MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

elimar86861

Meece, I had some disolvable stitches inside that felt lumpy.  The doctor told me that they can get encapsulated by scar tissue and take a long, long time to disolve it that is the case.  When I went for those few sessions of PT, she massaged the scar area and that seemed to get rid of the little distinct lumps I was feeling.  That sounds weird and annoying to have them poking thru' the surface skin. 

Meece

They look like they might have been where the stitches were tied.  Because when I say they are embedded, they are on the surface of the skin, but indented.  There appears to be a scab uder them and the cut ends are actually sharp.  I have tried to snip them closer, but they are to "deep" and I would have to give myself another lumpectomy.  I have tried tugging on them with tweezers, but it only gets me queasey because they are tightly secured to something inside.

smithlme

When I had scar revisions in October I had the disolvable stitches. After 6 weeks I still had several that poked out of my skin. Some finally fell out as I massaged the scars with vitamin E cream and some I pulled out with tweezers. Some of them were long and made my stomach flip-flop...I know....TMI, but I had A LOT of stitches. When I had my screwed up TRAM, it took 3 months for some places on my stomach to heal because scar tissue grew around the stitches.

NativeMainer

elimar:   I'm so sorry you had to put up with unprofessional professionals. I'm glad you called and got it handled.  You are far more gracious that I--if they had come to my door without calling I would not have let them in.  When they asked if they could, I would have said "No." No explanation, just "no" and close the door.  But then, I'm known for being "blunt" when I protect my privacy and "me time" from interruption.  I hope you mentioned the excessive scent the intake worker was wearing when you called.  And good for you for sticking up for your mother's and your time. 

kleenex--I'm so glad you didn't have any problem with the shot.  And also that you know yourself well enough to recognize when swollen fingers are from a dietary indiscretion rather than something more serious.  I like the "autofeed mode" description.  I'm a comfort eater and will go into "autofeed mode" at times, but I never had a good term for it until now!  Thanks--

Meece--cry and whine all you want to--that kind of run around is just a pain in the butt!  I've been there and know what it's like, very, very frustrating and infuriating and upsetting.  I drive 95 miles one way to my Onc, so I work very hard to coordinate tests and such with those appointments.  I get rather upset when the plans fall apart.  Now that I'm planning reconstruction out of state, I'm going to move into double and triple check mode, verifying everything myself at every step.  No doubt I'll be on here whining and crying about similar problems between now and June.  

smithlme--it seems like I'm always hearing about disolvable stitches that don't dissolve.  Something about them seems to encourage scar tissue formation.  Massage can break up scar tissue and help with that, I imagine.  

The PS's office didn't call with a recon date for me by the end of the work week.  I'm trying very, very hard to be calmly patient.  June is still almost 6 months away after all, it's not like I need this date right now and other women with active cancer need to be set up first.  And it takes time to coordinate scheduling between two surgeons that work at different hospitals most of the time.  Is it very obvious that I'm really trying to rationalize not having a date yet? I keep reminding myself that not getting a date for another few weeks is really minor in the grand scheme of things.  Sometimes it even works.  . . . 

edited because I can't spell this morning

Meece

NM, I hope they get on the stick with your scheduling.  I called my PS in early August for a Nov. surgery date and was told no problem, then 6 weeks later someone called me back and said my date had already been taken so I would have to choose a different time.  I told her I couldn't I had requested those days off way back in January.  I was angry, and within an hour she called back and told me that she rearranged someone else's date.  Talk about a stressful day!

That being said, don't trust your PS's office to make the effort to schedule when you want it if you just leave it in their hands.  Keep checking in on them.  Do it enough and they may just schedule it to get you to stop calling.

NativeMainer

I am going to call next week and see where things are with the scheduling.  The PS's office has been really dependable so far, but I am going to stay on top of things.  I'm just working really hard not to get freaked out about the whole thing. 

elimar86861

Native Mainer, I thought by now your calendar would have a date with a giant circle around it!  This is probably a case of something that is "run of the mill" to them so no rush, but you've been holding your breath for over a week now.  Hope it gets on the calendar soon.

smithlme, I take it you did not serve on the jury?  Did they have enough others and just let you go? I've gone five or six times, never gotten empaneled.  Two times I got to the voir dire questioning and it ended up taking the whole day, but I didn't get selected.  Once time was for a murder trial, and considering that my city had only about 6-8 homicides that year, it was a little shocking to get summoned for that one.  

OG56

Good Morning Everyone, just coming on for a minute to say hello. I had my 3rd excisional biopsy yesterday and am just kind of waking up enough today to type. I have had one BC but have high risk pleomorphic LCIS and new areas enhance with every MRI, so my surgeon is contemplating no more MRI's which I am not so sure about, because I am afraid of course that a Mamogram might not pick up a sneaky ILC. Cookiegal has had a PEM has anyone else had one? Hope you all have a good weekend I am taking my Arnica and V, and just laying back so I can go back to work on Monday.

Warm fuzzies to all of you on this very cold winters day.

elimar86861

Omaha, glad you are taking it easy to rest up from the surgery.  Hope the pathology does not show any invasive component to your LCIS.  Don't even know what PEM is...Is that something used to monitor lobular conditions?

smithlme

elimar, this is the strangest town to be called for jury duty in. There must have been 40-50 of us prospective jurors. The judge has us all sit through 4 quick cases for restraining orders. He then takes a 20 minute break. Then we all get kicked out of the court room because the case we are supposed to be there for are now wanting to discuss something. 30 minutes later we are called back into court, thanked and told we weren't needed. A deal was cut and the trial wasn't going to happen. What a waste of time.

So tonight was our End-of-the-Month party. We get together with a group of friends every month to celebrate another month. As we've grown older, we realize we need to keep closer contact so we're not just seeing each other at funerals. We have a pot luck so there's always way too much food. We actually had a clear sky so we had a fire out in our forest. It was a beautiful night with the moon and stars...

NativeMainer

Good morning, middles!  I had a wonderful, if tiring, day yesterday.  A freind came over and helped me declutter the sun porch and moved some big, heavy stuff for me.  I fed him homemade lasagna and garlic bread, and sent him home with a big bag of chocolate chip cookies.  We actually had a pretty good time!  Now I'm just waiting for the sun to warm up the porch enougnh to take the computer and the coffee out there to sit.  A job I thought would take forever only took a couple hours.  It's amazing how much easier it is to tackle a big job with a little help!  It was also a great distraction from waiting for a recon date. 

smithlme, elimar--I was called up for jury duty once.  Had the same thing happen--a trial actually started, we took a break, came back and were dismissed with "thanks, but your services are not needed at this time."  It was kind of weird.  I did sit on a jury of a child abuse trial--the father was accused of sexually abusing his teenage daughter.  11 of us found him guilty, one person wouldn't say he was guilty because "that's the way those people live."  We spent hours trying to get her to vote one way or the other.  Wound up with a hung jury, I never did hear what happened to the guy.  

omahagirl--Good to see you back!  Gald you're surgery is over, hoping for good news.  No more MRIs in your situation doesn't make sense to me.  Is your surgeon thinking you should have another kind of monitoring testing?  Can you give some more info about PEM?  I haven't heard of that one (yet).  

barbe1958

HAHHAHA, now I know where you got the word "declutter" for the Wacky Definitions page!

NativeMainer

Good morning, barbe--you caught me! 

smithlme

As much as I hate to shop, DH and I drove an hour and a half to our closest "big" city. I'm headed to Houston on Wednesday and needed some presentable clothes. Kohl's had a great sale and I was able to find several cute blouses and camisoles. As for Walmart...I'm always able to find what I'm looking for there. Levi's...my favorite jeans!

Declutter....I need to seriously declutter my desk...

elimar86861

Moving every five years is nature's way of decluttering a home.  Unfortunately, I've been in the same place for a loo-o-o-oong time.  Even if you don't have pack-rat tendencies, it's amazing how things can just accumulate almost on their own.  

I'm a little sentimental, so I have a few boxes of things from when I was a kid.  Then, I've got a few more boxes of my kids' things from when they were kids.  Now I have acquired a steamer trunk filled with the things that my mom has kept from her childhood, and some items from her mother.  That bring us to four generations of pack-rattiness and I wasn't even trying!

Meece

You are not alone, Elimar, I have my childhood boxes and my kid's boxes.  I moved 4 times in 3 1/2 years.  I still haven't gone through all the boxes.  I should, and then we could park another car in the garage.

one-L

I have everyone's boxes.   My youngest son will not come and get his stuff cleaned out, because it would mean he doesn't belong here anymore.  He is 32 and has been gone from home for at least 13 years.  I have some of my mothers, my aunts, my in-laws and lots of my own.  I haven't moved in 22 years and that is too long to go.

It is so easy to collect stuff.  I have just about broken myself of just buying stuff, whether I needed it or not.  But it is a hard habit to break.

Juannelle

smithlme

Good morning Middies. I am headed out to the Bay Area this morning and off to Houston tomorrow! Woot Woot! Catch up with you all later...be well and be safe!

OG56

Smith, have fun and hope the weather is great!

I am what my husband calls a "thrower outer" of everything, the opposite of him which is "hoarder" When he moved out of our bedroom into the guest bedroom because I annoy him all night and he snores louder than anyone I have ever heard, he thought it was his room and could begin his collection of stuff again, we have had some hellacious fights over this...my daughter used to be afraid to leave on summer vacation when she was young for fear I would throw out all of her things. I usually collected at least 2 big hefty bags of junk from her room and she never even knew it was gone LOL

Now I am too tired to clean and gather and sort through it all, but I still do it everyday in "my mind"...

Meece

I like de-cluttering, but I tend to organize it by separating it into different boxes and the waste can, I still end up with boxes, just less of them.

susu1976

A permanent cure for "pack rattiness" (I LOVE that!) is to watch Hoarders on TLC.  I swear, you will never want to collect stuff again.  In fact, you may be motivated to start clearing stuff out DURING the program!  It is wildly fascinating, and at the same time, horrifying.  Yikes.

elimar86861

I have seen the show "Hoarders" on TLC, and it was great!!!.  That is some eXtreme pack-ratting taken to disturbing levels.  I feel 100 TIMES BETTER about my own clutter after seeing that show.  Just like watching some of those "Housewives of ..." programs.  It makes your own family seem so much less dysfunctional in comparison.  Even if that kind of manufactured "real" is not actually real, it's entertaining AND therapeutic at the same time.

I just knew when NativeMainer mentioned clutter, it would strike a chord on our Mid-Age thread. Also, NM, allow me to read between the lines and wonder about your dear helper???  Homemade cookies alone are a nice thank-you, but lasagna w/garlic bread is a man-getting meal. There, I said it.  Valentines Day is right around the corner.  Cupid is sharpening his arrows at this very moment.  Does he need to fly up to Maine, or not?

cookiegal

cookies....did someone say cookies....Lasagna + Cookies + bow chicka bow wow!

Ok I am no longer making sense. I look down on friends who do kitty talk on facebook!

I am done with rads!!! Woooo!!!

sorry If I have been sorta sluggish and self centered lately....I have been really tired.

Hugs to all!!!

suzwes

CONGRATULATIONS on being done with rads Cookiegal!  I'm soooo happy for you.  Woo Hoo!!!

I love watching "Hoarders" - it gets me so motivated to get rid of my stuff.  I've been so worn out all year from surgery, chemo and rads that it's been hard to have the energy to get rid of stuff but I'm back on it now.  I have three HUGE bags of my clothes ready to go to the St. Vincent DePaul drop off.  My goal is to declutter a little bit every other day.  We'll see how that goes!

PS: I must admit though, being to fatigued to declutter made me too fatigued to bring anything except my tired butt back into the house

elimar86861

cookiegal, Happy Day, you are done!  You hardly made a peep about radiation...so how did your skin hold up?  Everyone gets the tiredness and that will probably stick around for another 2-3 weeks at least.  Are you celebrating with cookies, Cheetos, bell-ringing, skipping or "other?" 

NativeMainer

Congratulations CookieGal!

Yes, the freind is male, but he is not a romantic interest, for a number of reasons.  He likes to be helpful, and is a bit lonely, and since I enjoy his company and need help with some stuff it works out.  I also like to cook, and some stuff, like lasagna, makes so much that I end up eating it for more than a week that having someone to help me eat it gives me an opportunity cook without eating the same stuff for days and days and days.  

elimar86861

That's called a man-friend with "lasagna benefits," I believe.

NativeMainer

LOL!

Ezscriiibe

Hi, Ainm, I've been reading some back posts and I came upon yours where you mentioned something about your husband saying something about estrogene levels in Chinese teas. If you'll bear with me a moment, I'd like to add to that comment.

I am a huge tea fanatic, and have been for years. I "converted" from coffee because of the antioxidant qualities that tea, especially green and white teas, are supposed to have.

I have never found any link between Chinese green tea and estrogene, but I did find something that is, in my opinion, considerabley much worse!

A study that a 1995 cancer survivor who was a tea drinker (chinese green teas, especially) participated in revealed that she had traces of DDT (a dangerous pesticide that has been banned in the U.S. since the 70s) in her bloodstream. When the laboratory researched her food sources the DDT was traced to her green tea. 

From one article: "This finding was especially shocking because green tea has become the unofficial beverage of choice for breast cancer survivors. Both laboratory science and low breast cancer rates in Japan, a land of green-tea drinkers, suggest that substances in the tea might play a role in preventing breast cancer. Tea manufacturers have capitalized on those theories, labeling their  boxes with statements like "Ancient Healing Formula Teas with Organic Ingredients (The Yogi Tea Company) or noting the presence of anti-oxidants that "help neutralize free radicals.. .molecules which can damage cells" (Lipton)."

Further in the article, the writers purchased 10 boxes of different brands of green teas at a suburban New York supermarket adn health food store and had them analyzed. Analysis of the tea samples showed that two of the 10 brands were contaminated with DDT. Yogi Tea Company tea contained the highest.

But there were also other pesticides found in the various samples as well.

The critical thing about DDT is that it accummulates in our bodies, and is carried in breast tissue.

Yikes.

Anyway, DDT is still being manufactured and used in China, India, and some 2 dozen 3rd World countries in AFrican and Asia. China is the source of a vast majority of the green tea imported into the U.S.

As I said, I'm a huge tea drinker, especially green tea. After reviewing this article and a few others, I am now making sure my green tea comes exclusively from Japan, where DDT is not an issue.

I had initially purchased most of my teas from Japan, anyway, but switched over the last few years as I began experimenting with various different types.

Looks like I'll be stopping that!

(Link to article if you're interested: http://inthesetimes.com/issue/24/19/whittelsey2419.html )

At any rate, I believe the estrogene question is probably an urban legend or myth. There is no estrogene in green tea and there are numerous studies showing that green tea helps lower the levels of estrogene circulating in the blood. Just make sure it's DDT free!

lhuntzinger4131

Thanks, everyone, for the encouraging words and info! 

Gillyone: I am very fair skinned/auburn haired so I will make sure that I will ask the onc for a creme to help with possible burning.

Elimar: Thanks for all the detailed information!  Sorry to hear about all the stress in your life. I can totally relate to wanting even a moment in the day that I don't have to think about cancer; those moments are rare. <sending a big hug your way!>

Regina: Hope all went well with your surgery. Rest well!