saw Daniel's orthotic and said, "My Mom wears one of these from having polio as a child!" Anyway, Daniel was fascinated and still talks about the whole trip!

Better go do moving stuff! We are moving to Indiana, but Greg will work in Chicago.
Love and prayers, Deb

kim825

Hi everyone. It is now Sunday and I just spent the last 5 days in the hosptial. Sigh...Last Sunday night around 5pm I noticed that my right hand started to swell. Didn't think much about it until I woke up Monday and my arm to hand was swollen. Spoke to oncologist office and since I wasn't running a fever and there was no discoloration in the arm and the arm wasn't a different temperature than the left arm we would wait and see since I was seeing the oncologist Tuesday for second treatment. Monday night I started running a fever, took Motrin and the fever didn't go down. Called oncologist oncall (not mine, unfortunately) and she said go to ER and have some blood work done and they will probably do a sonogram of the arm. She thought it was the port by what we were telling her. She thought it would be ok to go to hospital near my house as opposed to going to where oncologist is. (BIG MISTAKE) Went to ER and were going to do a chest x-ray and sonogram. They were going to access the port to take blood and make sure it was working. My nurse who was new to the hosptal turned to me and said I haven't accessed a port in 10 years. Thankfully she called in another nurse to do it, which was her husband. Went for tests and came back that I have pneumonia, but there were no beds in that hospital. Also have 3 blood clots in my arm that is causing the swelling. Spoke to oncologist oncall and no hosptial beds at my oncologist hospital. Holiday weekend and all. Should have insisted oncall dr. call my oncologist. So I was being transferred to a hospital 45 minutes away from my house but 10 minutes from dh work. At 3am in the morning I was being transferred. ALL the doctor's at new hospital didn't agree it was pneumonia. They were thinking it was my cancer that the ER doctor assumed was pneumonia. Couldn't say definitely though. Started my on antiobiotic just in case, blood thinner for clots (shot in belly 2x a day). Now a new problem surfaces. My heart rate is racing and I still have a fever. Dr's think that it is all related to the clots but weren't ruling out pneumonia. So many times they were going to send me home with meds and to follow up with oncologist. But my heart would start to race and the fever would go up. They did a CAT Scan and another chest x-ray. It was very hard for the doctors because they REALLY didn't know the WHOLE story with me and where the cancer EXACTLY is. I have to say they did keep in very close contact with my oncologist which was awesome. So it was finally decided I didn't have pneumonia. I do have this fast heartrate even though the ECHO and EKG were excellent. My heart was functioning perfectly. Just fast. So I have to follow up with a cardiologist for a Halter Monitor and my oncologist. Believe it or not I was most upset that I missed my chemo treatment last Tuesday. So I am finally home and relaxing (yeah right) with my family. I need to read and catch up with all of you. I did quickly read great news about your mammo Odalys, CONGRATULATIONS!

Love,
Kim

Margerie

Kim,

You are having too much excitement going on over there! I am so sorry you are not getting the break YOU DESERVE!

This may not be anything, but my friend that is just about to start chemo for colon cancer started feeling rotten last weekend. Thought it was the flu because his girls just had it. His arm started swelling (no port yet) and he got feverish and his heart raced. His wife finally said "f-it" and took him to the ER. His oncologist was thinking flu and waffling- but she was thinking it had to be something else. Long story short- he had a staph infection in his arm from the pneumonia shot he received the week before in his oncologist's office- a 1:100,000 chance they say.

He got iv antibiotics and is recovering. His arm did start to streak red and was warm when he spiked a fever.

So if your fever/heart race returns make sure they r/o staph!

I hope you get some rest and recovery- big hugs to you and your speedy little heart.

Margerie

LAT56

Kim!!! I'm so sorry to hear about everything you are going through. Hang tough! And know that I'm saying special prayers for you and your family.

LAT56

Odalys

Dear Kim, I'm lifting you in prayer tonight, may The Lord shine His healing light on you.


Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory,
for ever and ever.
Amen.



Hail Mary,
Full of Grace,
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit
of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary,
Mother of God,
pray for us sinners now,
and at the hour of death.
Amen.

Anonymous

I sure do love our sisterhood. Praise God that you are resting quietly at home, Kim! Lat56, good to see you!
Love and prayers, Debbie

Odalys

Kim - more prayers for you and your family.
http://community.breastcancer.org/ubbthr...&PHPSESSID=