MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

Meece

This has been a rough week, so like they say, when the going gets tough, the tough go to wine country.  I will be helping my friend with a chilli cook-off at her winery, so it wil lhelp me get my mind focused on something else.  I will be out of Computer Comm today, but I will surely check back this evening.  Have a great Saturday and party like Cheeto-Lovin' fools!

chrissyb

Have fun Meece!  and have some chilli for all of us, washed down by a nice vino....lol

Meece

I forgot, I bought the Vidalia Chop Wizard

I have worn one almost completely out, and would recommend it to everyone, especially if you are obsessive about making perfectly even diced onions.

Meece

I have also purchased the Mister Steamy Dryer balls, but can't say I've used them enough to give a proper review of them.

Meece

Yes, I have bought OxyClean, and used to use it regularly.  Somehow I got out of the habit.

Meece

My mother bought me the Jupiter jack, and it work's great....on DH's phone.  It didn't come with an adapter for mine, but I can send in for one.  If I ever remember to.  Maybe now that DH washed my blue tooth earpiece, I will get on it.

brazos58

Meece! SNARF!! Thanks for those pix...

Marlegal.. OH YEAH, I hope I can find you. It would be GRATE to meet you, and an honor as well. I can find my way to New Hope ( Peddlers Villiage esp...) and Doylestown. Both great places to shop.... but I love to talk and eat more than shop.

You know I was thinking when I see my BS next month that HE NEEDS TO BE READING THESE THREADS..... and I will advise him of that and suggest they add it to Med Schools Awareness of what women IN REAL LIFE deal with. I also want to ask him how many minutes he spent studying AWS and LE!  he he he.....

Having coffee

Happy Saturday.... may you all not be aggrivated by your familly and not want to lock yourself away in your rooms!

Peace

barbe1958

I know LE cause I have it, but what's AWS????

brazos58

Barb .... its Axillary Web Syndrome... a lovely post op complication of the Lymphatic System being damaged by lumpectomys/ Rads/ Mastectomys/ Recon....lymphatic vessels turn into CORDS....you can feel them running along  next to the veins ( felt like hard veins in my arm ). Mine started in my armpit ( felt like a piano wire ) and wound down my bicep into my forearm....down my incision headed to my drain scar. IT TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT!

But I am calmer now.....

It affected my shoulder/ arm range of motion greatly. Had to have LE/ PT for it. Myofasial Release broke up some of the cording. So this AWS puts me at risk even further for the LE I have. Which my BS feels is just a vein....and its not cording nor is it AWS. What is with these BS and non awareness of these issues? My 2 Visiting Nurses and Moi picked it up as well as LE/ PT.

barbe1958

My surgeon doesn't "believe" in LE!! hehehehehehee

OG56

F'ing cancer, hugs and healing light for you P-Mom. The male nurse should be the one taking care of her as she deserves only the best!!! Do you think he is a visiting nurse?

elimar86861

OG, you would be the one to ask about visiting nurses.  Didn't we send naked Gerry Butler over to you to help with the laundry, and he has not been seen since!

(Newbies, that comment goes back to a photo posted back maybe 80 pages or so, but I can vouch that it is worth searching for.  I think he kind of kicked off the virtual Hunky Handyman service, that is just one of the perks of our thread.)

dawney

Meece - rolling on the ceiling made me ROFL!  lol  And, I think I might like Mr Steamy, I never iron, just throw it in the dryer with a damp wash cloth.  He could come in handy!

PauldingMom

I'm Back!!!!! 

Okay, have a vidalia onion slicer. Great product but do not loss the little cleaner fork thing that comes with it.

Set it and forget it- I set it on top of the freezer in the garage and forgot it. We just don't cook much big pieces of meat around here even though we have half a cow (in the freezer, smart asses)

I did buy the under wear that you can wear your regular bra with. It's very very tight when you first get it but then it gets lose. I wear it mostly with sweaters to hid the un-lady like bumps.

Thank you all for the prayers, good thoughts, half naked nurses, and cheetos. You will all forgive me please if I write things that make no sense. Besides the heavy drugs, the cancer cells in my brain lay on my memory section. I forget very simple things and say things that make no sense at all. I just told my daughter to put navy beans in the pink lemonade. I meant ice cubes. Where the hell navy beans came from I do not know.

I'm home now and had a major crying fit when I got here. I wanted roll around on the carpet but was afraid I wouldn't get back up. We should have video taped my  big black goofy dog. She went crazy when she saw Mommy was home.   

gotta run. be back soon

XXXOOOO

Lisa 

elimar86861

Welcome back P-Mom!  Keep in mind that some of the Mid-Age classic posts were written from a "medicated" standpoint.  Half of us are reading them that was too!  Aha-ha-ha!  Just kidding.  Maybe.

3jaysmom

PM welcome home.. when your' finished with the nurse, please send him my way. im in need of LOTS OF TLC lol..our goofy dogsmake us feel so loved, don't they?  you'll get used to searching for the right words. from my past strokes, i've learned to just wait.. most times they'll show up. at times, i just stare at the keyboard, and try to figure out what i was trying to say... Are you done for now, or is there more to do?  I met with Barb and Marybe today.. what a cool thing, to see each other in real life.. poor Marybe, i'm a "touchy feely" kinda persomn, and i think at least 1/2 of the time; i was sitting, stroking her..back, arm. i knew when i left i had to go back to virtual life.. i'm grateful for meeting ALL you ladies here. My mind is a seive, what with MS, BC a

et al. and you have saved my life, literally by just being here for me..

3jaysmom

ps Mr. steamy is a godsend. i don't iron anymore, and my DH doesn't look (too much) like he slept in the woods..hehe

marlegal

Rock The Ribbon, a celebration of BCO's 10th Anniversary (this will be several posts long)

Several months ago I was fortunate enough to participate in a video shoot which was being done as part of Rock the Ribbon, the celebration of BCO's 10th anniversary. That experience alone was one of the coolest things I'd ever done in my life and something I'll always treasure. There were about 15 to 20 survivors from the Phila, PA area who were interviewed one on one, separately, by a professional film company. A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to learn that I was one of the lucky women who made the final cut and would be in the video shown on October 30th at the Academy of Music in Phila where Harry Connick, Jr. and his orchestra would be performing. I was given two front row tickets for the event, and for the after party which was going to be held at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, next door to the Academy of Music. I invited a good friend/co-worker to go with me and she in turned asked her brother, a hotel employee, if he could get us a room in Center City Phila for the night at cost, which he did.

marlegal

Last Saturday was a gorgeous fall day. Joan and I met up at the hotel and had drinks in our room as we were getting ready - little black dresses for us both - for the event. We then took ourselves to a swanky restaurant for a drink and appetizers before the show. Since it was Halloween weekend, the streets of Center City were filled with partygoers and costumed adults just out and about having fun. We arrived at the Academy of Music to find the Philadelphia Boys Choir performing as the "opening act". What a treat that was - those boys are unbelievable. A local celebrity and cancer survivor, Lauren Hart, opened the festivities by giving the background of BCO and just relaxing everyone and getting us ready for a good night. Next up was Amanda Ratcliffe, whose title with BCO I forget but she's one of the directors. She gave more background info, and a lot of info about Dr. Marisa Weiss, and then introduced the survivor video. I can't even say how weird it was to see myself on a giant movie screen. Granted, my part was 5 seconds tops, but man it felt long to me!! The whole video is about 5 minutes long I guess, with Dr. Weiss interspersed among the survivors, telling how she is now a survivor as well. Chills for sure. Amanda then introduced Marisa, complete with the superhero cape they made her with BCO across the front!

marlegal

Marisa is such a great speaker. She detailed many of the advances BCO has made over the last 10 yrs, and talked of their planned improvements and new features for the coming years, like a lot of Spanish translations for many pages. I wish I remembered the numbers - they were staggering. Something like how in their first two years, they had 9,000 visitors to the site, and last year there were more than 9 million, worldwide. I mean, we all know this already, but it still was mind boggling to listen to it all. And then Marisa introduced our headliner - Harry Connick, Jr. and the orchestra. Now don't get me wrong, I like his singing and he's not bad to look at, but when he came out onto stage, a mere few feet away from me, I was instantly 13 yrs old and a screaming teenager! How does that happen to us? Ha! What really surprised me about him was his humor - in between songs he'd just talk as if there were 10 of us in the room instead of 3,000! Yes, it was a sellout. The concert was just awesome - so much more than I'd expected.

marlegal

So after two hours of great music, ranging from Sinatra classics to New Orleans hot jazz, we moved next door to the after party. I was thinking it would be about 100 people, and they had said open bar and light refreshments. Okay - so how about going to the Grand Ballroom at the Bellevue, with many hundreds if not a thousand people, about 10 bar stations, a pasta station, a stir fry station, a slider and carving station, a roasted veggie/munchie station, a dessert station ... this is light refreshments??? And another live band - Philadelphia Funk Authority - very Earth, Wind & Fire style. They were awesome and got people up and dancing all over the place! The table settings were gorgeous with their glass and floral creations. And I've just never seen so many little black dresses in one place before! When Marisa got up on the stage to again thank every for coming, I seized the opportunity and ran over to the stairs and caught her when she came down. I told her that I had a little something for her from the chatters and boarders and handed her the envelope. She asked if she could open it then, and I said I hoped she would. So she opened the note I wrote, saying how so many of us just don't know how we would have gotten through all this without BCO, and she read it, and made an "aawwww" type sound and gave me a hug - without realilzing there was anything else in the envelope!!! I told her to keep opening and reading, and when she saw the spa gift certificate, she just got all wide eyed and stared at me with a questioning look, it was so cute Another hug and she was kind of lost for words for a minute - obviously touched. I was a happy camper, on behalf of every single one of us.

marlegal

Someone commented on how she seemed tall in the picture - I was very surprised also at her height! I'm just under 5'6" and she was several inches taller than me. And pretty? Very, very pretty, and a great shape! She had on a gorgeous purple gown at the event, and then changed into a little black dress - with leather and boots - for the after party. She'd obviously had her natural curly hair done for the night, and seemed to enjoy the evening every bit as much as all the guests. Everyone was just so friendly, and I met many BCO staffers who recognized me because they had worked on the video for months doing editing and whatnot, so that was kind of funny to hear people just say "Hi Mary - are you having a good time?" and I had no idea who they were! And every single one of them asked that - was I having a good time - when I felt like Cinderella and just wanted to kiss all their asses for all the hard work they'd put into the night. But their main goal was to make sure everyone else had fun. And don't forget - we're talking about a global company that is essentially run by less than 20 people. Just amazing. So that's my story. A wonderful, wonderful night that gave me memories that - I hope - will stay with me forever (little chemobrain humor there!) I am honored and blessed to have been a part of it, and I swear to you all - I really did feel like I was a representative ... a very lucky representative ... for all of us. Love and hugs kids.   I'll be posting a link to Snapfish pics in a few minutes

marlegal

here's the link to some pics on Snapfish - if you don't already have an account, trust me - they don't send spam mail and I've used them for years without problem - it's free and just needs an email addy.

http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5993429013/a=113703729_113703729/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

NavyMom

Welcome back Paulding mom.  Praying for you and sending healing hugs your way.    Navymom

elimar86861

Marlegal:  Enjoyed reading your account of Rock The Ribbon.  Almost felt like I was there in my very own little black dress.  Sounds like it was an incredible evening.

Dr. Weiss sounds very lovely and gracious in person.  Previously, I had only seen her the one time on television when she was going head to head with Dr. Susan Love over those new mammogram guidelines, and that was only a glimpse of her when she was all business and serious about defending a position.  Thanks for the glimpse of another side...Marisa Weiss, "the patient doctor," in party mode. 

Eph3_12

my mickey mouse sweatshirt & jeans have transformed into a little black dress & I'm stuck @ the stir fry station.  Thank you Marlegal-what an awesome party!

JMW

I guess I don't fit in either!!!! 51 yrs. old with 2 sons aged 13 and 9. Don't even know where to begin to tell them about this! So not telling them for now. Have sisters living nearby and good friends to help me out. I can count my blessings.

raeinnz

Marlegal - Wonderful account of your fantastic night and thanks again for including us in your generous gift to Marisa.

Eph3_12

JMW-count those blessings!  So sorry you are here, but we're a pretty good group of gals if I say so myself!  I'd suggest a family pow-wow with you, aunties & boys or something along those lines to break the news.  Good luck.

cookiegal

Hi all!

1-st  P-Mom....I hope treatment is effective and you feel as well as possible. It is always sobering when one of "our people" gets bad news.

2-Mar...that sounds like a magical nite in Philly. 

3- Steamy Ball????? Does it work??? Need to know!!!

I am obsessed with Pumpkin Pop-Tarts BTW

Fall hugs to all. 

Cookie