MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

elimar86861

Where, oh where, is JoC?  I want to hear about her nice, boring scans.  Since she has not checked in since morning, I hope it means that her husband took her out shopping after the doctor this morning. 

jocanuck1951

WOO HOOOOOOOO! Significant improvement in my liver lesions! Chemo still necessary for 10 - 12 infusions and hercepton for life every 3rd week but not kicking the bucket this month lol! Another scan in a couple of months and might be stable by then!!!



So relieved....now I have time to can strangle DD's neck for involving us in her boyfriend problems! Shit never ends, just get spreads around...hubby and I are going to live long enough to spend her inheritance ~~. Pisses me off that I can't get travel insurance! Big hugs to all!

jocanuck1951

Oh, the pain in my liver and stomach is chemo's fault, brown freckled streak on the top of my scalp is chemo as well, I thought skin mets....I'm telling ya..I was planning my demise and instead I'll be smelling the flowers! I know that things can change quickly in cancer land but I need to feel happy again....sooooooooo....thank you ladies, sorry about all the lint...there were a few candies in the corner tho.....

elimar86861

Woot, woot!  Been saving a fancy prancey dance for you, JoC!  Ta-Da!

                                                             

TAB55

Sorry I've been away for awhile.  I've been avoiding BC reminders now that treatment is behind me.  I want to share my experience with the sleeve & glove.  My BS knew that I lift weights and travel a lot (coast to coast), so she wrote a prescription for a sleeve & glove.  I wear them five days/week for 1-2 hours while I exercise (both treadmill and weights) and whenever I fly.  (My first flight was ATL-SFO just two weeks after surgery.) So far no signs of lymphedema yet.  I know that this is a controversial approach, but I feel like I'm actually doing something to try and prevent lymphedema.  So, if I do get it, at least I did something to prevent it.  Of course, only time will tell if my approach works.  And, even if I don't get it, we'll never know if wearing the compression garments made a difference. Still, several women who have lymphedema and have seen me with my garments tell me, "You're smart to take a proactive approach to this."  I hope they're right...

maryah930

Jo ~ Was thinking about you all day! GREAT news

barsco1963

Jo - will say once again how VERY happy I am for you. Thrilled that you have had significant improvement! Dancing like crazy for you.

marlegal

Jo, I am sooo happy for you. I was the silent one in your pocket....didn't want to anounce myself earlier and wake up some of the girls who were napping.



Tab, I hope you never develop LE and always feel comfortable about any choices you make. To me, that's the most important thing.



Eli, thanks for the pretty page topper (cherry blossoms in DC). Good to see you here hon.

Valjean

Such wonderful news,Jo!

AllieM

Congrats Jo! Wonderful news.  

I'm new here and just happened on the good news. Always good to have a reason to smile.

jocanuck1951

Thanks and welcome Allie!

Momine

Jo, YEAAAAHHHHHHHHH! Enjoy the reprive as fully as possible. 

TAB, all the docs who saw me with my sleeve told me to keep on wearing it. People wear support hose to avoid DVT when flying, so it seems to me that this falls in the same category.

NativeMainer

Happy Dancing for JoC!

barsco1963

Welcome Allie - not that I am glad that you have had to join the forum, but glad that you have stumbled upon the Middies. A wonderful support group of great people who know how to have fun, get serious, get mad, get sad, get togather and just "get it" in general.

elimar86861

A wonderful support group of great people who know how to have fun, get serious, get mad, get sad, get togather and just "get it" in general.

Barsco, you have a way with words.  Wish I'd said that!

Welcome, Allie!

staynsane

Jo-

I'm running late, judging by all the congrats you've received, but doing the happy dance with everyone else on your behalf!  See what the mind can do?  You were convinced of doom and gloom but results give you a reason to celebrate!  Your experience reminds me, yet again, not to let my mind take me to dark places without all info available...but you've been through hell, so it's natural to expect more bad news.  So glad you get a break!

Sherryc

Been gone a while busy with life. Started a distant learning course for Christian Life Coaching.  Will be working with some missionaries in Mexico. 

Welcome to the newbies, this is a great place to hang.

Jo and valjean congrats.

Eli glad you are doing chemo again seems the odds are worth it.  Just FYI as you know my FIL had the same as you and did the same chemo pack and rads, then surgery then 6 months of chemo.  That was 20 years ago and he is still cancer free at 90.  Hopefully that will give you hope.

barsco1963

Quick question for y'all. Wondering if anyone has taken Remron? I have been battling nausea for more than a yr now. Tried lots of meds but nothing seems to do the trick. This last one seemed to be working but lately the nausea is creeping back in along with feeling full after eating only a small bit. I have heard remron is great for weight gain and stimulating appetite. Is it also good for controlling nausea?

Appreciate any comments - thx

elimar86861

Barsco, I am not sure if you got the drug name right???  I know that my mom got a drug called Remeron, but it was to keep her calm and help with sleeping at night.  It was given to her after I told the doc to get her off the seroquel (a drug for bipolars, which she was not.)  I think it is an anti-depressant because after they gave it to her (in hospital,) a psychiatrist showed up and was grilling me about my mom's "depression."  (That was totally uncalled for, but I guess he wanted to milk a consult fee out of us.)  I guess this could be the same drug, but I did not know about the appetite/nausea effects?????

barsco1963

I believe it is the same one Eli (my spelling is incorrect) and yes, it is an anti-depressant. One dr told me it was often given to seniors who have little appetite as it helps to increase appetite.

I sometimes wonder about drs and some of the appts that are booked. Are they looking for a little extra $$ for their vaction? I am sure that my drs trip to Aruba was fully funded my visits over the past year. lol

heartnsoul76

Jo - doing the happy dance for you! Oh what a relief it is!

I was just reading a post about how hard it is to get this diagnosis, how hard it is to go through treatment, then we finally get a breather and realize what a HUGE thing we've just been through, and then we're stuck with endless doctor's appointments and tests.

I wonder how long before the doctor's appointments end?  "Come back in 3 months for a follow-up."  Why??  I don't want to come back!  Leave me alone!  I'm definitely going to ask about 6-month check-ups next time I see my MO.  For shizzle!

luvmygoats

Barsco - have seen it used for appetite stimulation but even at that it's not the greatest.  A lot of antidepressants cause appetite stimulation and that's what Remeron is.  Have not seen it used for nausea.  This is from hospice perspective.

What was the last drug you took for nausea that stopped working?  Most of the ones I'm most familiar with are the heavy hitters - Phenergan, Zofran.  Have you tried something for GERD? Pretty innocuous and easy if it works.  Have you been evaluated for delayed emptying?  Gastroparesis is the term used in diabetes, neuropathy of the gastric system.

OMG  I just found this on Wikipedia.  Not the most conventional source of medical info granted.  Under the subject gastroparesis.

The antidepressant mirtazapine has proven effective in the treatment of gastroparesis unresponsive to conventional treatment. This is due to its anti-emetic and appetite stimulant properties. Mirtazapine acts on the same serotonin receptor (5-HT3) as the popular anti-emetic ondansetron.^[7]

Ondansetron is Zofran.

We all learned something today.  Sounds like something to try.

luvmygoats

Jo - Doing the happy dance for you tonight.  And I know you're doing the same.  Enjoy.

barsco1963

Thanks for the info luv - I am currently taking "dexilant" which is used to treat acid reflux. I have tried "pantaloc" and one other that I can't remember the name of. I have also had scopes in just about every orifice of my body - nothing found. I will check into the Phenergan and Zofran. Something's gotta work!

marlegal

Allie, welcome. May I ask why the double mast with that diagnosis? I hope you enjoy your time in this room, we try to make it interesting!



Barsco, your 'get it' lines definitely have to be our mantra. Eli, I hope you wrote that down to bring out now and then when needed!



Sherry, good to see you. Enjoy your new venture hon.



HnS, I've been discharged from onc totally. Still see surgeon every six mos due to area of breast where rads did a number on me. I love her, so that's fine with me. It was weird to be totally cut off from onc, but once I was done with tamox/aromasin and no other signs worth following, there was no reason. Weird? Absolutely. But did I get used to it eventually? Oh yeahhh



Barsco, I hope you can find a solution for the tummy troubles sooner than later.

luvmygoats

Pantoloc is pantoprazole (Protonix) and Dexilant is dexlansoprazole.  Both very similar meds I would think.  I was using Omeprazole, worked great but my doc wanted me to switch to Zantac, different class of drugs.  Doesn't work as well and can't remember why he wanted me to switch.  Most of our GERD (acid reflux) meds are OTC.  Couple of new ones I ran across infrequently aren't. 

Lots of nausea meds - Antivert, Reglan (works to increase peristalsis), Compazine, Atarax.  I think most all these cause drowsiness EXCEPT Zofran.

http://www.drugs.com/condition/nausea-vomiting.html  (not a very scientific site)

Also found lots of references to Remeron and nausea prevention.  But do take it at night.  Most antidepressants are sleep inducing which is a good thing as long as you're aware of it.

Sherryc

heartn soul in Jan I asked my onco if I could move to 6 months since all my TM's have been good I had some chest scans done because of pain over Christmas and they were all clear and I told him I feel better than before BC so he said OK.  I think he would have kept me on every 3 months if I had not asked.

Barsco I have taken Zofran and it made me terribly constipated.  So if you take that watch out and maybe take miralax along with it.

Marlegal thanks I am looking forward to this new venture.  I am loving moving forward in life.  Finally feel like cancer is not defining me any longer.

Allie-welcome, where are you from in Texas.  I am south of Austin.

AllieM

Marlegal,

There's a few reasons for the double mast. Honestly, I work in a hospital and had already decided long ago that if I ever got breast cancer I'd get a BMX.

My breast prognostic profile showed a very high Ki67 and P53. The most worrisome is the Ki67 which shows high proliferation - fast growing. That scared me, and I know I would just consistently worry about it showing up in the other one - even though everyone told me IDC doesn't recur on the other side.

I was not very large chested anyway (president of the I.B.T.C. in junior high), so a lumpectomy would've taken just about all of it. Also, I didn't want to possibly have to go back if the margins didn't show clear and wanted to avoid radiation and the extra mammo's and stuff that comes with left over breast tissue.

At the time I was considering reconstruction and knew that it would be nearly impossible to get them matching if I only did one. I ended up deciding against immediate reconstruction when I found out all involved, possibility of complications and how it would restrict me physically. I'm a big outdoorsy person and love my kayaking, etc. I may end up going for it later once the shock of all the cancer stuff wears off.

I am 51, postmenopausal, have three grown children. I never really liked my boobs that much anyway so it wasn't a very hard decision for me. I was teased a lot growing up about being flat-chested anyway. It was more important to me to remove as much chance of having to deal with BC anymore than to conserve what little bit was there.

Boy, this ended up being a really long answer!

Thanks for asking and thanks for the welcome. It's very kind of you to stick around on here and help people out after you've finished your treatment.

elimar86861

heartnsoul76, It seems like the first couple of years, I saw someone every three mos., either BS, MO, mammo, or GYN (who did CBE.)  After the first year, I took BS out of the equation.  After two years, I decided I felt o.k. with just going yearly to mammo.  That did not find my cancer in the first place and my Grade 2 was slow growing anyway so I just did not feel I had to be mammo-radiated that often.  BUT (showing my big BUT again!) you are only two years out now and had Grade 3, a faster growing cancer than I had.  I do not know if I would feel safe enough letting potential Grade 3 recurrence go undetected for a year at a time, or even six mos. at a time.  I think that Grade does need to be watched more closely.  JMO.

Hey, Sherryc, good to see you and even nicer to hear that you are moving forward with life and events not dictated by cancer.  Thanks for your sharing of the story of your FIL to encourage me.  I will have to do the same.  Yup-yup, gonna do that!

AllieM, Being small breasted also, I figured if it ever came to mastectomy for me (it hasn't so far) I might just pass on the recon because it's not that big of a difference, but I have to tell you that on here you will read of women of all breast sizes that never bothered with recon, for whatever reasons.  It just comes down to what you feel comfortable with and whatever decision you make will automatically be right.  You idea to wait and not rush into anything is a good idea.  Lots of women do just that, to heal and rebound from the B/C surgery, or for time factors, whatever.  (I don't know about you, but the boys that teased me in Jr. High were asking me out in H.S.  No way did I date a single one of those idiots; may they all be sporting giant man-boobs today.  It would serve them right!)

barsco1963

Haha Eli - man boobs - that'll teach em! All those "cool dudes" who passed us over just don't know what they are missing!