Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

IllinoisLady

Be grateful simply for being alive. When you are grateful for life, pure and simple, your life becomes one you can be grateful for. That may strike you as circular or even backward logic, but your attitude really does have an effect on how things work out. When you can't change your life any other way, you can still change your attitude. When you do, your life changes. You find more chances to love, and you will be surprised to see how much more love is returned to you. -Bernie Siegel

IllinoisLady

Hmm, I have the thread all to myself again it seems. Dark, gloomy and woke up to rain. Just a bit ago it darkened way down again and though I didn't see the lightning I did hear lots of thunder. Seems to have all gone away quickly though It won't be a pretty day. Sure glad we had warm temps and afternoon sun yesterday. Sigh !!! I am getting frustrated with so much "wet" time here and hope it slows soon. Guess I'm normal as I don't want the feast or famine end of things either -- just a better pattern for raining but actually getting some dry out time before the next rain. Hard to keep up with mowing, outside painting or anything that depends on dryer weather.

I'm off for five days so that is nice. I hope you are all doing okay and not fighting too many tears from the sky.

nanette7fl

please I need prayers I had to cancel my radiation fitting and dry tune today because I STILL HAVE DRAINS IN!! I know I had revision surgery 2 weeks ago left side (cancer side) is starting to dry up but right side, my handed side, just wont get the fluid down!! If I dont get my left arm wrapped up for the lymphedema today I'm seriously considering putting my right arm in a sling!! I've had drains in since April 2nd and it's getting old!!

MCBaker

Nanette, prayers going your way!!!

HikingLady

nanette7fl Oh, I'm so sorry you're going through this. I had a drain on one side for five weeks after BMX--slow healing on that side due to previous radiation + also a hematoma. I empathize so much! Of course you have to be safely healed before radiation. My friend is a PT who specializes in lymphedema treatment; hopefully you have some support on that issue? Warm wishes for good healing ahead.

jo6359

nanette-Take a deep breath. This has to be very frustrating. I'm an occupational therapist. I would strongly recommend seeing a PT or OT who is certified in lymphedema treatment. Best of luck.

nanette7fl

my new lymphedema therapist came back today and my numbers are better but I had to get the compression wrap done on my left arm. Feels weird. DD has been in cahoots with my dear HS gal pal and we're meeting for a hush hush dinner in Jacksonville FL tonight. Hush hush cause I'm not supposed to know lol. So drain bulbs are on my shorts pockets so the tiresome apron thingie can stay home. Wish I could get dressed up but I'm clean and respectable work my mummy arm to boot lol

jo6359

nanette- enjoy your hush-hush dinner with your gal pal. The storms have passed so I'm getting ready to run 3 or 4 miles.

IllinoisLady

Nanette ((((hugs)))). Until your through it, it is a giant pain you know where. Sending hope, comfort and peace for the coming days and hoping that it just decides to give up quickly so you can go on with the next step.

IllinoisLady

Creative gratitude is an attitude. It is magnetic and will draw good to you. It is good therapy, a road to happiness.Thankfulness is a way of living more fully. Be thankful for your health and you will have health in more abundance. Be thankful for the love you receive and it will be increased. Be thankful for your success and you'll open doors to further achievement. Be thankful for your friends and more friends will come to you. Be thankful for beauty and you'll experience it more deeply.Creative gratitude is a force for harmony and goodwill. It brings people together in love and understanding. It is high on the scale of creative qualities to be practiced day in and day out in our moment-to-moment contacts. -Wilferd A. Peterson

IllinoisLady

Well, well, well. Here comes summer. Sunny mostly and 89 today. Feast and famine mode carrying on a usual to a degree. We go from barely warm weather to REALLY warm. Hopefully though we won't melt. I do see breezes outside and I'm hoping there will be enough to keep us all right. Usually this time of yr. we don't get too hot. The sun is a bit muted and that may hold.

Sure didn't get much done yesterday. Some odds and ends and a trip to the grocery ( Walmart style ) that is my second home. Hoping I am a bit more productive today though I do need to fit in a trip to Aldi's.

Hope you are all going to have a beautiful day.

ChiSandy

Nanette, sorry to hear your incision is still draining. Hope it finally dries up soon!

IllinoisLady

Healing is the journey. The destination is yourself. The full recognition
of all the different aspects of yourself—your joy, your sorrow, your pain,
your pleasure—all lead you to the source of who you are. Only by having
intimate contact with this source can you experience the fullness of your
life. Only by fearlessly looking within can you embrace the landscape
of your life and open yourself completely to all the love
and compassion that lives inside you.

Philip Berk

nanette7fl

so lymphedema bites!! Was up most of the night last night and finally,met the 36 hr mark at 5am and raced to get my compression bandage off...mind you a race it wasn't darned thing took about 10 min to remove. THEN I was able to get about 5 hrs of good quality sleep!! Well it's back on and omg I feel so useless and BORED beyond words with only 1 functional wing. I've cried so many tears over this. I feel betrayed by my body AGAIN!! Still have drains but now they're dressing the lymphatic fluid ot of my arm more than my breasts. I just want to feel normal again...sigh

carolehalston

Gentle hug of sympathy, Nanette.  

I have sad news to share.  My mother died yesterday in the early hours as she lay in her bed at the nursing home.  She put on her call light about 3 am and told the CNA that she didn't feel good.  The nurse came and started my mother on oxygen.  By the time the ambulance arrived my mother was non-responsive.  Once again she made things easy on her children and caregivers.  My sister Michelle and I have had conversations expressing the wish that our mother would pass peacefully when the time came and not suffer.

The funeral will be on Monday.  In the meanwhile I will finally get around to packing for the trip north.  I will not need the airline reservation for a return in July.  I feel somewhat numb, though sad.  I wanted to share this news with my oldies bc friends. 

HikingLady

Hello, Carole, and my deepest condolences to you. I’m so glad you shared this with us. We’re all travelinga bit of life’s journey together, and you have friends and supporters who care, right here. I’m glad that her ending was peaceful. I understand the numb feeling. Warm cyber hugs and comfort to you.

IllinoisLady

Eternity is not the hereafter. Eternity has nothing to do with time. . . . This is it. If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience; here's the place to have the experience.

Joseph Campbell

IllinoisLady

I am so sorry Carole, but so happy that your Mom went quickly. No one can prepare for all the emotions of losing those who started us out in life -- and that we shared life with so long. You made so many memories and in time they will sustain you. Lots of peaceful thoughts and hugs to you and your family on your path to letting go.

I found that everything after my Mom was gone became the first -- first birthday, Easter, Valentine's Day was hard to get through -- feeling a bit off since my Mom was no longer having them so we could share them together, but after that it became easier to recall good times and special memories. Sending lots of love to you during the days ahead.

IllinoisLady

Nanette, it just seems like forever is right now to you, but you will find the way and be stronger and better for it when you do. We grow through a lot in life and while it doesn't feel like it now, we grow though harsh illnesses too. It just doesn't feel like a very good lesson. We don't seem to grow much ( at least that we can notice well ) when things are operating smoothly. It is when big rocks block the path and we have to 'fight' our way through them that our mettle is tested and we 'grow' through difficulties. It seems like maybe this is one of those events for you. Prayers and hugs to you.

Puffin2014

Carole, I'm so sorry about your mother, my prayers are with you. It's rainy and 45 degrees here, take your time coming north.

nanette7fl

Carol please accept my humble sympathies on the passing of your Mother. It sounds like she was able to transition from this life gracefully. Gentle Hugs to you and peaceful prayers for all of your family.

Wren44

Carole, Condolences on the loss of your mother. It sounds relatively peaceful which is always a blessing, Take good care of yourself. Hugs for you and your family.

ChiSandy

(((Carole))). Sudden & painless in our beds at the end of a long life is the kind of death we all wish we could have. (Instead of behind the wheel...with our passengers screaming in terror...so goes the old joke.

Nanette, LE bites big-time. Awful storms here--tight arm, tight rings, ugh. No picnic for the sinuses or orthopedic hardware either.

Yet another sudden back strain...this is getting old. MO says no PET scans because my spinal X-rays show only bone spurs on the facet joints and bulging discs...which is the classic reason for back spasms: Nature's brace. (No blastic or lytic lesions, no fractures). PT helped only up to a point. (I used to get these spasms maybe once every year or two--now they occur "whenever"). Hate that we're just wearing out; I refuse to take opioids--they stop me up like a toilet that someone tried to flush a sneaker down, they make me dopey, and obtaining & fillling an Rx makes me feel like the pharmacist thinks I'm a junkie. Thank heaven for CBD, ibuprofen & Tylenol (which beat even Norco), topical rubs & patches, and a wraparound heating pad. (And a cane in every room). Found that THC only makes it worse (and me paranoid to boot), so I visit the dispensary only to get CBN & CBD products the shops don't sell.

jo6359

carole- Your mother passed quickly and peacefully.; So many emotions come to surface when we lose someone we love so deeply.. I recall several of your posts where you speak so lovingly of your Mother. What a wonderful gift of love and generosity she gave you and your family. Your mother was so fortunate to have you in her life and she in yours.

Nanette- lately, you haven't been able to catch a break. Most of us can appreciate your tears of frustration, anger and pain. This is one hell of a journey we're on. Call your Le specialist first thing Monday morning. I hope Sunday treats you far kinder then Saturday.

IllinoisLady

Living in the past is a dull and lonely business; looking back strains the neck muscles, causes you to bump into people not going your way.

Edna Ferber

IllinoisLady

Started raining this morning a while after we were up. A bit slow. We thought it would begin while it was still dark. So far nothing bad -- just a calm, slow rain. Would be nice if that kept up but thunderstorms are possible. This is the 'iffy' time of the season where big storms can come from almost nothing. So we are waiting and watching. In the meantime I did wash my car yesterday. Just got it back from the garage. My alternator was going and I caught it beforehand while it was still allowing me to come and go.

Well, it is not fun to be w/o a car ( at least not for me ) for a couple of days. Going everywhere I needed or wanted in Dh's truck. Don't know if I mentioned that it is hard to get into a 4-wheel truck for me. My left side ( slight weakness due to a stroke in my mid 50's ) needs to be 'forced' to do difficult things and I find half way into getting into the truck the forward movement just sort of stops and I sort of fall in. Car needed a wash before I left it at the garage and so I did it despite the rain so that it would not be spotted and streaky from dirt and road oils. I also got two new front tires on it and will get the other two in a month or so when I get the t.v. I had to replace paid for. As said -- it's always something.

Hope you all do okay today. Sandy and I often share pretty similar weather as she is about 4 hours to the north of where I am in deep central ( I sometimes just say southern ) Illinois. We are about on the line where we are.

karen1956

Carol - my deepest condolences. Its hard loosing your mother - its been 16 months for me. Hoping your memories bring you comfort

IllinoisLady

There is only one thing about which I shall have no regrets when my life ends. I have savored to the full all the small, daily joys. The bright sunshine on the breakfast table; the smell of the air at dusk; the sound of the clock ticking; the light rains that start gently after midnight; the hour when the family come home; Sunday-evening tea before the fire! I have never missed one moment of beauty, not even taken it for granted. Spring, summer, autumn, or winter. I wish I had failed as little in other ways. - Agnes Sligh Turnbull

IllinoisLady

Sun is out and it will be 70 or so. Good for me as I have a tone of things I'd like to do. Who knows what will really get done. It is time for my annual cleaning of the screen room where some of our cats stay yr. round. Always a big chore ( two day job ) and I also have some more outdoor mowing to do. Two acres with a push mower takes a while too. Trying to be grateful I can still handle a lot of things. Also have to find some time to have my computer tweaked again. Every now and then it "acts" up and I'm not electronically minded. We pay for a service to have someone fix these out - nesses when they happen.

Hope you are all going to have a nice sunny day. Thinking about your day Carole. Hugs.

IllinoisLady

An oldie but special to me.

You are goodness and mercy and compassion and understanding. You are peace and joy and light. You are forgiveness and patience, strength and courage, a helper in time of need, a comforter in time of sorrow, a healer in time of injury, a teacher in times of confusion. You are the deepest wisdom and the highest truth: the greatest peace and the grandest love. You are these things. And in moments of your life you have known yourself as these things. Choose now to know yourself as these things always.

Neale Donald Walsch