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

Tappermom383

Congratulations, Puffin, on the five years and clean mammo! We all love to hear these success stories.

MJ

nanette7fl

Jo I'm glad you had such a sweet visit with your parents and what a haul too!! I harvested my 1st green pepper yesterday and I have a few more that should be ready in a few days. My tomato plants are doing well with the morganite in with the soil. Actually I'm quite proud of my container garden. It gets the hot direct Florida sun until about noon-1pm then it's all in the shade which is more than enough. I water every day as they can't go longer than that and not look wilted. I will have another breast debridement on Wednesday afternoon or at least that's what the paperwork for insurance said today. So far my left breast has stayed FLAT!! But we are very mindful of keeping me bound...so not really sure if the PS will debridement surgery or just put in the drain and no paperwork was for the right side which feels like a aroma also as it's all smushy? and NOT flat but looks like I have an expander in there as you can see a triangle.

Want a good laugh?? I went to get fitted for my lymphedema sleeve and glove and I decided to pick up the fobs I never took when I picked up my compression vest. So I put them in DH liked them...they look odd to me... then DH say put them back in and see if the kids notice. DD didntuntil I said "Notice anything different??" And she laughed. I showed her what they were. Her dear sweetie BF NEVER noticed them and when DH said something the poor guy was So very embarrassed. It was too funny.

IllinoisLady

Life rushes us along and few people are strong enough to stop on their own. Most often, something unforeseen stops us and it is only then we have the time to take a seat at life's kitchen table. To know our own story and tell it. To listen to other people's stories. To remember that the real world is made up of just such stories. Until we stop ourselves or, more often, have been stopped, we hope to put certain of life's events "behind us" and get on with our living. After we stop we see that certain of life's issues will be with us for as long as we live. We will pass through them again and again, each time with a new story, each time with a greater understanding, until they become indistinguishable from our blessings and our wisdom. It's the way life teaches us how to live. -Rachel Naomi Remen

jo6359

nanette-the foob story is so funny. We assume because somthing impacts us it will be quickly noticed by others. Good luck with your tomatos.

carolehalston

Yesterday was my women's golf day. Today dh is playing the Wednesday golf which includes men and women.

I will do some pruning of leggy shrubs in the border beds and also plan to go for a walk. It looks like another nice day today, sunny and warming up to 70's.

IllinoisLady

If we pretend to be more enlightened than we really are, we will miss an opportunity to heal ourselves. Admitting our limitations can make us feel vulnerable, yet it is very freeing. We just have to be ourselves as we are now, accepting the mixture of enlightened awareness and human limitation that is in each of us. Through this self-acceptance, we find a deep peace and self-love.

Shakti Gawain

IllinoisLady

Muggy and warmish here as we wait for a possible big storm to arrive. Went this a.m. to my once a yr. check-up. All was fine but she did caution me to watch out for cholesterol and sugar. She would like to see them lower. They have always been 'odd' so we will see. Otherwise, they will set up my mammograms and colonoscopy so only things I have to do.

Other than sinuses flaring quite a lot lately all seems well under control.

Hope you are all having a good day.

IllinoisLady

There are nine requisites for contented living:
HEALTH enough to make work a pleasure;
WEALTH enough to support your needs;
STRENGTH enough to battle with difficulties and forsake them;
GRACE enough to confess your sins and overcome them;
PATIENCE enough to toil until some good is accomplished;
CHARITY enough to see some good in your neighbor;
LOVE enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others;
FAITH enough to make real the things of God;
HOPE enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

lizfizz

That is something I am looking for too, being 80:when diagnosed. Had a lumpectomy and node dissection last week waiting for path reports next week. Probably will have radiation after that, but it is difficult to find survivor stats for the elderly

IllinoisLady

Welcome lizfizz. Sorry as always that you need this club but we have an open door to anyone needing to deal with lumpectomy, nodes, rads ( radiation) and all those things a part of this club. Hoping that you get news that you can work with easily. Hope you will feel free to pop in ( I'm not good in the questions area ) with any questions, concerns, or if you just feel a need to share with others who are or have had so many of the same experiences you are having right now. It is never a good time to find out you have a cancer dx. but shared with others who have or are in the same boat it can be less lonely and less scary.

Wren44

Lizfizz, Welcome. In general CA tends to be slower growing as people age. The young women have the more aggressive stats. Probably the stats are too confusing in the elderly because we keep dying of other things (I'm 79 this year). I know from family experience that the cause of death often is more or less made up. My Dad's supposedly died of heart trouble (never diagnosed or treated). Well his heart did stop but caused? I think the older we are the better the prognosis.

keywestfan

I recently saw a post which I can’t find now about how good it would be to be diagnosed at 80. I do understand that it seems more normal -phase of life- than to be diagnosed at 50. I was diagnosed one month shy of 85 But it is still a horrible shock and lumpectomy, estrogen blocker radiation, anxiety, uncertainty just as difficult to emotionally deal with. Am not so sure mine is slow growing, hope so.

jo6359

keywestfan- Age doesn't make it less of a shock. That diagnosis scares the hell out of most of us. To be perfectly frank, I would rather deal with my breast cancer at 58 than to be a parent of a young child or children dealing with breast cancer. Being older does not minimize our fears and concerns. I have incredible respect and admiration for young parents or simply young individuals dealing with breast cancer. They've just started their lives. We all want to live quality lives. If I had to choose a time to have cancer I would say the later the better. But it's never a good time. Never. You are so right about all the anxiety and the uncertainty that comes with our diagnosis.

nanette7fl

welcome Lizfiz 8)

Well all I had my surgery yesterday. It was for bilateral debridement and scar revision. PS did surgically drain my right side and gave me drains on both sides and told DH that it all looked great and drains should be out in less than 2 weeks. I'm fine and I have no discomfort at all although L drain site is a little tender as it's near the edge of the numb zone. Drains so far have not collected more than. 30 cc's every 12 hours so that is a good sign to me they won't be there long. NO one has a clue why I got breast serena's so imm just looking at it like "Ok God what am I not listening too?"

keywestfan

jo6359, A problem with this at 85 that I don’t think I would have had to such an extent when much younger is the question of quality of life while taking AI’s. At my age how many years are there anyway? I’m taking anastrozole every other day until July 13 when I go to every day. Tonight will be the third pill. When I read of the oh so hard SEs some have, and project that I will have them also, I don’t know about about spending the last years struggling with them. If I had young children, I would, though I do have a 10 year old grandson and would like another 8 years to see him graduate from high school. Will just see what happens and try to deal

jo6359

keywestfan- you are right. Hopefully you won't have hard SEs from your treatment. I think at any age a person has to decide which is worse not taking the medication or dealing with the side effects. Some women on these threads have written about horrible side effects from Als and others have minimal side effects. It is frustrating and depressing .

Wren44

Keywestfan, I had no SE's at all from Arimidex. I thought it was making me colder but that didn't go away when I stopped, so just age I guess. I hope you have the same result.

IllinoisLady

"What sunshine is to flowers, smiles are to humanity. These are but trifles, to be sure; but scattered along life's pathway, the good they do is inconceivable."

-- Joseph Addison

IllinoisLady

Keywest, I am hoping with all the others that you do well on your AL. I do think if you have issues it may be whether generic is used or not which is the only caution I would give. I did wonderful on Arimidex, but towards the end of that tx. was switched to generic. I did turn up an issue and stopped taking it a month before I was due. We just don't know who will do well and who may not. You are in charge though so if you feel something has become un -workable you can make changes. Wishing you the very best.

keywestfan

Thank you Illinois Lady and everyone who has been so helpful to me. I am starting the generic by Teva. What I was told by another MO was that the generic was fine, but that if SE’s were bad, switch to a generic of another AI, and.if that was bad, go to brand name, but that those who have trouble on generic tend also to have trouble on brand name. However, reading here that doesn’t really seem to be the case. Will see my MO in July a d discuss, though only 15 minute appointment and so many questions

IllinoisLady

And when we come to think of it, goodness is uneventful. It does not flash, it glows. It is deep, quiet, and very simple. It passes not with oratory, it is commonly foreign to riches, nor does it often sit in the places of the mighty: but may be felt in the touch of a friendly hand or the look of a kindly eye. -David Grayson

ChiSandy

Teva is the generic that tends to have the fewest troublesome additives (binders, excipients, dyes) that account for many of the SEs of AIs. And I understand that the further out from menopause you are when diagnosed, the milder the SEs.

Wren, speaking of “heart stopping" as a cause of death, the best instance of that I can recall is from Jimmy Breslin's “The Gang that Couldn't Shoot Straight." It goes something like this: “Don Vito drew his last breath when his heart stopped. His heart stopped when six thugs crept in through his window one night and stuck knives in it.”

keywestfan

ChiSandy,

Hope my store continues to stock Teva. Here’s my conundrum based on your menopause statement. Had surgical menopause 50 years ago today when I was 35 for a rare form, 2 years misdiagnosed, of cervical cancer. Horrible. But then was on Premarin and, for the last 10 years on a low dose hormone patch, which I ripped off when in January I found the lump. I did have hot flashes then. Last night I took my fourth anastrozole, every other day, until once a day starting July 13. No hot flashes. Well we’ll just have to see how this goes- hopefully my years will count for something. On another note, on another forum, were you saying there’s an ortho,sports medicine walk i clinic at Evanston Hospital?

IllinoisLady

We are so often caught up in our destination that we forget to appreciate the journey, especially the goodness of the people we meet on the way. Appreciation is a wonderful feeling; don't overlook it. -unattributed

CeliaC

keywestfan - Glad that you can find the TEVA brand. I took TEVA brand for over 2 yrs and now can no longer find it. Switched to APOTEX, which is manufactured in Canada. Similar SEs, all tolerable, hanging in there with this to keep "the Beast" at bay.

carolehalston

I took arimidex for almost five years and didn't have any intolerable SE's. I blamed arimidex for weight gain, higher cholesterol and blood pressure but I think the culprit was aging.

IllinoisLady

Dh's youngest living sibling.

2019 06/25 – Allen Douglas Iossi

June 22, 2019 | by Bruce Kropp

Allen Douglas Iossi, 66, of Centralia, passed away Saturday, June 22, 2019, at SLU Hospital in St. Louis, MO.

Funeral arrangements are pending at the Sutherland-Garnier Funeral Home in Centralia, where friends may call for additional information.

Most of Dh's family relocated here from California ( we all lived there for several yrs ) and as life would have it, we have lost one BIL's wife, and a bit over four yrs. after that, the only sister ( 7 brothers in the family in the beginning ) and now the youngest. Three bros. had passed before anyone moved here along with the mother and father ) and the oldest brother lives in S. Carolina. He is the one who spent so many yrs. after his military service as a Diplomat - Foreign Relations Officer.

I'm going to miss Al. He was laid back and rather quiet, not quite a loner, but far from a gad-about and he was always willing to give you a hand as he was very talented with electronics. Our family has gotten much smaller around here. On both my and Dh's side.

jo6359

Illinois lady-I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. As we age, our family does become smaller. Very sad.

ChiSandy

keywestfan, the NorthShore Ortho/Sportsmedicine Walk-In Clinic is at Skokie Hospital, in the Ambulatory Care Center (however you manage to ambulate). However, if it's Podiatry you need, that's at Glenbrook. (I think it's by appointment, but that can be done via NorthShoreConnect).

nanette7fl

I am saddened by your loss of such a nice man. Sending warmest thoughts and cyber hugs