Anyone starting chemo in Aug. 08?

Hood1980

My Dad is doing much better today!  His stomach must know he's going to the Dr. tomorrow!    Alibug - Sorry to hear your Grandma's cancer has spread.  You must be young yourself with a Grandma of 84.  My Dad is 78 almost 79.  But if anyone asks - I'm only 29!  He He!

I've been on tamox since Nov, since finishing chemo in Oct and was hot flashing so frequently it was impossible to sleep.  The Dr. prescribed Effexor and I've been taking that since December and it has really cut down on the hot flashes.  I only get them a couple of times a night vs every hour and my stress/mood has greatly improved.  I would recommend talking to your oncs about it if you are having any problems with hot flashes, lack of sleep, too much stress/anxiety.  I didn't want to have to take another pill, but I think everyone knew I needed it!

TXBadBoob - I'm in a bisphosphonate clinical trial that not only prevents bone mets, it is the same drugs that prevent osteoporosis.   There is a thread under chemothereapy  Level 3 Bisphosphonate Clinical Trial.

Roya

Bette, congrats on getting those drains out ............PERMANENTLY!!!!!!!!!

Corinne, I am done with everything except for my lift which will be a year from now.  You are almost halfway thru rads?  To me, rads went by so much faster. 

The only s/e I have left is some neuropathy and it is slowly dissipating.  The docs say it takes 6 months or more from the end of chemo.  I have a bit of dental work to catch up on since the dentisits did not reallay want to treat me while I was getting chemo etc.

mamakaren

Hi girls,

Thank you all for all the support you have given me and my mom even though she doesn't know it. She is very nervous and unpatient which is understandable. She has her good days and bad but mostly good. She ate some broth and ice chips today and passed gas! She has never been so glad to pass gas like she was today. It was funny! we sure did need some laughter. She wil get out on friday they say God willing.

Joyce~ I feel for you. It's a kinda hurt that we can't explain. I have never felt my heart shattered in a million pieces. I pray that the Lord heals your dad with his touch. Stay strong and may you have peace and comfort.

Thank you all and God Bless you

karen

Anonymous

How about if I just call the prothesis Bette's Boob? It is a high-end model with "Climate Control Technology" from Amoena. They were discontinuing it at the store I went to, and sold it to me for the insurance allowance price. I also go a pink and black leopard print mastectomy bra(for the honeymoon) as well as two in more normal shades.

I look much better with a proper silhouette, since recon is a long way for me.

Today Metlife called with the news that I have now crossed over the line from short-term to long-term disability. The good news is, that if I qualify, it pays a lot more. We  could use the money, and I could use more time off of work. So we will see if Metlife considers me disabled enough to approve it.

Today I got my hair trimmed and colored. No more chemo gray! The pic is at the end of my "cancer journey" album on Facebook under Bette George Lewis .

Well, I did not sleep well last night, so I am going to try my best tonight. Maybe some Ambien CR.

Bette 

Anonymous

Mamakaren, How is your Mom doing today?

Joyce, your Dad?

I am nervous about the wedding tomorrow. Had a major panic attack yesterday, and now am afraid I will have one tomorrow and not be able to walk down the aisle. I will take meds before the event to calm me down. I want to be Tom's vision as he sees me coming to him.

My surgical side is still a bit sore, and the drain holes draining a bit. We will have to be careful not to overuse those parts of my body on the honeymoon!

I plan to place pictures on Facebook as soon as I have them.

Today I will wrap gifts for my attendants and pack a bag for the weekend.

I miss Tom. He is in a hotel room in a neighboring town. Soon we will be together.

Bette 

Hood1980

Best wishes Bette!  I may crash the wedding tomorrow!  I'm just down the road here in Maryland!  Ha Ha!  My Dad is so much better!  He even went out to do dinner with us to clebrate my birthday last night!  He had a good time albeit very tired.  Thanks so much for asking!  You take care and concentrate on the wonderful life ahead for you & Tom!  God Bless! 

alibug05

Bette - Good luck tomorrow and I jsut want to wish you all the happiness in the world - you deserve it!!!!!!!!!!  Loves to all...............

dlb823

Bette ~  I will be thinking about you tomorrow.  I know you will be such a beautiful, glowing bride.  I have so much admiration for the strength you've had throughout the past few months.  I'm just thrilled that the day you've been waiting for is finally here, and that you and Tom can start married life together.  Blessings to you both!

Joyce ~ So glad your Dad is improving!  That's great news! 

I had a really scary experience on Tuesday.  I passed out while standing in line to mail a package at the post office.  I'm attributing it to a severe reaction to the Femera I'd been on for about a week, which had been making me feel sort of queasy and weird.  I've been taking it very easy since Tuesday, laying low and just waiting for the Femara (which I've stopped) to get out of my system.  One of my two oncs suggested that I might want to have a brain MRI, which has scared the heck out of me.  Needless to say, I'm praying that Femara is the only culprit in this incident, but it has been worrisome and upsetting.    Deanna

Misty1

Happy Wedding Day tomorrow, Bette!  All the best to you and Tom!

Hood, glad you got to be with your dad-Happy Birthday!!  How is your expander doing?

Deanna, scary, scary!!  Hopefully, it will only be the Femara-is that what you are on for being ER+?

Have a great weekend, everyone!

~Misty

TXBadboob

Bette, I hope your wedding is everything you dreamed it would be.  Here's to a wonderful honeymoon, too.

Hood, Happy Birthday!  Glad to hear your Dad is doing better.

Deanna, feel any better yet?  My prayers are with you now.

Hope everyone has a great night!

Deen

Corinne6

Bette" CONGRATULATIONS!!! WE are sooo happy for you!!! Hope your wedding day is filled with wonderful  memories and wonderful sunshine!!!

Roya

I am so happy for you, Bette!  Congratulations!

Roya

I forgot to mention that I have tried the 'Revitalash' and that it really seems to be working.  The story behinid it is that a physician developed it after his wife lost her hair and lashes from chemo.  He developed it out of love for her. 

Later, patients that used it found that after using it the hair and lashes seemed to grow back thicker than before chemo.  I now have thick gorgeous lashes.

Its a bit pricey but well worth it. My salon charges twice as much just because it is imported.  But you can get it on Ebay for about half or less.

DesertRider

Hi Everyone,

I just returned from Brazil, again - the work there has kept my mind off things and has been such a blessing. However, email didn't work and I'm just now catching up on you all after 3 weeks.

 I start Radiation on Thursday. Feel OK about it. The thing that worries me these days is a reoccuring cramping pain in the lower stomach. It's been getting worse for several weeks and I'm wondering if it might be the Arimidex - been on it 3 months. Anyone out there ever experienced that kind of pain with Arimidex?

Bette, CONGRATULATIONS! What happiness and celebration must be going on these days! 

Deanna, I'm anxious to hear how you're doing.  Give me a call when you can!

Karen, love to your mom and it sounds like things are going good.

Love to all,

Gail 

DesertRider

Oh, Jeannine, how are your headaches? Anything new? 

And where are you S. Calif girls coming to the desert? I want to see you! 

Gail 

Misty1

Welcome back, Gail!

I am coming out to Palm Desert on Wednesday night.  I will be with my husband, parents, and sister.  I'll send you a PM!

~Misty

Roya

Hi Gail!  Glad you are back safe and sound!

Anonymous

Hello all!

The wedding was great! The honeymoon at Shawnee Village Mountain Resort in the Poconos was secluded and romantic.  There are some pictures on Facebook under Bette George Dietrick .

Today was back to reality. I went to radiation oncology and had to lie very still for an hour to be scanned and tattooed. I have my simulation on 4/14 and start right after that.

There are tons of forms to be filled out as I am applying for long-term disability and SSDI. Plus thank you notes, but we worked on them together today and got half of those done.

Tom and I are both tired and achy tonight, and he has an upset stomach. My turn to take care of him!

Bette 

Corinne6

Hi all. Finshed my 21st RAD today. 4 more to go Yipppeeee!! Muga test on the 7th to hopefully get me back on Herceptin.                                                                                                   Deanna, How are you feeling and did you find out what was wrong?

Lashon. We have nto heard from you lately. How are you doing?

I changed my picture on here. This is a picture of me and my horse. He was laying down in the pasture. I am wearing my short wig.

Misty1

Good Morning All,

Corinne, you need to get a close-up picture!  YOu look so happy with your horse.  I can't believe you will be done rads soon.  Good for you!!

Bette, welcome back.  It sounds like you had a wonderful wedding and honeymoon.

I will be out in Palm Desert for the next 10 days, so I will probably be away from this board for a while.  I hope to get to meet some of you out there.

I will catch up with everyone when I get back!

~Misty

Hood1980

Have fun in the Desert Misty!  BTW - I had my TE replaced with an implant in Feb.

Corinne6

Just enlarged my pic. Is that better?

Anonymous

Much better pic, of both you and your horse!

Bette 

dlb823

Love the new avatar, Corinne!   I like your short wig, and what a great looking horse, too!

I'm so much better this week.  That Femara just did not agree with me.  Not sure if it was the drug itself that my body was rebelling against, or if the drop in estrogen was that severe in a week to cause such distress, but I've made an app't. with my primary doc to discuss the situation.  I figured I'd get her input before I decide what to do.  But since I was feeling fine before Femara, and felt great once it was out of my system, I don't feel like there's any reason to pursue the brain MRI that one of my onc's suggested, and that had me so freaked out for a day or two.

I was telling Gail this a.m., I think living beyond bc is going to be more of a mental and emotional challenge than I'd realized.  It's amazing how one little comment (like "...maybe you should have a brain MRI") can throw us into such a bad, negative emotional place.  But I am determined not to let having had bc ruin the rest of my life with worry. 

Karen ~  How is your Mom this week?        Deanna

mamakaren

Hello gals, Hope all is well with everyone!

Deanna~ I'm so glad that you are feeling better. I prayed for you so that God would protect you and give you serenity. I agree with you on the living beyond bc with emotional and worrying. Glad your doing good. Lets keep it this way.

Mom is ok she is just very nervous and freaks out if she hears something negative or bad. It's so hard to see my mom going through all this because i know what she's feeling. I take her tomorrow to get her stitches out. I feel so bad because i haven't went to see her in couple days. I have been working the new job and was so stressed about my chest xray (which came out good). I felt i was on overload and felt like i was gonna have a nervous breakdown so i decided to stay away. I just couldn't handle all the stress seeing my mom like that. It just gave me flashbacks of how awful i felt in the beginning when i was first dx. I feel so guilty but i have to keep myself sain so that i can be there for her.

Lots of prayers to everyone.

Hood1980

All my love, support and prayers coming your way Mamkaren!  I truly wish I was there to give you a BIG hug and help you in any way that I can.  You do have to take care of yourself, because if you aren't well you can't help your Mom!

alibug05

Well girls hope everyone is doing good.  I got my genetic test back today - NEGATIVE!!!! WHAHOOOOO - I feel like sooooooooo much stress has been lifted off my shoulders!!!!!! MamaKaren - I am still keeping you and your "Mama" in my prayers.  I know the difficulty you must have dealing with this - my Gram's breast cancer has spread and it has taken a VERY BIG toll on me - I am VERY close to her.  So I feel for you having to deal with all of that!!!!

Loves to all.....................

Anonymous

Well, here I am a married lady, waiting for hubby to come home from work. 

Bread is baking in the oven to give the apartment a nice aroma when he walks in the door.

Today I applied for SSDI. The illness I was confident I could work straight through, has got me sidelined for awhile. Even if I could work, I learned this week that there is no job for me with my former employer. I have private disability insurance which should kick in after I finish some more paperwork.

Tom has a job interview tomorrow for a transfer which would pay a LOT more than his current job. We are praying that he is offered the position. It would make finances a lot easier.

We are both suffering from what a younger friend has labeled "the post-wedding crash". All we want to do is sleep, and it is hard to get anything done when we are up. Our cozy apartment is a disaster zone, with boxes of Tom's things plus wedding presents not yet put away.

All the same, it IS nice to have someone to cuddle up with and to hold me when I am down.

I had to sign the rads consent form this week, and the side effects sound ominous. I did not have it easy with chemo or surgery, so am praying for a smoother time with rads.

I guess I am depressed tonight. The wedding and honeymoon are over, and I feel tired and discouraged. Tomorrow is a new day.

Bette 

DesertRider

Hi everyone,

Today was the first day of rads - certainly easier to deal with than chemo. But as I lay there I felt tears rolling down - was kind of surprised. Just seems like none of us belong in this treatment scene - we should all be at the beach or meeting in a different way.

Hugs to everyone,

Gail 

Corinne6

Hi everyone, Today is a rainy and quite dreary outside.  Can't ride my horse today!! Yesterday it was 70 degrees and I planted 35 strawberry plants.

For those of you living beyond bc, something that is GREATLY helping me is that I have downloaded CD's of preaching. Every time I go to radiation I have listened to a CD in the car. When I am on my treadmill everyday I listen to another message with a headphone set. That has added so much to my life that I am ALMOST back to before bc. I was really scared up until I did that. God is REALLY helping me through this.  It may help others too.

Gail: How did your first Rad go? It will be over before you know. I am on my last one on Monday. I am so hoping that my Muga test on Tues will come out well so I can go back on Herceptin. I am taking Hawthorn berry for my heart hoping that this will be the case.

Alibug: I am just soooooo happy for you. You are right it does take some of the pressure off. Our prayers are with you andyour grandma.

Deanna: Hope that you are continuing to feel better.

MamaKaren: You are and so is your whole family in our prayers. This must be such a stressful time for you.  I wish I were there to comfort you and I do understand how you feel. i pray that through all this the Lord will just wrap his arms around you.

Bette. You have gone through alot this year. You have a GREAT blessing in that new husband of yours.  I know that the storms seem great at times but like Peter we need to look ahead see the Lord. He will hold our hand when the storms of life are deep so we can go through them.

Tonya, I am so happy that your blood work was so good!!

Hugs to you all.

Corinne