Starting Chemo February 2009?

Jaimieh

So what is everyone up to today ??  I think I need to join the housework thread because I got a LOT to do to get my house back together.  The crazies in my house have been running wild since January and now I gotta fix a lot of things..lol.... 

apple

steroid housekeeping.. my face looks to weird to go out in public.. all red and puffed. (of course, i'm the only one who notices)

I'll be mega uber tres housecleaning then i have go do (transport the team, judge and stay at a diving meet all evening 5 - 9 or so)  ughhh.. super hot it is.. i'll take my suit.. i have to make a boob thingy i guess.

it is hotter than hades in Kansas..

KerryMac

I have parked the kids in front of the telly since getting home from Rads. How's that for being a good Mum!! I had the little pool out yesterday and they had such fun playing in the water. Lets me tackle the weeds a bit. It is going to be another stinker today. My daughter is still in afternoon school until Thursday, then I will have two terrors all day! .

Our bathroom is in desperate need of a scrub, but i keep thinking it is going to get pulled out soon, why spend time cleaning it!! 

I have a load of laundry done today though.....

KerryMac

Still haven't figured out what to do about swimming this summer and my lack of boob....

KerryMac

Oh, and to top off the lovely hot stinky weather, the garbage men went on strike yesterday.....the last time they were out 2 weeks, and there was garbage everywhere.

Jaimieh

Apple can you come clean my house too ??  I promise I will not note the puffy red face, I will tell you that you look beautiful with your glow..loll.... 

Kerry~ i am with you why clean it when it's just going to be removed.  how's Rad's going ???

I gotta get my kids out today it's nice out and I don't feel like going out.  I started melatonin last night 5mg and it's going to take a while to get used to it. 

gcpommom

Michele:  No rads for me....not sure  how I feel about that. It is because I was node negative.  But my tumor was so close to both the skin and the muscle, I thought for sure they would give me rads.  Maybe they're saving it for later if I get a recurrence.  Hope you did ok with your scan today, and I just know it will be clear!

Jaimie:  I am filling my pool, now that we've found the leak and fixed it.  Gotta clean the pool ladder, and then am taking my DS to the water spray park.  It is going to be almost 90 deg today, ugh.  Go enjoy the weather if it's nice where you are.....the housework can wait!

Apple:  I miss steriods.....my house was so happy then.

Kerry:  My bathing suit top was 2 layers, so I just opened it up on the side and put in some foam breast forms.  I'm wearing it right now!  Oohhh, just what you need, garbage sitting around in this heat, that should smell lovely....I hope they get the strike settled soon.

Well, I made the mistake of doing some reading today about metaplastic....pretty depressing stuff.....from a study in 2005:  "Of 2,954 BC primaries listed in MCSCR, 8 were MBC (0.27%). Of these, none had meaningful response to chemotherapy."  and "Disease-free and overall survival is poor in MBC when compared to breast adenocarcinomas, despite greater likelihood of node-negativity"  *sigh*    This particular article suggested that carboplatin was most effective for MBC, I wonder why my onc didn't give me that?  Oh well.  No more reading for me.

Hugs

Judy

living4today

(((to everyone))) just to have a good day!

Though out this journey, I have tried to stay so positive (after all according to most--this is the cure!)  but I am so sick of feeling so crappy!  (and not sleeping...my goodness, is there anyone else who is having a hard time sleeping at night.  I wake up every 1 1/2 hours, typically d/t hot flash.)  Thank goodness this Thursday is my last chemo, I truely don't know if I could do anymore at this point.

Judy--isn't so hard to not read the stats and reports?? But, as I tell myself--they are stats and we ALL are going to be the positive end of these numbers. 

I think it is so cool that you are all in bathing suits...I feel so frumpy, I couldn't even imagine getting in a suit...

Have a great day everyone!

Kim

apple

Kerry - i just made myself a swimming poofy.. super easy.. altho i didn't understand the directions really.. there is a special thread.  I just used a body scrubber.

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/82/topic/706036?page=2#post_1293472

or just search swimming poofy if the link does not work (sometimes they don't)

KerryMac

Ahhh, who would have thunk it! Might have to get crafty and see what I can come up with. I am not allowed out in the sun/swimming until after Rads, and I am not sure how my old bathing suit will sit now I am one-boobed. Ironically, I bought my first bikini last summer, not sure it will work without a breast. But now I know when my ooph surgery is, we are thinking ahead to vacations, and I am really hoping to be able to swim. Of course, all my bikini line hair is back in full force.

So, I was waiting to go into radiation today, got chatting with another women who I usually see there every day. Within about 30 sec we were showing each other our mastectomy scars!!  I guess we are so used to whipping open our tops every day. I am finding Rads to be so super easy. Will be glad when they are done though (only 10 left now!)

Judy - do NOT use Dr. Google!! That is an order!! My husband says he wants to sometimes lock the computer away, I get so upset when I start looking up stuff. There is some scary things you can unearth. But it is all lies!!!  Really. How did you manage to get such a rare type of cancer anyhow...??

Kim - ohhh, hang in there. The end is nigh. Really, once you are done you will start to feel so much better.  I wake up with Hot Flashes all the time too.

Anyhow, I am going to be up all night again as I am having a 4:00pm coffee. Ah well, usually I fall asleep by 8:30, so maybe I might make it until 10:00 tonight!  Enjoy.

Artemis

Hi, Furies ~
I had rads simulation today.  It was interesting, and I didn't get all worked up the way I thought I might (thank you, Xanax!).  I start on Monday the 29th.

I am so sick of all this.  I'm so scared of getting lymphedema.  I'm fed up with the gross-looking steri strips.  I'm tired of having no hair.

On a lighter note, my niece listed me as one of her heroes on her MySpace.

You ladies are the best!

Hugs to all,
Artemis

Grace4me

Thanks all of you!  Tomorrow morning I go for my bone density and xray, my onc is doing the xray of my humerous and shoulder mostly to ease my mind. He thinks too that it all from the lymphodema. I can't get into a lymphodema therapist until July.  So since I work all day on a computer, I have to spend my evenings and night holding my arm up above my heart. I am sorry, I am like others here just wishing that after chemo all would be great and I guess I'm feeling sorry for myself.

I pray for all of you most every night as the pain and hot flashes wake me up at all hours. I know that you all understand all of this and some are going through much harder things then I.

MicheleS

CLEAN SCANS!!!!!!!!! Whoo-hoo!!!!  Thanks for all of the support.  You made me feel sooo much better about the whole thing.

Artemis~ This does feel like the longest trip to hell, doesn't it??? I saw a friend today who finished chemo 2 yrs ago yesterday... She is beautiful (not bloated and has HAIR) and tells me that it does get better.  I have hope...

Apple~ I'm bloated too but no longer have the steroid high.  However, I did manage to walk 3 miles today (trying to burn off anxiety while I was waiting for results).  My energy is starting to return.  Thanks for the stretchy arm hug. I felt it all the way down here in AL.

Grace~  I can relate to the hotflashes at night.  I sure hope they stop soon.  Do you have any lymhedema exercises? This site has some:

http://www.lymphedemapeople.com/thesite/lymphedema_exercise_excercises.htm

Judy~ I had a ganglion cyst in college.  It just went  away.  Ganglion cysts  hurt because they surround nerve cells.  Ouch. As for reading icky stats... that is my downfall too.  I had a basal tumor... bad news.

Kim~ I can't even begin to tell you how relieved you will feel thurs!  (then terrified, but I won't go into that.)

Kerry~ I have a foam form for swimming.  I bought a lands end mastectomy tankini (off the overstocks for cheap!!).  It doesn't look any different than a regular suit and you can't really tell there's anything *wrong*.  However, the foam holds air so when I 1st get in the water, little bubbles come up.  My lovely sons claim that I'm farting and trying to cover it up.  Such sweet children.

Hi Web!  We still need to meet up!  I'm going to visit with Kathie on thurs.  She has her last chemo then.

Hugs to everyone!!! You guys really helped me out today.  Saved my a$$ actually.  Thanks.

Grace4me

yea! yippy! Thank God! Michele GREAT NEWS!!!! 

Thanks for the web site, i need all the help I can get.

living4today

Michele---AWESOME!!!!!!!! 

Jaimieh

Awesome news Michele.  BTW, you can admit it you fart when you get into the water...lol... Question for you I am also on the bone study (or whatever it is called) and I have been randomized today to the same ARM you are on but did you have to give them blood 2x.  Once to get into the trial and once the day you started ???  I gotta give them blood tomorrow and they told me today when I asked why I need to give blood again tomorrow they said "its standard". 

Had a good day today but my back is aching.  I still have leftover taxotere nerve issues that flare up when I least expect it. 

gcpommom

Kerry:  just leave it to me to get something unusual....I have no idea how I got it!  I will admit, I still did a bit more reading today, but I was looking only for good things, I swear!  Honestly, now that I've have read these things, I think I will be more adamant that my onc do regular scans, so something good came of it---I am going to stand up to my onc! 

Artemis:  hang in there, (((hugs))), I know it all stinks!  It is so sweet that your niece considers you her hero!

Michele:  I am sooo happy for you!  BIG HUGS!!!! 

Grace: don't be sorry for being worried...you can always come here and talk, gripe, and share with us.  I'm sure you'll come through your scan tomorrow and have great results, just like Michele!  (((hugs)))

Had a nice, hot hot hot day here....we had fun at the spray park, although they don't have  a lick of shade there, had to sit in the blazing sun.  I wasn't in my swimsuit, but I went through some of the spray thingys anyway, it felt sooo good.  It was nice to get out of the house and do something summer-like.

You guys rock, such an awesome support group we have here, don't know how we could do this alone....you guys understand everything, where others, even DH, just don't.

Hugs

Judy

webwriter

FABULOUS NEWS Michelle!

Drop me a line when you're on your feet. We'll drag the kids to the zoo or the beach or the explorium or something--so we can talk without monkey shennanigans, lol! 

Hang in there ya'll. I'm 11 weeks out (can I believe it, no!) and most of the chemo SE's are fading. My nails are still a horror, but they haven't come off yet. I'm tired from rads, but the aches have gone. And my hair is back to looking just like it did in my avatar. Coming full circle at last!

Love ya'll!

Web

Jaimieh

Judy~ Think of all of us when you talk to your Onc.  Remember us when you tell him that he will do scans for you. 

Another update from our Webbie   Glad to hear your SE's are going away. 

I was 5 weeks out yesterday and taxotere still seems to be giving me shooting nerve pains which stink.  They aways seem to get me when I least expect it and just plain simply scare the shit out of me .

Artemis

Michele!!!!!  Yay!!!!!  *dances around, throws confetti*  Yay for clean scans!!  (And, yes, it does seem like we've been on this trip forever.  Thanks for the encouraging words about your friend.)

Thanks for the hugs, Judy!!

Much love to all the Fabulous Furies!  We are a rockin' group!
Artemis

ETA:  Jamieh ~ I'm so sorry you're still having pain.  *hugs*

xpectmiracles

Kim and Artemis, we all have days where we are sick of it and don't feel we can do it. But, we do. We are all strong women!  Remember that you can always talk to us, no matter what you are feeling. WE UNDERSTAND.

Michelle, clean scans. That is Awesome!!

apple

so happy for you Michele

KerryMac

Michele - absolutely thrilled for you!

Jaimie - I get shooting nerve pain too, mostly in my feet. Not sure if it is the Taxotere or the Tamoxifen...or maybe I am just getting old. 

I'm just back from Rads, 9 left! Artemis - hang in there. I am finding Rads no problem, I am stretching my arm every day to try and get the circulation going, in the hopes of circumventing Lymphedema. It worries me too.

Another stinker here today. I swear, it is either too hot or too cold. I think we get about 2 weeks a year of good weather, and then the bugs get ya!  I am going to check out lands end, i didn't know they had a mastectomy section.

Hugs to everyone today for a good day. 

apple

well.. i missed the mini tornado.  I took my daughter and some of the team to a diving meet about 10 miles away last evening..  Just in my neighborhood there are whole trees uprooted. quite the little mess.

(hugs.. Michele)

gcpommom

Apple:  glad you missed it, it is quite scary little tornado or not! 

Kerry:  I'm with you on the heat....it's going to be 94 today, waaay too hot -even for me!  I agree with the lymphedema stuff being scary....I have had swelling a couple of times, but not bad.  What bothers me is when I do things I used to do that are a bit strenous, like yard work or lifting, the arm gets very weak and achy quickly.  Makes it hard to get some stuff done.  Maybe I should exercise it more. 

Web:  11 weeks already, wow.  I am 3 weeks out, and honestly do not feel too bad.  Still numb toes, stiff hands (especially in the a.m.), and I get tired mid-afternoon, but otherwise, feeling better. 

I'm off to vacuum the pool while it is only 80 degrees, and the pool is still in shaded area.  I was going to mow the lawn this morning, but it is already too hot.

edited to add:  ok, so I vacuum the pool, that went fine....decided to at least mow the front lawn....bad idea.  Broke down in tears because what used to be a fairly easy chore for me was making my heart race like crazy---required 4 breaks, some ice water, and my asthma spray just to do my little front yard.  My neighbors must think I'm nuts, mowing the lawn and crying at the same time.  But it's done.  Backyard can wait, it's 85 deg now. 

Hugs

Judy

susan13

Hey ladies just checking in. Had tons to read!

Michele-congrats on clear scans! yeah!!!

Time does go by quickly. I am 15 weeks out already.  Still dealing with some numb fingers and toes. I am not sure if that will ever go away.  My nails did turn a purple color and started lifting from the bed but it ended there. The new part just pushed the dead stuff away and I was able to save my nails.  My eyesight on the other hand has still yet to come back.  Maybe it is just the "aging" thing, but I find it too coincidental that my eyesight went on the wayside when I started chemo.  Still have a bad day about once a week, probably still the fatique from rads. And having hot flashes galore.  On tamox. for 3 weeks now. Planning a vacation for July and August and finally feeling like my life is getting back to normal... almost a year later!  After my next visit with my med. onc. I go to see him every 3 months. Wohoooo!

the best to everyone!

Sue

Artemis

Thank you, Cheryl and KerryMac.

Judy, honey, I'm so sorry you had such a time getting your yard mowed.  But like the strong lovely Fury that you are, you hung in there and got it done!  I'm glad you took breaks and stayed hydrated; sounds like a good way to try to ward off the lymphedema.  (And I hear ya on the asthma inhaler; I carry one in my pocket all the time!)

Sue ~ glad to hear that you're doing so well!  

Hugs to all,
Artemis

Bethie1

Michelle--Awesome!!! That is great news!!!

Judy-You're hanging in there girl!!

We Furies have our thick skin, and we're all doing great, but guess what your fellow fury has besides BC?!!!! Walking pneumonia!! This damn cough I've had for the last 4-5 weeks in case I didn't inform you all kept hanging on to get this!! I just got antibiotics today and there's 5 days worth.At first, I thought it was a common cold, so I didn't do anything cause I knew my resistance was down anyway, but pneumonia --who knew?????

Artemis

Wow, Bethie1, that's really something!  I'm glad you got a diagnosis and some meds.  Take care of yourself, and don't overdo!

Hugs to all,
Artemis

living4today

Bethie---awe shucks, just one more thing...good thing your such a tough gal....praying for a quick recovery!