MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

Sandeeonherown

Sunangel, thank you for sharing your story and for the encouragement....so sorry about your sister....I have no words except thanks for your having shared your story with us.

We women can be so stubborn when it comes to our own health...later on in the week I ended up back in the hospital because I had taken a new pill and my throat had not taken kindly to it...felt like the pill was part way down....spent four hours in the hospital, had an xray of my throat to be sure...but you know, I felt better having gone. I would not have slept a wink for worrying and, as the dr. said, trust your instincts....again today, I had to go to the dr.'s clinic next door to the school because I had knicked my knuckle a few days ago and now it is all red and inflamed...felt kind of dumb going to get an antibiotic for a 'scraped knuckle' but as soon as she saw it she said ; you need an antibiotic now!'...and since it too is on the left side of my body ....not to be messed with... a little infection like this can turn into something horrible if you ignore it....all of this crap can be scary so breathing through it is so important!

MinusTwo

Elimar:  I'm usually just a lurker since I'm in the "ish" part of 60, but had to ask about the cliff/ocean picture.  It's wonderful.  Where was it taken?

RE: Puff Corn - a bunch of my running buddys started buying the regular Butter Puff Corn when it first came out.  Of course we were also trying not to eat a bag of Cheetos at one sitting.  Sadly the Butter Puff Corn was only on the shelves in Houston for a month & now it's disappeared.  Is it still available at any of your locations?  The cheese is OK - but Cheetos are so much better.

elimar86861

Sandee,  in an effort to be like my "old normal," I have a bad habit of ignoring cuts and scrapes on my treatment side, but you give a good example of why we really should not do that now.

MinusTwo, I did not take that pic, but you are in luck because I do know where that is...It is the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in the upper penninsula of Michigan, and the "ocean" is Lake Superior.  Someone would have been in a boat to get that shot.

You can munch those Cheetos without guilt if you and the buddies are running them off.  I'm not sure if I saw the Butter Puffs.  I have a tunnel vision for the orange-colored snacks!!!!!!

Sandeeonherown

Elimar- yeah...normally I would just keep peroxiding it and slathering it with antibiotic cream but I figure my body has had the crap kicked out of it enough already....I don't need it trying to fight something else off as well...at least I did not have to have a tetanus shot today! thank goodness I have had a booster in the last 10 years...

elimar86861

Bet you thought I'd ignore keeping up with my Tetanus boosters...but, no, I have stayed current all these years.

Sandeeonherown

excellent...me too but only because I have travelled in recent years and did not want to risk stepping on a nail or anything!

walker2222

Sherry thinking of your dad, mine is still in the hospital and will be until his w counts come back up.



I lost 3 pounds this week, on a weight loss challenge at work. Total is 3.5, gained a pound last week.



I found the worst part of chemo was the week between A/C and taxol. Once I started throwing up I couldn't stop.



I hope and pray that everyone has a great weekend.

marlegal

Eli how do we get to middle aged memories?

marlegal

I know many of you also post on the "beach" site, but for those who don't, i was at the NJ beach today and remembered how Faith used to write in the sand sooo much for all of us. she doesn't come to this site much anymore ... reasons unknown ... but in her honor, I post this picture. Faith, know that we love and miss you on this thread. It would be a cool reason for a party to have you join us again, but till then, here's my beach shot for you  buddy.

elimar86861

I can't make out some of those lines in the sand.  Is the last word "beachettes" or ???

Mar,  the link to Middle Aged Memories is right in my post up above.  If it's not working, let me know.

heartnsoul76

sandee - I can't tell you what a phobia I have about swallowing large pills. In fact, a neighbor - an older woman - DIED from choking on her pill, so that REALLY made it into a huge thing for me. You should see the big glass of tea I have in front of me before I take any pills. And then I have to follow them with a cracker to make sure they're down. I would be at the ER in a heartbeat if I felt like I was choking. Always, always go!

And the knick on your knuckle - that's another thing that's so important and we just don't pay enough attention to that. I went to Home Depot about 2 weeks ago looking for flowers, and by the time I got home I realized I had 3 spider bites! 2 on my feet, but one on my knuckle on my right hand, my affected side. I was so worried about that spider bite - it never turned red, but it was hard as a rock and as big as a bee-bee. Just today I noticed that it's finally going away, but I self-treated it with everything I could think of. From now on, I'm wearing gloves when I go pick out flowers! Oh, and the other day I saw an old pet food dish on the ground and thought, "I better pick that up because rain will collect in it and attract mosquitoes." Well, I'm right-handed, used my right hand to pick up the dish, and underneath it was a coiled foot-long copperhead! I screamed and dropped it and it slithered away. I'm just soooooo grateful it didn't strike me, because that would have been a hospital visit for sure!

I remember my BS told me to always wear gloves when doing yard work, don't get pricked by a rose or anything.....but I don't remember that when I actually need to be careful. Here in my heavily wooded forest, with strange bugs all around me, I feel like I need to go outside dressed in armor. 

marlegal

HNS, you should definitely wear protective garb outside ... pleeeeaaasaassssseeew@@!1 

Valjean

I was right! As soon as I saw that picture at the top, elimar, I knew it was from the Pictured Rocks here in MI. I have been on that boat tour & the rock formations are stunning. Very beautiful. The colors are amazing & the water is always so colorful. We used to go camping in the U.P. for many a vacation & now my DD#2 lives 35-40 mins from Munising,which is where the boat tour begins. We drive through there several times a year.  

Hello to all the newbies. So glad you have found us.

fmakj

Heartnsoul - as long as your meds are not time released, you can always crush them with 2 spoons and take with applesauce, yogurt, etc.... 

We were told by a rad onc for my father, who was diagnosed yesterday with throat cancer and having difficulties swallowing anything!  He was able to take his advil yesterday with yogurt this way. 

barbe1958

Heartnsoul, MY heart would have stopped beating if I saw that snake!!!!!!!!!!!! Where the heck do you live?????????? Both our boys worked in grocery stores in their late teens and told us of the spiders and lizards that come in the fruit!! I work in home furnishings and sometimes huge spiders come in rolled up rugs...............eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!

Meece

I rememebr steering clear of gardening during chemo.  It was hard to do, but I didn't want to risk it.  I am highly allergic to certain weeds and most bugs.  My arms are so scarred from gardening.  My FDIL says I should wear long sleeves and gloves whenever I go outside.  I have the shirt hanging in the greenhouse, but remembering to put it on...

NativeMainer

The long sleeves, gloves, avoiding bug bites, etc are all part of the lymphedema precautions we have to follow after lymph node removal to prevent lymphedema (LE).  LE can be triggered by an infection, even a very mild one, which is why we can't have needle stick in the affected arm, and by squeezing truama, which is why we can't have blood pressures checked on that arm.  The shirt keeps the bugs off preventing infection that way.  I hate that this disease can come back at any time, or that I can develop LE at any time, and spend the rest of my life in pain.  We have got to find a better answer to bc!

marlegal

Eli, yes the last word is Beachettes ... on the "Life's a Beach" thread that's what we call each other and the site is filled with pictures that we take (or steal from Google!) of beach scenes. Thanks for the other link, I missed it first time reading but it worked fine.

Happy Saturday all ... go do something fun!  See you later tonight.

elimar86861

HnS, Copperhead?  OMG!  If I even see a garter snake, it takes all my will power not to grab a shovel or hoe and hack the head off of it, even tho' I know most snakes are beneficial to garden areas. 

Val,  I've camped and hiked in that area several times.  Yeah, the water always looks so inviting, but unless it'sthe third week of August it's not wise to go in unless you have a defibrillator handy.

fmakj, Sorry to hear about your father's Dx.  Did they catch it early and will they do surgery? 

So many fathers have had health issues and declines in the last 6 mos.  I guess we should come to expect it when our parents get in their 70's and 80's, but who is ever really ready for it?  Father's Day is in a month...maybe it would be nice to post something recalling times with our dads.  Somebody remind me.

mostlymom

Meece - I have to say don't leave the shirt outside - or at least, shake it WELL before putting it on....  I hate bugs too 

elimar86861

vhshea has not posted to acknowledge winning our last WEEKEND MYSTERY PIC challenge, nor responded to a PM, so I'm going to go ahead and post one for this weekend...

                             

Paula66

crushed grapes

barbe1958

cocoa pods used for garden mulch

fmakj

I would have said crushed grapes, but it looks like there are bits of corn in there!

Elimar - no surgery.  It is Stage 4a and he will get 7 weeks rads, possibly chemo (still have to meet med onc.), a peg tube (for feeding) and possibly he may need a traecheotomy (sp) during rads, but they are hoping that they can control some of the swelling to avoid this.  A lot to process.  My Dad is 77 years old and on a lot of medication for various things, so the chemo will not be heavy duty (I don't think!) IF he gets it. This will sort of be a repeat of the summer of '09 for me, except I will be driving him daily for rads (at least 1 hour drive one way).  In 4 days, I will hit my 2 year mark since diagnosis......Just trying to enjoy each day!! 

Have a great week end everyone!

heymoose

dried raisins and cranberries

reesie

Crushed black cherries (I think they look like pits)

heartnsoul76

fmakj - I don't think I'm coordinated enough to try to crush these pills between 2 spoons, but that gives me an idea. Maybe a mortar and pestle? They're mostly vitamins, and some of them are giant and hard as a rock, but if I can crush them up I would be thrilled!

meece - I don't even leave my dirty gloves outside for fear of a spider crawling into the fingers!

marlegal - you are so right, I need to come up with an outdoor wardrobe and keep it in a bag (and wear it to Home Depot). The thing is, I do a lot of my outdoor work spontaneously so out goes my right hand without thinking about it, reaching toward something bad! I'm sure most of us do that, without even thinking about it.

mainer - just another one of the many things to hate about this disease! We shouldn't have to remind ourselves of this every time we reach for a weed, or pick up the garden hose!

barbe and elimar - oh my gosh, yes, we have so many copperheads around here. Once, during a dry spell, I was reaching for the spout to turn the water on and just before I got to it, I noticed a snake wrapped up the hose where the water was dripping. Ugh! It's just not safe around here! These woods are beautiful, that's why I bought the house, but they are FULL of poison! I remember my grandmother chasing garden snakes around with a hoe, but there's no grass here - just woods. The only snakes are the copperheads and rat snakes, and yes, I've seen rats out here, too. Ugh again! But hey, the woods are pretty....

Barbe - I live in Atlanta, GA. My brother once told me that technically, our zone is considered humid sub-tropical. That sounds like a jungle to me, and we've got the bugs and the small critters that go along with that. Just the other night I rescued a tree frog from my cat - INSIDE the house - and I saw a huge snail halfway up the kitchen door - this time on the outside. I feel like my house is set in the midst of a jungle. Once I thought about how funny it would be to buy some monkeys and let them go in the trees. The neighbors (who can't see our house) would freak out. So would the county, come to think of it. But it's the only sound that seems to be missing out here!

heartnsoul76

Here's my house in the jungle...across the private drive is 5 acres, a creek, and a coyote family. Behind me and beside me are another 3 acres, then at the end of the private drive is my obnoxious little brother.

 

jenn3

heartnsoul - I was going to ask where you live to have snakes visit so often, but see that you live in Atlanta and posted a picture.  Wow!!! Your home and it's surroundings are beautiful.

I can't figure out the picture.  I want to say crushed fruit like cherries or kalmata olives.  I'll have to look again and see what I can think of.

heartnsoul76

Thank you, jenn! I can see you must be familiar with the humid sub-tropical weather and the creatures it brings being in NOLA! Wow, hot and humid AND the city - great, huh? The only good thing about it is that it keeps our complexions dewy and moist....okay, sweaty! haha