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

nanette7fl

Are any of you Northerners willing to trade your nice cool and rainy days for our sweltering heat?? Summer has come in with a bang this year down here!

chiSandy your garden sounds lovely. When I grew strawberries about 7 years ago I put some plastic check fencing over them to keep critters and my chickens out so we could enjoy them.

On the west side of our home I have been installing a Florida Native Lantana called Inkberry but its official name is Button Sage. No flowers that are obvious but I love the berries!! Beautiful brackets of purple seeds that stain. (Ancient Native Florida Indians used the berries to dye their clothes and in their pottery). I also like them because the grow BIG and my goal is to make a hedge out of them. DH and I found some more babies growing near the back fence and I have them in pots to get some size to them to plant them along my pallet fence on the east side of the house. I have in my front gardens, surrounding our deck, some Hurricane Lilies as a border and I really love them in bloom.... maroonish red stripes down white leaves. I have Mexican Petunias in both purple and pink... my roses.... scattered...these are also purple and for some reason they've been really showing off since my diagnosis October!! I have 3 Rose of Sharon's (in memory of my mother and maternal grandmother) 1 purple, 1 pink and 1 white although the white 1 in the side yard... miniature Crepe Myrtles (that are 7 ft tall now) 1 purple and 1 white...are you all seeing my theme color?? LOL This afternoon we will be transplanting 3 yellow squash and 3 zucchini plants over by my 1 yellow watermelon plant. I have on containers 12 tomatoes, 1 sweet red pepper, 1 orange pepper, 1 cubanelle pepper, 2 green peppers, my mints and Chinese garlic chuves. In the starter tray is eggplant and parsley waiting for them to get a LOT bigger. I also have Portultaca or Moss Rose in a window box. It grows wild down here if you know where to look. I used to have, at my old place, wild Passion Flower vines also for the,beautiful purple flowers but I found the 'fruits' just as interesting. Our front border has several very old Crepe Myrtles in Whites, pinks and purple. We've been looking for the Fushia and purple ones but they're hard to come by any more. Oh and my MIL's 1 very huge pink Azalea Bush. I also have transplanted over the,years yellow jasmine from the woods to my back yard fence lines and these ALWAYS announce SPRING is sprung every year.

So that's my list of plants LOL DH learned many years ago that I am happiest with my hands in soil 8)

Have a great Memorial Weekend everyone!! We're off to the Flea Mkt very early today so I can beat the heat and keep up on lymphedema today as I had swelling yesterday just from going in and out of stores and Dr's appointments.

IllinoisLady

The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.

M. Scott Peck

IllinoisLady

The description of yards and plants in or waiting for planting in the yard sound just beautiful. I know I've mentioned before that I don't grow much here -- even though we have two acres. While Dh worked ( he is the only one who can run the lawn tractor ) despite putting up steel spikes or anything else, he somehow managed to be so in a hurry as to totally wipe out my plantings. Even when I got them on a far edge or easy to SPOT ( entitled stay away from here ) area. Now that he is retired he is a lot more careful -- or maybe he got tired of my "corrections" to his mowing style. We mainly have trees so we have limits on what can grow here. Above all else I'd love to have a garden but there is just too much shade. Hooray to you who can putz in your yards and make them pretty.

Will be 90 here today as it was yesterday. Bit of a breeze yesterday helped so hope we have it today. Our a/c got turned on -- mainly for the humidity as we do FEEL cooler many times with all the shade, but the rains of late combined with the hotter weather must make it imperative to do a/c. We don't keep it ice-cold inside anyway. 77 to 80 seems about right for us. I just so prefer windows open with a nice breeze. We could have a few more days like that yet.

Hope you are all looking forward to a nice Memorial Day week-end.

ChiSandy

Two acres? Our lot is 37' wide by <70' long! Ah, city living!

Anneb1149

Hi, everyone

I can't believe it's been so long since I last checked in. Where does the time go? Welcome to all the newbies- I know you will get as much support as I did, when going through my treatment from the wonderful women on this thread. This past week I had my final visits with my BS and Onc.

Life has been busy, as usual. I had a rough time for awhile with my balance. I needed to hold on to walls and chairs when home to feel safe, and limited my shopping to stores that had shopping carts or shopping online. Then I developed a nasty, dry, chocking cough, so I finally went to my Dr. She sent me to physical therapy for the balance and for bloodwork. The therapy helped a lot, although I was still extremely slow and cautious. She thinks the cough is from the new blood pressure meds she had started me on several months ago. And my thyroid count which should be around 2 was over 10. So we adjusted the thyroid meds, changed the blood pressure meds, and left town a few days later. My first stop was my son's in SC. I had so much fun with my 2 granddaughters ( one will be 3 in June, the other 6 also in June) that I asked my DIL if I could stay another week. Can't wait till they come down my way this summer. Then I came to my daughter near Atlanta. I've been here two weeks today, and will head home next weekend. Both grandsons here have girlfriends now which is a new adventure for all of us. The younger son (17) is seeing a girl who is two years older and lives in Va. We were all a little unsure about that, but once we met her, we realized that is not as troubling as it once was.

Before leaving home, we needed to replace the shower in the master bathroom. That was covered by insurance, but my daughter and I decided both bathrooms updated. Took a lot longer than expected, but I am very happy with the results. We have a small room that has been used as a bedroom, office, and playroom over the years. With my brother living with me, plus my daughter and her son, my son was going to be in that little room on a futon for the 10 weeks of running the summer camp. So we decided to turn it in to an actual guest room. We ordered a bed with drawers underneath. Hopefully it will be ready by the time he arrives. We are also in the process of setting up a "smart home". We are getting the video doorbell so I can see who is at my door before I open it. We are setting up some lights, the thermostat, and the TV's to be controlled by Google Home. I have no idea if we will like it, but it does give us the option of dropping our cable TV service which will save us over $200/mo.

Hope everyone is doing well especially Keywestfan. I found radiation to be the scariest part of my treatment. It wasn't as bad as I thought, but I never did feel comfortable with it. Hope your experience goes well.

Special hellos to Jackie, Carole and Sandy.

Anne

ChiSandy

Welcome back, Anne! That dry tickly cough is a notorious side effect of the class of blood pressure meds called "ACE inhibitors." Quite cost-effective and basically first-line therapy for prevention or treatment of early heart failure. But the cough can be a deal-breaker: not just for singers or those who love to attend live entertainment events (it can drive other audience members practically homicidal), but for those for whom coughing is an asthma trigger. For those reasons (once, on a medical-society bus trip through the Alps, the doctors on the tour insisted we stop in a town so I could buy a codeine cough syrup or pastilles so my coughing wouldn't annoy them), I switched to the class of drugs called angiotensin 2-receptor blockers (ARBs), which far less often cause coughing and are nearly as cheap and effective as ACE inhibitors. Been on one ARB or another >20 yrs, and it works great at keeping my BP controlled w/o a cough. (Bob takes an ACE inhibitor, but doesn't get the cough). ACE inhibitors usually end in "-pril," while ARBs end in "-sartan."

IllinoisLady

Great to see you back Anne. I've wondered and wondered ( and fervently hoped ) if all was well and you were just too busy to use the computer. I've managed to stay on but have done two baby sitting stints with another coming up on Wednesday. Sure hope the new meds get you back to more normal movements and confidence.

Been very quiet around here today. I think people are staying home an getting their lawns mowed for possible company for Memorial Day. Wasn't at all busy in town. We ran up to Mt. Vernon to visit the Horizon store and then decided to stop in next door at Panda Express -- something rare for us.

Interesting about the blood pressure meds. I take Nifedipine. I have to take a half a water pill with it though. Been taking it for a long time now. The only aggravating thing are the Charlie horses I get on the soles of my feet -- either right behind my toes or across my arch. Not as bad as getting them elsewhere but really irritating when they happen when I'm driving.

keywestfan

Anneb1149- Thank you so much for such good wishes and for understanding how terrifying radiation can be for some(obviously me.) However, I finished the 16 hypofractionated partial breast on Tuesday, so far all is pretty fine, just a little pink on my chest and no real fatigue..We’ll see what’s to come.I’m so glad it’s over, and sort of proud that I was able to adjust and control my fear. Could never have done it without all of you. But with my good feeling of being sort of brave and getting through well is the bad feeling that I should have done whole breast instead of partial. I didn’t even realize you could do 16 days of whole breast.. RO didn’t push for whole but maybe that was because I was so fearful of radiation and he wanted to make it easier for me to accept it.. Maybe it was my age and fewer SE’s with partial I came so close to refusing radiation; now I feel I didn’t do enough. But, in truth, it was easier than the anticipation.of my frantic imagination,

Anneb1149

Thanks for welcoming me back. I didn’t realize how much I missed all of you till I came back. I am happy to report I am pretty much back to walking normally.

Sandy- I had been on Valsartin for years. The second time it was recalled, the Dr changed me to Lisinapril, which caused the cough. My brother has been on it for a long time with no problems. Now I am on Amlodopine- sorry about spelling. Don’t know the differences, just know the cough is still here, getting better one less cough a day.

I need to slice potatoes for potato salad tonight. My SIL is off today, but has to worktomorrow, so we are having burgers and dogs tonight.

Anne

IllinoisLady

It is well to remind ourselves, from time to time, that "Ethics" is but another word for "righteousness," that for which many men and women of every generation have hungered and thirsted, and without which life becomes meaningless.

Jane Addams

Perhaps, indeed, there are no truly universal ethics: or to put it more precisely, the ways in which ethical principles are interpreted will inevitably differ across cultures and eras. Yet, these differences arise chiefly at the margins. All known societies embrace the virtues of truthfulness, integrity, loyalty, fairness; none explicitly endorse falsehood, dishonesty, disloyalty, gross inequity.

Howard Gardner

IllinoisLady

A bit cloudy out today and hoping it doesn't rain. All day yesterday Dh said ( according to weather devises he consults ) that rain was eminent. I don't know for sure where because nothing got close to where we are. Oh well -- who knows, I think he may have been seeing something meant for today.

Have to clean and get a qt. of strawberries ready for tomorrow. I may go out and get some makings for potato salad as well. It will be quiet for us here. At my age, that is just the way I like it.

I hope you are all going to have a wonderful Sunday.

IllinoisLady

IllinoisLady

Esther Freels Garrison is with Carolyn Clipse Fleenor and 8 others.

April 27, 2015

A Minister passing through his church
In the middle of the day,
Decided to pause by the altar
To see who come to pray.
Just then the back door opened,...
And a man came down the aisle,
The minister frowned as he saw the man
Hadn't shaved in a while.
His shirt was torn and shabby,
And his coat was worn and frayed,
The man knelt down and bowed his head,
Then rose and walked away.
.

In the days that followed at precisely noon,
The preacher saw this chap,
Each time he knelt just for a moment,
A lunch pail in his lap.
Well, the minister's suspicions grew,
With robbery a main fear,
.

He decided to stop and ask the man,
'What are you doing here?'
The old man said he was a factory worker
And lunch was half an hour
Lunchtime was his prayer time,
For finding strength and power.
I stay only a moment
Because the factory's far away;
As I kneel here talking to the Lord,
This is kinda what I say:

.

'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS BEN,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY.'

.
The minister feeling foolish,
Told Ben that it was fine.
He told the man that he was welcome
To pray there anytime.
'It's time to go, and thanks,' Ben said
As he hurried to the door.
Then the minister knelt there at the altar,
Which he'd never done before.
His cold heart melted, warmed with love,
As he met with Jesus there.
As the tears flowed down his cheeks,
He repeated old Ben's prayer:

.

'I JUST CAME by TO TELL YOU, LORD,
HOW HAPPY I'VE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND EACH OTHERS FRIENDSHIP
AND YOU TOOK AWAY MY SIN.
I DON'T KNOW MUCH OF HOW TO PRAY,
BUT I THINK ABOUT YOU EVERYDAY.
SO, JESUS, THIS IS ME,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY.'
.

Past noon one day, the minister noticed
That old Ben hadn't come.
As more days passed and still no Ben,
He began to worry some.
At the factory, he asked about him,
Learning he was ill.
The hospital staff was worried,
But he'd given them a thrill.
.

The week that Ben was with them,
Brought changes in the ward.
His smiles and joy contagious.
Changed people were his reward.
The head nurse couldn't understand
Why Ben could be so glad,
When no flowers, calls or cards came,
Not a visitor he had.
.

The minister stayed by his bed,
He voiced the nurse's concern:
No friends had come to show they cared.
He had nowhere to turn.
Looking surprised, old Ben spoke up
And with a winsome smile;
'The nurse is wrong, she couldn't know,
He's been here all the while.'
Everyday at noon He comes here,
A dear friend of mine, you see,
He sits right down and takes my hand,
Leans over and says to me:
.

'I JUST CAME BY TO TELL YOU, BEN,
HOW HAPPY I HAVE BEEN,
SINCE WE FOUND THIS FRIENDSHIP,
AND I TOOK AWAY YOUR SIN .
I THINK ABOUT YOU ALWAYS
AND I LOVE TO HEAR YOU PRAY,
AND SO BEN, THIS IS JESUS,
JUST CHECKING IN TODAY .'
.

If this blesses you, pass it on. Many people
will walk in and out of your life, but only
true friends will leave footprints in your
heart
.

May God hold you in the palm of His hand
And Angels watch over you..
Please pass this page on to your friends
& loved ones. If you aren't ashamed.
Jesus said, ' If you are ashamed of me,'
I will be ashamed Of you before my Father.'
.

If you are not ashamed, pass this on.
So, FRIEND, this is ME ...
"Just Checking In Today"

Wren44

A memorial to Viet Nam vets was dedicated here yesterday, fittingly under the wings of a B52. Jim Mattis spoke and spent an hour and a half letting vets take selfies with him. About time. I was against the war, but never the guys who fought it. It went on far too long and we lost too many troops.

MCBaker

So many of the men of our generation died in that war. We fought the evil of Communism, and it fell from the inside, or, as in China, morphed into something totally different. Power leads to abuse of power, whether on the far right or the far left. People seem to enjoy being told what to believe and do.

carolehalston

Greetings from northern MN.  We have exchanged a/c for heat pump in our change in location.  I'm sitting here dressed in jeans and sweat shirt.  We had some sunshine yesterday but so far today is overcast and not pretty.  

I am signed up for women's golf tomorrow.  When I went by Headwaters Golf Course yesterday to pay for our membership, I found some good buys on a bargain rack.  I neglected to bring some light jackets.  I found three on the rack, including a nice purple rain jacket that will be perfect for sitting around the campfire on chilly nights.  Everything was half price.  So three jackets and two pairs of socks for $90.

Today I may go to a nursery to buy a couple of large potted blooming plants for our deck.  I usually buy red geraniums since they're dh's favorite.

Good to see you, Anne.  Now I wish Chevy would check in.

IllinoisLady

Would that there were an award for people who come to understand the concept of enough. Good enough. Successful enough. Thin enough. Rich enough. Socially responsible enough. When you have self-respect, you have enough.

Gail Sheehy

IllinoisLady

Sounded like a big thunderstorm was near this a.m. but the noise faded ( after poor Bill paced and paced ) and though muted, the sun is out. I guess it would be possible for some rain later, but I haven't bothered to check the forecast. I have the same amt. of things to get to no matter what happens outside.

Good to hear you are back in MN. Carole. Not completely surprised by needing warm clothes there. Sounds like strange weather all over actually. You did get a great buy for your clothing. I'm betting your deck will be welcoming you whatever you find to put on it.

Nothing special much today. I have some potato salad I made yesterday and some pea salad as well, along with some baked beans ready for the oven. Un-cured hot dogs and hamburger patties made up. An apple pie and fresh strawberries w/shortcake so we can get by.

Hope you will all have a good day.

jo6359

Anne- welcome back. I see you're still working on your house. Good luck with all of that. So glad to hear your balance is starting to improve.

Anneb1149

In Loving Memory of my husband who died in Aug, 2012 from complications of Agent Orange

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to stop for a moment and remember my very own Vietnam veteran.

As I said yesterday, we had our holiday cookout yesterday, so today has been very quiet. Another day of Nancy and I sitting around in PJ's. I can't help giggling because Atlanta is breaking temperatures all over the place. I think we hit at least 101 in the last four days. Remember, I live in South FL, so I should be used to hot weather- and for the most part I am. Right now, my problem is with the temps inside! My daughter is going through menopause- she is hot all the time. I sat here all day in cotton PJ's and nearly froze my fingers off. I finally went in my room and changed into the warmest PJ's I could find. And I have a blanket on. Brings back memories of fighting with my husband about A/C- he was always cold. I remembered saying to him that, when he was cold, he could add layers. I was down to bare minimum and couldn't take anything else off. So, instead of asking Nancy to raise the temperature, I put on more layers. She laughed when she saw me, says she is not uncomfortably hot, but couldn't believe I was so cold. She has the air at 72. At home, unless there are a lot of people there, we are usually comfortable between 76-78. Can't believe I am going home Sat to warm up!

Hi Jo- yes, I am still working on the house. Not much left to do at this point.

Anne

IllinoisLady

Two things fill me with constantly increasing admiration and awe,
the longer and more earnestly I reflect on them:
the starry heavens without and the moral law within.

Immanuel Kant

IllinoisLady

Anne, I love your picture and your remembrance and tribute to your Dh. Makes me think of youth and so many young people going to war. You both looked like children almost. We couldn't 'see' too much of getting where we have gotten. Youth doesn't last very long.

Dh and I both 'need' different temps too. I am warmer and he is cooler. We do keep out a/c on 77 or 78. Even at that sometimes coming in from outside is like walking into a refrigerator. Even if we are different I do have to say I have places on me that if they get cold I am quite miserable all over. Like the tops of my shoulders and my feet.

Sun is out today but we could get storms tonight. Tornados are going on all around us. Yesterday was okay even though we had sounds of a storm in the morning that never materialized.

I hope you are all going to have a really good day.

Wren44

Stay safe from those tornadoes. I grew up in tornado alley and never actually saw one. When I went to my high school reunion, a man who had retired from the weather service took us on a tour of the weather center in Norman, OK. It was fascinating. We got to see the people who do the alerts and warnings through a glass window. Their conference center is a tornado shelter. The top of the building is a center with windows all round. Our guide said if a tornado is reported, they all go up to look, then down to the shelter. The guide said he had been a tornado chaser, but now it was too dangerous with all the nuts driving while looking at the tornado instead of the road.

carolehalston

Today was a perfect day as far as weather is concerned.  I enjoyed the women's golf.  I played with two women who are good players and I admired some of their golf shots.  I wore one of my new light jackets and it was very comfortable.  

Puffin2014

Yes, Carole, today was certainly a perfect day, 71 degrees, hardly any wind, sunny, and no mosquitoes since it's been so cold. I weeded and Preened several flower beds.

ChiSandy

Yesterday was all-storms-all-the-time on TV--the news cut into daytime programming and we were treated to an ominous radar parade of storms and tornado warnings & watches for several hours. A twister did touch down in the far S. suburbs (Sauk Village, IL and Dyer, IN) with some tree, roof & siding damage, but no injuries and no homes rendered uninhabitable. But we got some lightning strikes, downpours and brief small hail on our block; and over in Oak Lawn, Bob called from Advocate Christ Hospital (I could hear the warning sirens) just before heading to its basement storm shelter--Oak Lawn was part of the tornado warning area). But we're fine...for now. More storms moving in tonight (or so my aching sinuses, sore shin & arm over my orthopedic hardware, and tight rings tell me).

Had a bit (emphasis on "bit") of a personal scare these past couple of days. Starting Mon. night, the sore on the roof of my mouth behind my L incisor began to reappear. When I first noticed it last summer, the tooth hurt too and felt loose. Well, back then it turned out to have been an abscess that required two root canals. I panicked this time--because two of Bob's patients had neglected abscessed teeth. One, a woman, got endocarditis (she's better now but is getting an LVAD implanted) but was so freaked out at the prospect of future abscesses that she had all her teeth pulled and is getting implants. The other (a family practitioner who refers patients to Bob) hadn't been to a dentist in two years. He fell and hurt his already-arthritic hip and was scheduled for a hip replacement...until it was discovered that not only was his hip infected but so was his heart valve, and he's a poor surgical risk. Nevertheless, he's going to need a valve replacement. So when I thought my abscess had resurfaced, I immediately contacted my entire dental team--dentist, orthodontist, endodontist & periodontist yesterday. I thought at best it was a very angry periodontal ligament, resentful of having to do some of the tooth-moving work the bone should be doing but can't because I'm on Prolia.

They all told me to see the endodontist first but not stop my Invisalign treatment. (The sore felt worse with the aligner in, and w/in 1/2 hr of removing it for meals & tooth care, it didn't). So I saw the endodontist (I was overdue for a 6-mo. followup anyway) today. She took X-rays, poked around, and concluded that there's no abscess and the root canals & fillings are just fine--the sore was just from the edge of the aligner "squishing" that gum tissue and irritating it, especially since any redness disappeared right before her eyes once I removed the aligner. She suggested I ask the orthodontist if it's okay for me to file down some of the offending edge, and that it was okay by her to switch to the next one (#4) tonight as planned (and rinse with tepid salt water to calm down any residual pain & bruising). I called the orthodontist and he said fine--to switch to #4 tonight, file down its edge if needed, and if it still hurts after 3 or 4 days to go back to my current aligner for another week.

IllinoisLady

The best portion of a good man's life
is his little, nameless, unremembered
acts of kindness and of love.
- William Wordsworth

IllinoisLady

Our storms started overnight. Woke up to thunder which I easily heard w/o hearing aids on so it was loud I'm sure. I did manage to go back to sleep easily which was good. We can expect more through the day. I go back to my little baby-sitting job today so I am hoping for a decent time period so the family can get to the airport with no delays or issues. Just wonder about the planes and flight delays.

Glad you will likely and hopefully find relief for your dental woes Sandy. I'd have been a bit 'stressed' on it too.

So onward we go for the day. I may be able to get a few things done here while waiting to go to work after lunch. May not be able to get out if weather is bad for the kitties.

Hoping all of you have a decent day.

nanette7fl

Sitting at Radiation center waiting for my 1st appt. They said it would be mtg with RO then off to get mapped, tattooed and fitted for shell? and a dry run. Kind of nervous but glad to finally be here. I finally got my drains out yesterday and it's weird after having them in for 2 surgeries for a total of 8 1/2 weeks!!

IllinoisLady

Drain-free -- Yay !!! should have put Nanette after this.