Starting Chemo in JAN 2007

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  • jonimb
    jonimb Member Posts: 900
    edited May 2007
    Caya, so glad to hear your CT scan was clear. Sometimes you have to use the big guns on those headaches, and once you get them stopped they're easier to control.

    Amera, my eyebrows are cominng back in too. Not enough for a waxing yet, but I don't have to paint them in anymore. Also my eyelashes are starting, but pretty stumpy.

    Short...those hats sound terrific. I have a tilley hat I wear around the garden, but my radiation onc also recommended a lite scarf around my neck, as the radiation goes up quite high.

    Viddie, sure hope you are getting your spirits back up. Melia, sounds like you're two SIL's are more into themselves than other people. Sometimes though, people just don't know what to say. Jan, I hear you're a dog trainer...I need some help. My dog "Thor" loves to play ball, but he won't give me the ball back....in fact usually by the time I get it, it is bit in half, so then we have to get a new ball. How do you get them to give it back to you. He comes right back to me after getting the ball (I have one of those zinger's to throw it a long way), but he won't give it back.

    I love my new car...cruised around a bit yesterday.

    Just heading out for my Zap #2. Shorti, they only have two radiation centers in all of Alberta....Calgary & Edmonton, so I agree with the line ups. It's crazy.

    One of the other fellows from my office "Reg" just had an operation yesterday for a tumour on his bowel. Please say a prayer for him...he's a sweet guy, only 45 and two young daughters.

    Love and hugs to all. It's a beautiful day here, I've already been for a walk....but the mosquitoes are already out....Yikes!!!

    Joni
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  • Rebecca
    Rebecca Member Posts: 971
    edited May 2007
    Ditto on the Yay for you Caya! Glad that the headache has subsided as well.

    I have skimmed through the posts, but with all the midgets, and work to catch up on I am getting the sense that it is a hopeless case.

    So sum up...I am glad that Skye and Cindy managed to hook up (was there a picture posted?) as well as Mary and Mizsissy. Sounds like a great time! Anyone who heads towards New York City let me know...I am about a half hour train ride from Manhattan!

    Mizsissy and Mary-you guys look great! I am also glad that you went camping Mizsissy, the pics are awesome. Looks like you had a great time.

    Overall it looks like we are mostly moving along. The little ups and downs that seem to come with the territory. I hear you all on the appearing/disappearing hair, lashes and brows. I am three weeks out, and i seem to be sprouting hair all over...but my eyebrows are still vanishing, and the hair on my head is sparse, white and loosly attached (comes out with a gentle tug). Since I did not have any grey before it fell out, I was not really expecting it to be grey now, but so far that is what I got

    We had a nice weekend upstate. Got down and dirty working the land. We spent some time working on our cabin...which has changed location BTW. We are no longer going to take the totally decrepit one up on the hill, NOW we are going to take over the (former) sheep barn out in the meadow. Of course that involved the removal and relocation of about 18 inches of compacted Sheep Poo (the sheep are recently deceased). YECK Luckily I escaped Poo-Duty, and spent most of the weekend digging in the dirt alternately laying in vegetable seedlings and pulling out weeds. One bed was so bad that we actually dug it out and sifted the dirt to get the vetch roots out. The Rhubarb was ripe, and we ate a bunch of that, and I cooked up a divine vegetable chicken soup for dinner that was composed almost entirely of produce grown right there in the garden (albiet mostly grown last season)...including the herbs AND hot pepper flakes. It was awesome. I am going to try and replicate the recipe here at home, but I am sure that it will not be as good.

    I went this morning for my first zap. pretty anticlimactic. I think I may have felt a bit of warmth, but it was probably in my head. I feel tight and sore now...but i felt that way before, so who knows if it is related to the rads. This whole thing should be interesting....I had an ITCH under my arm over the weekend...right in the area that is numb. now THAT is frustrating! It seems to have gone now, and I hope it does not happen again. Talk about an itch that you can not scratch!!!

    Anyway, back to work for me. I have to do everything I can to earn money right now...I will only earn 1/3 as much money this summer as I normally do, and I was unable to save money for the summer because of medical expenses. Going to be a TIGHT summer

    For some pics of the Sheehys enjoying the farm.....
    Picasa web album
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  • Rebecca
    Rebecca Member Posts: 971
    edited May 2007
    Quote:

    Jan, I hear you're a dog trainer...I need some help. My dog "Thor" loves to play ball, but he won't give me the ball back....in fact usually by the time I get it, it is bit in half, so then we have to get a new ball. How do you get them to give it back to you. He comes right back to me after getting the ball (I have one of those zinger's to throw it a long way), but he won't give it back.



    Well, i am not a dog trainer, but I did have a dog once who did the same thing. What I did with her was to have two or three balls on hand, and when she came back towards me I would offer the new ball. When she saw it, she would DROP the one in her mouth so that she could chase the new one. I am sure this does not work with all dogs...but it did the trick with Fez, and after a while she developed a habit of dropping the ball on the run so that it would roll to my feet, and then I would immediately throw another one. She got quite a workout that way!
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  • meliaanne
    meliaanne Member Posts: 682
    edited May 2007
    Rebecca,
    Have you read Kingsolver's new book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle? I just finished it and really enjoyed it. Her fam moved from Tucson to Appalachia and grew what they could, ate only local products of what they couldn't grow, including the meat that they ate. Kind of an unrealistic book in terms of those of us who have to work, but really kind of interesting. A bit preachy. Lots of yummy looking recipes.
    Melia
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  • Rebecca
    Rebecca Member Posts: 971
    edited May 2007
    Nope Melia...can't say that I have . Right now I am drowning my brain in pure fantasy. My husband says I am hiding and maybe he is right. I did hear a bit on NPR about a book written by a family in Canada that decided to spend a year only eating things grown within a 100 mile radius of their home. Probably along the same lines as the one you read. Their diet required them to buy things in bulk and store them...they did not eat bread for a long time and the thing they missed most was chocolate (imagine that!)

    I personally beleive in such philosophies...I think that our food production is too centralized. In New Jersey we have wonderful, fertile farmland, but when you go to the grocery store, all the food is brought in from all over the world. On the one hand it is rather neat to think that the world is getting so small, but then on the other hand I can think of other, more productive ways to use the money and energy required to get strawberries from Chile! I would much rather save our environment than eat Strawberries in February.
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  • NOLONGERREADINGORPOSTING
    NOLONGERREADINGORPOSTING Member Posts: 778
    edited May 2007
    Caya, that headache certainly was a major episode for you!!! I know how bad they can be but you are lucky it wasn't anything major. I don't know why they made you wait for five hours for a private room, that must have been miserable. At least it's over now.

    It's a very hot day here in Michigan. Humid and temps are supposed to hit the 90s today, time to call in the fire hoses!!! I've got all four kitties safe inside the the cool house.

    My first tamo didn't do a thing to me that I'm aware of; since I am post-meno I think any effects might actually be beneficial.

    My hair is thick now, about 1/2 long, but I am not used to seeing myself with such a round head. I don't think I'll wear this hair until next fall.

    Shorti, I'm like you. I'm sewing & gardening. Can't seem to get back to the paints quite yet.

    Go for my second to last zap today. Yeaah!!!! After the Memorial Day break I recovered most of my energy, so I feel pretty good now, but I will be so happy to stop have to make a 30 mile roundtrip every day at 3 pm. Really breaks up your day.

    Melia, it's sad, but true, you find out who your really friends and loved ones are with BC. I'm not impressed with my inlaws. My husband's sister has never said a word to me since I was dx'd, didn't even call. (And this was after last summer when we sent them a prepaid vacation to an island for their anniversary present.) Or his brother. We got a call from dh's father last week, there was a sense of urgency in his voice. DH's brother's wife had just been diagnosed with some "pre-cancerous" lumps (whatever those are!!) Could we call him immediately?!! SURE...he's never called us, what are we supposed to say? We are sorry your wife *almost* had cancer?!!!

    It really doesn't bother me all that much because these are people who never were important to me anyway, and I have other caring, loving relatives who matter.

    xxxooo Mizsissy
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  • Lynn12
    Lynn12 Member Posts: 1,008
    edited May 2007
    Wow, looks like 4 of us starting rads this week. Joni, Shorti, Rebecca and myself. Anyone else? I had the simulation today and they took some x-rays. Wow, that is a big machine, kinda scary. My first zap is tomorrow. The techs were really nice, I'm so happy I will have the same techs every day.

    Mizsissy, congrats on finishing up, you too Amera.

    Caya, so happy the ct came back negative. Hope you are feeling better.

    My hair is really falling out badly now. I think I'm really depressed about it. Just when I thought I could go topless all the time and get moving on. I am totally bummed. Onc didn't think it would fall out again, he said it's the initial assault that makes it fall out. Exactly 3 weeks after my last TC, it's falling out.

    I took my mom for a colonoscopy this morning, so it's been a long day. Everythign went fine but I've been up since 5 and have done all sorts of driving to get her to the surgery, then back home, then me to the rads place, then home. I'm overtired.

    Mizsissy, glad your tamo was uneventful. I'll take mine starting next Monday.
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  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Member Posts: 1,376
    edited May 2007

    Joni - another idea for training the dog to let go of the ball. Keep some small treats nearby. When he brings the ball back hold the treat in your hand right beside his mouth (on the side not in front). He'll drop the ball to get the treat. When you hold the treat do it with your hand in the same position/shape each time so that eventually he'll drop the ball with just the hand signal. I don't usually train with treats, but this worked well for my lab mix.

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  • goldnmom
    goldnmom Member Posts: 189
    edited May 2007

    The Chapel Hill doc has done 3 DIEP's since starting practice in CH. He estimated 12-14 hours for my bilateral, and requires consent to do free TRAM. Both NC docs require this, so use it on appeal. Free TRAM is not necessary with an experienced microsurgeon. Free TRAM (muscle sparing TRAM) can use 1-99% of the muscle legally. In Dr. Halvorson's favor, he did his microsurgery fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering in NY so has some experience under his belt there.

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  • TPPJ
    TPPJ Member Posts: 1,017
    edited May 2007
    Goldnmom, I hear ya on glad to have hair but need more. I am so at that point. I, too, can blow dry the 1/2" I have, but.... it's kind of wavy so I can't do a short, spiky do... Maybe another 1/2" or so and I can do that hairstyle..not that it's my favorite, but it beats the wig. I've officially HAD it it with wigs. Itchier than I don't know what in the heat...

    Viddie, I see we are all having our "days". Sorry today is yours. It's hard not to, though. I've rebounded since my slump somewhat and I heard a very sobering story this afternoon....kind of like Amera's story about the disfigured guy at the gas station. Anyway, the 35 yr. old Supt. of Schools here, who just took the job last year and has 3 kids at my kids elem. school...one is just a kindergardner....was dx'd w/Lou Gehrigs. They give him 2-3 years to live. I don't even know this guy, have only seen him in pics and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. I was like whoa.....you've got it good, girl. I need to get mentally tough.

    Jan, good for you for going to LGFB. I was just thinking yesterday am how glad I was that I went to that because I got so many nice things...great name cosmetics and a good chance to try a bunch of stuff you wouldn't just go out and buy. I ended buying a Loreal brow pencil and some brown shadow and have been doing my brows w/those since you had sent me the link to that brow kit you bought....I kind of cheaply improvised that. Anyway, here I am a month later and I've got bushy brows. More dark must have grown in because they don't look so white...what is white, I cover with the powdered shadow. Viddie, Mel, Nancy and whoever else is still on Taxol...when you are feeling down like you are now Viddie, remember it is DEFINITIELY an s/e... I def. got to a tough point at the very end, emotionally drained, etc. And then and only then, did I realllllly lose lashes and brows. I thought I had gotten off scot free in that dept. But here I am 7 weeks later w/a 1/2" of hair on my head and bushy eyebrows. This too shall pass. It doesn't feel like it when you are going through it.

    Caya, sorry about your headaches and your mets fears. I hear that every ache/pain you get when you first come out of this stuff unnerves you. Granted, your headaches weren't mild in severity or duration... how are you now?
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  • TPPJ
    TPPJ Member Posts: 1,017
    edited May 2007

    Post deleted by TPPJ

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  • Robbin65
    Robbin65 Member Posts: 251
    edited May 2007
    Boy, do I have catching up to do. Just got back Monday from my music festival. My body is so sore from all that walking!!!!! I have done nothing but sit around the house on the computer all winter dealing with breast cancer...

    Here is a link of a short movie I made of the festival:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdTIUX0Rwig


    image RobbinJaye's Camp

    image The Feather River

    image Beautiful Road

    image Camping
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  • TPPJ
    TPPJ Member Posts: 1,017
    edited May 2007

    Great pics, RobbinJaye. Looks like a gorgeous place and the whole festival so "California". You're in northern Cal,right?

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  • TPPJ
    TPPJ Member Posts: 1,017
    edited May 2007

    RobbinJaye, I was reading your myspace thing again and noticed you found your lump on the very same day I did...8/31. Funny that we'd "meet" each other.

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  • TPPJ
    TPPJ Member Posts: 1,017
    edited May 2007
    I'm laughing here.... my 6 yr. old daughter is complaining that the bigger girls don't give her the time of day at the bus stop. My son and I told her to just get into their circle and start talking. She's all embarrassed. I told her hey, whaddaya think I did online w/these BC women? I said I went online and they were all talking and I just kept on talking until they talked to me too! She laughed. It was a good visual for her, as she see's me "talking" to you guys all the time.
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  • Rebecca
    Rebecca Member Posts: 971
    edited May 2007

    Wow Robbinjaye that looks like an awesome time! So very colorful and delightfully loud.

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  • viddie
    viddie Member Posts: 547
    edited May 2007
    Hi,
    Thanks for all your support. I am feeling much better today. What a difference a day makes. Tomorrow is my 7th taxol. I finish my taxol on July 6. Can’t wait!! Looks like everyone that is starting rads this week will be finishing up the same week as Melia and me.
    Amera,
    Getting your eyebrows waxed is a milestone. Are you using the self-tanning stuff? That is a great idea. I cannot sit in the sun because of taxol and I miss the sun, nevermind the glowing suntan.
    Caya,
    I am so glad your ct scan was negative. That is great news! I hope your headache goes away real soon. How are you feeling now? Better, I hope.
    Jan,
    I enjoyed the “Look Good, Feel better” class. Actually I was the only one who showed up so I had a “personal” lesson. It was fun and I got lots of expensive makeup. It is amazing how fast people think we should feel better and move on. They do not get it. They do not understand that this is a long process. When will your insurance company let you know about your appeal? I hope you win.
    Dar1,
    I am glad you had a great Birthday. You have such a thoughtful daughter. It’s great that you have your brows and lashes back and wow, your hair is a whole inch long!
    Lynn,
    I hope your hair starts to behave. That must be so frustrating for you. I am sure this is just a small setback for your hair and it will start taking off real soon. I do not know if this will help, but I bought some Nioxin shampoo and conditioner. Some people seem to think it helps with hair growth.
    Melia,
    Only 5 more!! I have my 7th tomorrow and my end date is July 6, a day after yours. Can’t wait. How are you feeling?
    It is amazing how some people will not broach the subject. I do not what they are afraid of. It is a shame that your sil’s cannot be more supporting.
    Shorti,
    I am sorry you had to wait so long for your rad treatment. Hopefully the rest will go a little faster.
    “We all need a good jump in the warm waters of BALI”- I am ready!!
    Viddie
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  • viddie
    viddie Member Posts: 547
    edited May 2007
    Joni,
    I am glad you are enjoying your new car. I will say a prayer for your friend.
    Rebecca,
    Sounds like you had a busy weekend. Do you like the former sheep barn better? It will be so cute and cozy when you are done renovating. Will you be able to get there often this summer? I love the baby chicks?
    Tina,
    Do you remember at what taxol week your eyebrows started falling out? I am on week 7 and I thought I was lucky- I still have some eyebrows. You mean I can still loose them? I saved all my cards also. My bff who is a ovarian cancer survivor (27 years) saved all her cards and loves reading them over. Four years ago she had a recurrence, but they got it in time and she is fine now.
    Robbin,
    Loved your video. Looks like you had a fabulous weekend. Reminds me of the good ol’ 60’s times.
    Viddie
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  • Caya
    Caya Member Posts: 971
    edited May 2007
    Hi everyone,

    Well, ladies, today was my first headache free day in a week!! Hopefully this will be the end of it. Thanks to all who asked, and thanks for your support.
    I didn't go overboard today, just did a quick grocery shop, some paperwork, took a late afternoon nap ( about an hour), had some frozen chicken breasts in the freezer sent over by a friend, so I made these with a big salad and some veggies for dinner. DH and DDs cleaned up.
    Rebecca, the pictures of your family are great - the kids are adorable. Your farm is a great place for them ( and you and DH).
    Shorti - I've had a number of the same residual s/es - muscle pain, jolts and also had things fall out of my hands that really shouldn't be falling out.. They gave me Percosets 3 years ago when I had my hysterectomy, and at the time they did make me hallucinate.. but the ER dr. last night urged me to try them again, but one at a time, about 45 minutes apart - and I was desperate for something to help, and it worked out fine.
    Tina, your 6 year old daughter sounds too cute - good advice you gave her, just jump right in there girl!!!
    RobbinJaye - your campsite looks lovely. Looks like you had a great time.
    Viddie - glad you are feeling more upbeat - this is really quite the roller coaster ride.
    Joni - saying prayers for your friend. Cancer really does suck, doesn't it?
    Mizsissy, Tina, other ladies who have hair - How many weeks out from your last chemo would you say you had enough hair that really covered your scalp... I'm with Shorti - mostly caps and scarves now, I won't be seen outside until I have hair that covers my scalp. I'm 3 weeks out now, starting some growth. A mixture of dark and grey, but straight so far.
    Again, thanks everyone for your support during this week of the headache that never ended.
    hugs to all, caya
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  • Nancyab
    Nancyab Member Posts: 276
    edited May 2007

    Morning! Viddie I think my lashes and brows left the building at #7. I still don't have any, I look really creepy without, I think. I have about 5 short lashes on each eye and absolutely no lower lashes. Trying to put mascara on the 5 I have without poking my eye out is a real trick.LOL I bought some fake lashes for just in case times... I can't even put them on straight. I am a total klutz at "beauty school"! My one and only blush turned to crumbs on my GA trip, and after work yesterday I was so tired I knew I had to stop and get dog food, take a book back to the library and get some new blush. I accomplished the dog food. I'll pay the fine at the library and go without blush, I just could not function another minute. I napped 2 hours and then I had a miserable night of insomnia. I find the fatigue like that kind of scary, it is so much more than the normal I'm tired stuff. It is almost paralyzing. I hate it. But back to work again today, tomorrow is LAST CHEMO!!! hip hip hooray. I see the rads dr. on June 5th. I hope he lets me rest awhile before starting up the zapper. Course if I get to really feeling good again My DH will have to drag me to rads kicking and screaming! Have a great day everyone!

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  • meliaanne
    meliaanne Member Posts: 682
    edited May 2007
    Good Morning all,
    Well, taxol 7 went fine and, as always after benedryl, I slept well. I am so thrilled to only have five left. Viddie, we will make it! Nancy, I am very happy for you, one more! My eyebrows are barely coming back, and eyelashes also, very stubby and sparse. My daughters were here last weekend, took me to Sephora, which is an intimidating makeup store if I go alone. But with two pretty young women along, I was fine. They got me set up with new eyebrow liner that looks good. I just use a little eyelash liner along both the top and bottom lids to give some color. Since I wear glasses, I don't think it's noticeable that lashes are gone/sparse. It's the hair I yearn for. I have some fuzz, with a few darker, thicker hairs fighting thru. But since I hadn't expected anything until after taxol, I tell myself to be grateful. No where near being able to go topless though.

    Robbin, what a lovely setting. Glad you had fun. Caya, so glad you are feeling better. Lynn, that hair issue would upset me too!

    Good luck on rads all. We will all get through this; it's just taking soooo long.

    Melia
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  • Dar1
    Dar1 Member Posts: 146
    edited May 2007
    Good morning all!
    Robin - your camping trip looks awesome - where in California is that?
    Tina, good advice for your daughter - better to learn that early in life.
    Caya, I'm glad your headache is gone. Sometimes it seems that when pain gets hold, it's hard to get rid of - and nothing feels better than when it stops.
    Yesterday I retired my wig - yes it is official. I was getting ready for work and I just couldn't put it on. So I used the "hair glue" and went. The first person I saw was the lone female partner and she was very supportive. A good friend of hers had chemo 20 years age (and is fine) and Rose is not afraid to talk about it - like it's been mentioned, many are. Anyway, I got a few double takes, and a few comments, but it went OK. So I am washing the wig once more and donating it to the Cancer Society. Good thing too - it's going to the upper 80s today - very hot for us northerners!
    So, another milestone on this journey. I'm still not reconciled to even being on it!
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  • Amera
    Amera Member Posts: 452
    edited May 2007
    Dar, congratualtions! That is a milestone. I will be ready to do that in about another month. My DH thinks I should do it now but it's still a little too short for my comfort.

    I know what you mean about not being reconciled about this whole BC thing. I have my last rad today and that's it. No more for me. I've been a little weepy and emotional today. Sad then angry. I'm sure it's the whole end of treatment thing.
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  • meliaanne
    meliaanne Member Posts: 682
    edited May 2007
    Amera, Congrats! I read that there are lots of emotions when this all ends. Feel them all, move on, enjoy a long and healthy life!!! (but don't leave us).

    Melia
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  • skyedivine
    skyedivine Member Posts: 839
    edited May 2007

    Amera it made me smile to think of you getting a brow wax, it means there is hope. Mel I'm glad I'm not the only one with a long straggler brow hair, and Lynn, that I'm not the only one with one brow! I asked the onc yesterday why one brow would fall out and he had no idea. I'm now five and a half weeks out from final Taxol, for the record, and I hate to say it but my right thumbnail is beginning to look a bit iffy. Aaargh! - Skye

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  • skyedivine
    skyedivine Member Posts: 839
    edited May 2007
    Dar, I'm glad you had a good birthday and loved your GD's tribute to you. Very special!
    On your coworker with the benign brain tumor, I've also had one for years, called an arachnoid cyst, about the size of a peewee marble. It hasn't grown at all in the five years its been monitored and causes me no problems. I think I got it when the concrete lid of a ceramics kiln I was loading at a Lake Geneva elementary school unhinged and hit me in the head.

    Love that you are spiking your one-inch growth and going for it. I can't wait to have a one-inch growth. Yesterday my onc told me when my hair does come in it might feel "mushier" than my old hair but all would be back to normal in a year. A year! I must say the new growth does feel softer than my usual coarse, straight hairs. Oh well, hair is hair. - Skye
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  • NOLONGERREADINGORPOSTING
    NOLONGERREADINGORPOSTING Member Posts: 778
    edited May 2007
    Good morning ladies...whew, I guess those two last zaps are getting to me. Was too tired to bike last night and slept til ten am this morning!!!

    Robbin Jaye, I can tell you had a great time last weekend. Where in N. California are you? I have a cousin who owns some property in Laytonville and he's done it up hippy style. Built lots of little shacks, each one for a separate function and that's how they live.

    Shorti...you must, must come in September, or else I'll probably have a terrible attack of loneliness & disappointment and you'll all have to come anyway to cheer me up!!! On another note, my garden has been a great source of pleasure this spring. We bought this house mainly for the yard and the landscaping, but we're rarely around to enjoy it, because spring is when we like to travel. This year we are getting to enjoy May & June uninterrupted and spend a little time on perfecting the yard. Here are my rhodos & foxgloves!

    image

    image



    Joni, congratulations on your car!!! And I just love your new signature about today being the best day ever!!!

    Caya, glad to hear you're recovering from that awful headache. It was probably just a build up from the tension of everything you've been through. My head is now respectably covered with hair, and it has been about ten weeks. However, I am not ready to wear this. The shape of my head is still very round and funny looking. I need more hair to shape things out, and I don't imagine I'll have enough until fall.

    Well, after 3:30 pm today I am D O N E with treatment. This treatment journey that started last November is now O V E R!!! But it will take a few weeks to get all my energy back and I now have to start dieting VERY SERIOUSLY to lose about ten pounds. I gained 3-4 pounds this last stretch of radiation because it made me so tired, but I need to lose more.

    Hope everyone is doing well. Let's set a date & time for our cyber party. We can bring drinks, refreshments & everything and have a great time posting in real time!!!

    xxxooo Mizissy
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  • skyedivine
    skyedivine Member Posts: 839
    edited May 2007
    Melia, I hear you on the the SIL's, it's very hurtful when people you thought were close don't acknowledge that we are going through major hell. Some are just afraid to bring it up, I think, others are hoping we will just get it done with so they don't have to think about it. Either way it feels non-supportive and that is hard to bear.

    Shorti I love the idea of the jeans hats. What style are they? Maybe you could start a new business making them for chemo baldies. If you get one made up be sure to post a pic.

    Caya I'm so glad to hear your brain looked beautiful and the official word was all clear. And that you finally got someone to deal with the pain. Do you have a scrip in case it happens again?

    I was surprised yesterday (five weeks out from Taxol) to learn that my white and red bcs were both quite down, any lower on the whites and he wouldn't have let me start radiation, the onc said, and that he would be "watching like a hawk." At least I know why I'm so tired this week. He also investigated Wingate Clapper and said all reports were that he was fantastic. I meet Dr. Clapper tomorrow.

    We're waiting for thunderstorms here, and a cold front. Sunday we have plans to attend a Brewers game to celebrate our sons' birthdays, both of whom were born on June 4. Maybe I'll go with a baseball cap for the first time- Skye
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  • Amera
    Amera Member Posts: 452
    edited May 2007
    Mizsissy, congrats on the last day of rads. Mine too! I have such mixed feelings.

    People, including my husband, have seemed to have forgotten this is my last treatment day. Not that I can blame them, but it is a pretty big deal, I think. I guess rads are so tame that it's easy for those around us to forget it's still cancer treatment. Not sure I want a big celebration, but some acknowledgement would be nice.
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  • meliaanne
    meliaanne Member Posts: 682
    edited May 2007
    I think what is keeping me going right now, as I walk thru that chemo treatment door every week, is my getaway when it's over. Four days in the mountains, piles to read, sun, ice cream, room service. I am planning to try to process all that is happened, to be able to move forward. I know this has changed me forever, but am hoping that each day it will occupy less of my thinking, that I will recapture some of my former trust in the future. And that I will be able to lose some weight, focus on our daughter's wedding in oct, do a better job at work, and give my husband more attention. But I will never allow myself to deny simple pleasures, and every extra nickel isn't going to go into retirement savings!

    Amera, can you plan a celebration for yourself? Even something as simple as a manicure or a new outfit? You have earned it! You too Mizsissy!

    Melia
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