MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

Sherryc

Ok can't keep up with post but some asked about biotin. I did not do chemo but tamoxifen really made my hair thin and I already had thin hair. Started the biotin took about three months to start seeing the difference but now my hair looks better than ever. Has not done anything for my nails.

On the gabepentin dh has neuropathy and it made him feel and act drunk he could not take it

butterfly14

Thank you Sherryc on the biotin answer.

Last chemo today!! woohoo so excited!!! Happy New Year!

heartnsoul76

The biotin did the same thing for me, Sherry.  It definitely helped my hair grow in thicker and faster but didn't do a thing for my fingernails.  

butterfly - congratulations on finishing up chemo!  Great way to start the New Year!

firework - I'm sorry, I can't help you either but maybe ask your question in the Breast Reconstruction forum:  http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/44

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy New Year and a year of health and happiness for 2013!

Here in the south we eat collard greens and black-eyed peas for wealth and health. Don't know if it works or not but I'm afraid NOT to do it... 

elimar86861

butterfly14,  Congrats!  Way to leave the chemo behind in the old year.  This happy dance is for you!

                                                                         

butterfly14

elimar - Thank you, I love the happy dance. Happy New Year!!

Loral

Congratulations and my best to you for a Happy 2013.

Sherryc

Happy Dance Butterfly!!!!!!!!!!!!

butterfly14

Thank you all. I woke up this morning and still cannot believe I finished chemo!! So happy.

I hope everyone has a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!

barbe1958

elimar, what are the hands saying at the top of the page right now???

As for crampy legs, was it here about 4-500 pages ago that someone said to put a bar of soap underneath the sheet in your bed? Apparently it works!

TAB55

Butterfly:  Here's my toast to your New Year without chemo!!

All: My new year's wish for all of us is health, wealth and success in all our endeavors!  Let's make 2013 our best year ever 

Joanne_53

Barbe they say



2013

barsco1963

Happy 2013 to everyone. May this year bring happiness, good health, and plent of love and laughter!

barbe - I believe the hands at the top indicate 2013. Good one Eli!

Butterfly - way to ring out the old year! Congrats.

butterfly14

TAB55 and Barsco1963 - Thank you both...2013 is off to a great start!

LindaKR

A bar of soap??????

TAB55

Linda: I'm with you.  A bar of soap doesn't make any sense!

Eph3_12

I'm BAAAAAAAAAAAACK! Cruise was great.  Tons of pics, but still in the camera.  Our flight was delayed getting home so DD & I "celebrated" midnite on the airplane-she was less than thrilled about that.

I was having some work done on the house while gone-new vinyl windows, new garage door & front do0r, new kitchen sink & garbage disposal, new tile floors in the 2 bathrooms + replacement of toilet in master bath. When we got back to FL on Sunday & I listened to texts, my contractor had called to say that there was significant dry-rot to both bathrooms which necessitated ripping out my shower!  So when we got in last night at 1AM PST, we discovered that my bathroom isn't back together & the dry-rot issues required replacement of the other toilet also.  The most distressing thing though was our indoor/outdoor cat was stuck under the house!  He must have been in when they ripped up the floor, didn't get back outside & so went down under the house & then he got closed in when they replaced the sub-floor, etc.  It was quite an ordeal getting the crawl space open (it's in the floor of the closet of DD's bedroom which looks like an atomic bomb went off in there on a good day!)  So this morning I hear him meowing & he's under the fricking house again!  I was so disgusted!  Obviously something around the house was tinkered with that is allowing him access down but not up!  It's cold here & after cruising in the tropics my blood's not ready to go tromping out to try to find a solution, so since I know he's been fed & watered in the last 12 hours , he can just hang out there.

And E-I lost hair during chemo/rads, all over, except for those stupid chin hairs & with the exception of my eyebrows & pit hair on left arm (radiated side) my hair came back in -more sparse on the legs, but the bush is full-grown & probably needs trimming, but what for?  No one around to view the topiary!

HAPPY NEW YEARS MY SISTAS, MY FRIENDS.  LOVE YA!  MAY 2013 BE MORE GENTLE TO US ALL! 

Eph3_12

I meant to comment on the bar of soap thing.  An old wife's cure: keep a bar of soap & a knee sock handy & if a charley horse hits, put the sock on (after you're done screaming & writhing in pain) & slide the bar of soap to the cramped spot.  Works like a charm.  really!  So maybe putting the soap under the sheet is the same principle.  Don't know why it works, just know it does.  

Eph3_12

Oh & finally-Marlegal, it's vodka, soda water & cranberry here.  And I had more this last week than I've had in AGES!

journey4life

elimar - without surgery, I was staged T1C - thanks to the ooph, it was caught very early and my prognosis is
"excellent" according to the GO. I got the call yesterday - my first carbo/taxol tx will be Tuesday. Oh joy...

May everyone have a healthy, peaceful and safe New Year!

fmakj

Happy New Year to ALL!!!  Finally caught up..... again!  Will continue lurking....

I have read on a few threads that putting a "white" bar of soap - in or out of the package - at the foot of the bed in the sheets will alleviate leg cramps.   Not sure if it really does work, but some do swear by it!

My wish for all this year is for Health and Happiness!  May we ALL have an abundance of BOTH!

((Middies))

A toast to ALL (with your favourite drinks!)!!  - Rum & diet coke

Amrdbit

Hey Everyone! Happy 2013!

Not wanting to butt into a thread unanounced, but was reading through this and came up with a question. Sherry, when did you start taking the biotin? During chemo while your hair was gone? Or did you wait till you finished chemo? 

I guess I should introduce myself since age wise I def fit into this group. My name is Deborah and I am a 45 year old SAHM of two wonderful amazing teenaged boys, and a wife of almost 20 years to a very supportive and loving husband. 17 1/2 years ago I went through Chemo and Rad for Hodgkins lymphoma. 9 months of treatment and hair loss and voila! I appeared to be cancer free. Fast forward to this August, my oncologist gave me my 17ish year cancer free clean bill of health. Then a month later my OB found a lump. After all of the testing, MRI's, CT's, Biopsys, etc etc I was diagnosed with BC (triple Neg). 2 1/2 weeks ago I had a double mast and am now gearing up to get my port put back in about a week and then start 6 treatments of chemo right after that. I've done this before and to tell you quite honestly I never in a million years thought I'd have to do this again. ARGH. 

I guess it's a good thing my hair grows really fast, but after trolling around this thread, I came across the biotin. Would definitely love to hear when y'all started taking this. Any and all info wuold be awesome! Anyway, happy happy New Year to y'all! Deb

elimar86861

That is so wild about the Bar of Soap Cure for leg cramps.  Wish I knew of it some years ago.  My mom used to get them so bad that her leg would look like a cramped deformity.  I only recently learned of the pain associated with that and if I ever get another, I'll have the bar of Ivory ready.

Eph, Although I didn't write it, I had just been thinking yesterday that you were overdue to check in, and we are waiting to hear about all those ports of call.  That was very smart to have planned all that contracted work while you were away, and to have had it finished by the time you returned.  Are you sure the cat is stuck?  Try waiting until feeding time and set some food out...if there is a way out, your cat will find it.  Not that closet cleaning isn't a good thing.

fmakj,  Always good to see you come out of hiding (and this time with a new avatar, no?) 

elimar86861

I don't have great expectations for 2013, but I would just be grateful if I could relax and have a certain degree of comfort with my healthcare team.  Is that too much to ask for?

I've been known to embellish a story from time to time, but I will just briefly mention things that were SO MESSED UP yesterday at my MO visit...you probably will not believe that this could all be happening on the same day, but maybe the New Year's Eve party had started early and everyone had mentally checked out by noon that day.  Laundry list:

1)  I had given a urine sample to my MO's lab, but on my way out they wanted another because the first had gotten "lost."  Only, while I was in the exam room, I heard a tech tell my NP they were sending it out to the hosp.  I mentioned this to the new tech and she said that they didn't usually send samples to the hosp. but she checked into it.  Sure enough, that's where it had gone to.  Chalk one up for my eavesdropping ablilities.

2)  When the nurse went to change my chemo bag, it seemed like she was just going to attach a new bag to the line already in my port.  I said, "Won't you be changing the needle?"  "Oh, do they usually do that?" she asked.  "The other two times they did," I told her.  So she went to check and came back with a new needle set, as she had been told to change it.

3)  Remember that I was on a lowered dosage for one week as the mouth sores continued to heal?  But last week, I was back up to the "normal" dosage.  Well, a couple hours after returning home, I checked the pump display and saw that even tho' I had discussed staying at the "normal" level with the NP, my dosage is mistakenly set at the lower dosage.  This I cannot correct until tomorrow.

4)  I'm not even going into about half a dozen inaccuracies I found in my copy of the patient reports over the past few weeks (e.g. like where it states that I am still on Tamox., when in fact I have been off it for 6 weeks.)  I just made a copy and highlighted areas that needed corrections (but only in the interests of accuracy and I am not convinced that interest exists.)

In the recent past, I brashly stated that I SHOULD BE PAYING MYSELF because I seem to be doing their work. Yesterday was disturbing and I believe I will document it and submit it to quality assurance when my treatment is finished.  I really don't have suitable options for switching teams, so my hope is that improvements can be made that will not only benefit me but all those paying to be cared for.

Ever since I had my rude awakening about the competency of medical professionals when my mom spent a month in the ICU, I have seen my theory borne out continuously.  That theory being that, much like every other factor in the workforce at large, the medical field is composed of 1/5 who excell in their jobs going above and beyond what is called for, 3/5 of personnel that do adequate jobs, and 1/5 that turn in substandard work.  This equation is one thing if referencing how a Taco Bell employee left your chicken fajita out of the bag, but it's another in the realm of healthcare and medicine delivery.  Call me a firebrand, but I find it scary as hell that the bottom 1/5 even exists in healthcare.  There is just NO PLACE FOR IT.  Period.

If you've heard the saying that whatever you do on New Year's Day, you will be doing for the rest of the year...then I guess I will be speaking my mind a lot in 2013.  Same ol', same ol'.

barbe1958

hahahaha, I "assumed" the hands were writing something out in sign language!! I didn't reconize a couple of the letters...doi on me!!!! 

Hey, don't mock the messenger!! I heard about the soap in the sheets, I didn't invent it.

TAB55

Eli: Wow!  Your team is definitely unimpressive.  I'm so sorry you have to deal with that, but I'm glad you're paying attention to what they're doing.  Somebody has to.

marlegal

Eph, welcome back...we did miss you and I'll look forward to seeing some pics and hearing stories. Hope the contacting issues work out - having lived through nightmares here in our home last year, I'd never be brave enough to leave a team and trust that the work would be done! Great that you'll have lots of new stuff though, right? And I agree about the cat - put food nearby and when hungry, he'll appear

Eli, when I was having rads, I had to tell a certain tech each time I got her what my dosage was. She had the wrong "plates" (I forget what they were called) several times. I never said anything to higher-ups, don't know why ... not like I'm usually shy. I agree that there is no place for that 1/5 in the medical field. We've learned important lessons about being our own advocates, that's for sure.

Amrd, welcome to the group. Sorry you had to hear that dx more than once in your life. I really think they need to get somebody new "upstairs" to keep the records straight - one crappy dx per person per lifetime.

And if my conduct today signifies the rest of the year, I'm to do a lot of relaxing - I can stand that!!!

BooBeeNone

Hi All

I am new here, I had a double mastectomy back in 2010, I did not have any reconstruction and would love to say I am flat, but concave would be a better way to describe my chest. I would love to be able to not wear foobs but I am a bit overweight so if I try to go flat I look like I am 6 months pregnant. I am trying to loose weight but it is very slow progress. I just wondered if there are others out there with the same issues?



Kathy

Beatmon

Boobeenone: unfortunately I also look pregnant, but since I'm 60 it is not such a good deal. It seems to me that my body alignment is off and that I stand differently now with my tummy out further. I have some cleaveage, but it is truncal lymphedema!!! It seems my stomach muscles have changed. Maybe somebody can shed some light on this posture thing. I am remaining flat and no foobs.



I wanted to chime in on the soap. The nephrologist I worked for shared that with one of our dialysis patients and it was a miracle for him! But, it didn't work for me at all. She instructed him to use ivory soap under the sheet at the end of the bed. Maybe it s mind over matter, but who cares if it works.

Hopeful for all to have an uneventful New Year.

barbe1958

Boobeenone, I had a double mast at the end of 2008. I had to wear sweaters or jackets over tanks and short-sleeved tops to hide my belly until I started to stand differently. Also, I guess my posture had been getting "lazy" and I have to remind myself to suck in my gut. I can now wear tight tops (NO foobs, just flat) and get away with it. I actually look slimmer now without breasts!! You will get into a certain posture that will help you with your stance. It didn't come right away for me. Also, you probably have a "fat ridge" right across your chest where the underwire would have sat. That breaks down in time. I massage the area aggressively while I'm reading (when I remember to) to break up the scar tissue built up. That area, too, is improving. You just gotta find your new groove! You'll get there!

firework1068

Amrdbit,

I took Biotin before my cancer dx......didn't notice any huge difference. After chemo when I could resume taking 15,000 mgs a day, I did notice a fuller head of hair. Nothing on the nails.....1 year out from chemo and my large toenail has turned black again!!

If you start Biotin, stick with it. It takes a while to make any difference!

Good Luck and Welcome!

Lorraine