MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

jo1955

Barbe - You crack me up

                                        

TMarina

Hey ladies--I don't post here too often, but I GREATLY enjoy reading along.  I esp. enjoyed the 'cow patty' story!

As a colon cancer butt-kicker (dx in '09, 1 year before bc dx), I would like to put in my 2 cents about colonoscopies!  I'm glad to hear many of you are soon going to have one or have had one already.  My first prep I had to drink a gallon of clear stuff, and a year later they had me take some pills, and drink a miralax mix instead.  I actually preferred the gallon stuff because with the other prep I had to wake up at 5 am and drink some more.  I preferred getting it all done in one evening (about 4 hours).  The day of the prep you can only have clear liquids (and no red liquids), so I was very hungry!  That is the worst part for me. Like some others I got versed in an iv (and another drug too, but I forgot what).  I don't fall asleep during the procedure--instead I watch it on the screen.  I did have some weird memory lapses after though--very strange to find out you forgot something that just happened moments before!  My first one I ate a lot of green jello the day before--guess what I could see floating around in my colon?  I asked the doc--"is that green jello?" "Yep", he says,"we see that a lot!"  And he and the nurse chuckled. The worst part, of course, was seeing the large tumor!  Both the doc and I were expecting to find out I had colitis, or IBS.  I was only 44.

So, ANY changes in bowel habits, other than those caused by chemo, of course, PLEASE see your doc!

Thank you ladies for the laughs!

Tina

walker2222

Love my sock monkey slippers.  Hate clowns, seeing the movie "IT" made it official. 

Everyone have a great weekend.

See Onc. next week see if I should get a colonoscopy now or later.

annettek

- i guess i better schedule a darn colonoscopy too...crap (fitting word!)

jo1955

Been there, done that - 2 years ago.  Don't have to repeat for 8 years - phew!

elimar86861

I think Sherlock's author, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was on the laudanum, containing opium.  That's how those Victorians rolled back then.  Charles Dickens was another who drank it.  Neither one of their literary legacies have suffered from their being on the "L" back in the day. 

Barbe, maybe it's time to write a book!

Meece

I'd buy that one!

walker2222

The Victorian era was very interesting.

ToriGirl

Saw this bumper sticker today and thought of this thread...

"I'm still HOT, it just comes in flashes now!" 

Have a great weekend all!

Tori 

chrissyb

Oh Tori!   ROTFLMAO..........That is priceless!

ToriGirl

Meece

And it's pink, ToriGirl!

ToriGirl

Anjanita

My grandma was young at the end of the Victorian Age and it wasn't uncommon for women to have an opium problem due to treating their (modest) female troubles with various tonics.  Did I read once that Lydia Pinkham's had an addictive substance in it at one time?

 Yes, they were a rascally bunch, those Victorians.

I'm in mind of all the drugs that have been developed to help humans cope with pain:  The men came home from wars addicted to Opium and when Morphine was discovered it was thought to be a godsend as it "wasn't addictive."  Oopsie.

Then came Heroin to replace the Morphine.  And another oopsie.  Methadone hasn't had a much better track record.

We women with our "nervous problems" had the barbiturates in the forties to be replaced with the "safer" minor tranquilizers in mid-century and on and on.

I'm glad for the accomplishments of modern medicines and also cautiously aware that for the good they provide there are always the downfalls of the side-effects.  It's a mixed bag. 

Eph3_12

heartnsoul-that Bozo picture almost made me pee! It surprised me how it affected me.  I always thought I liked clowns but I guess when they resemble homicidal maniacs they aren't so cheery!

raeinnz

I hate clowns too - always have, always will.  Also don't like non-human objects that are made human ie moom man 

catbill

What is it about clowns?  When i was a child, I was scared spitless, now I just hate 'em!!

Anjanita-pretty name.

Mankato, huh?  Prior Lake here...right down the road from Mystic Lake Casino.  Are you keeping up with the snow shoveling this year?  It's already a record-breaking year here, and I think you folks have more than we do for overall totals.    Yeeesh!!!

TMarina-

Another Minnesotan!  I watched my colonoscopy too.  I wanted to know how they knew when they'd gone far enough.  Gotta say I hated the prep the evening before the procedure, but it wasn't so bad.  DH and I went out for lunch afterwards...starving and dehydrated.

barbe1958

Paula66, what makes you a Stage II???

NativeMainer

Paula66-treatment decision making is soooo hard to do, and there is no one right answer. It's such a personal decision. Some things that I thought about that helped me make my choices were: (1) IF, God forbid, the beast came back, how would you feel about having taken a certain treatment? Would you feel guilty if you didn't take chemo, for instance? (2) How likely are you to have side effect, temporary and permanent, and how does that compare to the benefit the treatment would give you? Are the risks worth the benefit, in your mind? (3) What does your gut tell you to do or not do? The treatment choices I made based on intellectual examination but different from my gut feelings are the decisions I regret. We all have different priorities and feelings about this journey, and we have all made different choices. Keep asking questions and take your time, don't allow yourself to be rushed into a decision.

TMarina-thanks for the reality check about colonoscopies. I am so needle phobic that I am avoiding dong that just because I don't think I can handle another hour-long 4 or 5 person, dozens of sticks session to get an IV started, and no one locally is willing to give me oral sedation before starting that torture process. I know intellectually that getting the screening done is more important (especially since I have Barrett's Esophagus and they would do an upper endoscopy at the same time), but emotionally, right now, I'd rather not have it done and I'd rather not know if I have any more cancer. I'm just not at a point where I can go through the diagnosis/treatment decision making/painful procedure thing again. If I had medical people around that did these things that I felt actually cared about me as a person and not an item on an assembly line, maybe I could do this. Right now I just can't. Maybe if I could find someone who would let me watch-around here it's they don't allow that, and part of my fear comes from the secretiveness-it must be pretty bad if they don't let people watch!

Raeinnz-I never could, and to this day cannot see the Man in the Moon. I think everyone who says they do is fooling with me! 

Meece

I am a hard stick, too, NM.  Last surgery I had to have three nurses, one holding a flashlight, try to get the IV started.  I have had more veins blown by techs than I can count.  Being able to only use one arm, and not having been given the option of a port during chemo, I have very few veins left to use.

Rea, I am with you, I don't like the humanization of things that should not be.  I feel great to know I am not alone in my fear of sock monkeys, clowns and puppets. Now I don't mind animal puppets, but marionettes??? YUK!!!!! As a treat for the students in elementary school, a marionette company would do a show each year and then we'd get to go back stage and see the puppets hanging in the racks.  Not a wonderful memory.

elimar86861

 And now the counterpoint...or clown-terpoint, if you will...

It pains me a little to think this thread is so full of clown-haters.  I'm sure you all have some deep-rooted issues to work out (maybe traumatization from a squirting daisy) and hope you get the professional help you need.  No, I'm not at all bothered by clowns.

As far as lending human features to non-human things (anthropomorphism,) I've liked that ever since I was a kid.  How vividly I remember the segment of the movie Fantasia where the Greek satyrs are playing and then the end of their day comes when a woman in a dark cloak sweps across the sky (nightfall.)  Loved it!

annettek

elinar....you are pretty darn punny...

Meece

Elimar, I am sorry if I have offended you in my Coulrophobia, not hatred.  Something tells me you are a closet clown,  maybe you put on a little too much lipstick now and then, or you enjoy trying on shoes that are way too big for you.  When fixing you kids lunches you are inclined to do a little juggling with their apples & oranges?

I don't mind clowns in the circus.  I think I can atribute my problem to the Twilight Zone.  I still remember "Talking Tina" and she doesn't like you!

Have you seen the commercial for the US Postal service where they are trying to get rid of the gift the got online?  It's a clown doll and scares the family.

elimar86861

Thanks for "outing" my inner clown Meece.  I feel so free now.  (Unfortunately, I have feet big enough to fill out those clown shoes, so never encountered shoes that were "way too big."  Oh, my dainty-footed sisters, you have no idea.)

Meece

I haven't had dainty feet since I was in the fourth grade.  My mother had difficulty finding shoes fit for a 10 year old in a ladies size 6.  By 8th grade, size 8 1/2 and it just got worse from there.  My grandma told me I'd be a giant if half of me didn't lay on the ground.  She said women like us just had a "Great Under-standing".

Meece

Sometimes I feel like I shop for the same size as cross-dressing men!

elimar86861

Well, that IS interesting to be able to stay awake during the colonoscopy.  I'm sure whoever I am going to will be one of the secretive doctors, not progressive enough to even entertain the idea of the patient being awake.  I would like to view my innards.  On the other hand, since everyone says the "sleep" is so great, that sounds appealing too.

I asked if I could be awake during my lumpectomy.  While the doctor never did give a flat out "No," he instead said, "I feel that I could do a better job if you were anesthetized, so I would be sure you were not feeling any pain."  Wasn't that a sneaky yet diplomatic way of saying, "We're doing it my way?"  My asking was not way off-base.  I had an excisional biopsy (same thing as lumpectomy, really) ten years earlier and was fully awake for it.  Of the two, I preferred being awake for the proceedings.  I felt a little pressure of the surgery, so what?  I got to join in the chat of what everyone had planned for that weekend, while they ran the tissue up to the lab for a quick look-see.   Then, no nasty anesthesia hangover for the next 24-48 hours.  Good deal!

elimar86861

Meece, that was no trannie, that was ME in my clown lipstick!  Aha-ha-ha!

elimar86861

I like how CLOWNS and COLONOSCOPIES are interwoven on this thread.  Where else can you go for THAT????

Meece

I guess I will be fine as long as when I arrive for my colonoscopy that my dr, is not dressed up as a clown.