MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

glennie19

Momine: thanks for the update. Hope you and DH get some answers soon.  Hopefully nothing serious, maybe a stone is causing the blockage.

 

Welcome 6doggies.  I think you have a great attitude.  And glad you have a lot of upbeat ladies at your treatment center. Who needs the Debbie Downers?    And do you have 6 doggies?  Pics are always welcome. *hint*

Elimar:  LOVE the doggie pic!!

Loral

A reminder for all of us:

NativeMainer

6doggies:sounds like good advice from those ladies!

Loral--good to remember, thanks for posting!

6doggies

Hi glennie19, I hope that you had a great weekend. Thank you, I think that a positive attitude goes a long way in life. Yes, I do have 6 dogs and here they are....

Hannah and Precious Harley

Zee (he is waiting on dinner) Zion

Logan

MinusTwo

Will this throw us to the next page? Funny but I seem to be OCD about watching for that marker.

Oh well, the answer was no. Perhaps I can come back and post more after my water aerobics class.

glennie19

Love thedoggie  pics!!  They are all adorable!!

Tomboy

I think we might make it to 1000 pages, but that we might not make it to 30,000results. Is it funny to call them results? Now I have to go look that word up, not sure now what it REALLY means...

glennie19

I love your Leonard Cohen quote, Tomboy.

MinusTwo

So - I go to water aerobics 3 times a week. Past summers I've always loved the class and really pushed. It felt so good to get & stay in shape. Missed last summer entirely due to tx. Now I never want to go. I know, I know - I need to keep it up. I wear a compression bra/vest and compression sleeves in the pool on the advice of my PT since I have mild truncal LE. The exercise does help w/range of motion on my ALND side, which severely contracted after rads when it took 3 months of PT to get the arm moving again. You'd think that the stretching pains would eventually fade, like every other time I've done any exercise program. This time the minor arm & chest pain never really stops. I can blame BC for that. If i sit on my butt & do nothing, there's rarely any pain, but that's not an option. I'm not taking tamoxifin or other drugs since I'm not ER/PR+ so I guess I have to blame the R knee pain on my age. Sigh. We'll the next class isn't until Wednesday night. Thanks for listening to the bitching.

MinusTwo

Tomboy - only 111 "results" to make 30K. I don't know what a result is. One post? One sentance? One paragraph.

Testing testing - at the start of this post it was 29889.

Editing - a "result" is one post.

NativeMainer

Love the doggie pics!

MinusTwo--I've got some damage to the muscles from rads, if I don't keep up with the stretching in that shoulder and arm my fingerseither hurt like blazes or go numb and clumsy and the range of motion in my shoulder goes down.I was hoping that would not still be the case 8 years later, but it still is, and apparently is a lifetime gift from the rads demon.I know I'm lucky to get off so lightly with the truncal LE and muscle damage.And I know I need to start walking or doing some kind of exercise if I want to stop being tired all the time.Gotta love the "gifts" from bc treatment!

Momine

If I feel my shoulder joint acting up, I go to the gym more and increase the stretching. So far that works for me. I had tons of chemo, extensive surgery and massive rads, topped up with surgical menopause + femara. There are definitely after effects of the onslaught, but steady exercise and a sensible diet have kept it all within the realm of mangable so far. It is probably part dumb luck and partly because I always had back problems, so I am sort of used to these kinds of annoyances

elimar86861

Six years later, I am still tight on the treatment side. Only 2 nodes out, but whatever scar tissue I have in that outer breast/pit region just is not as elastic as regular muscle fiber. I can't really complain because I do have full range of motion. The tightness is a minor annoyance, along with the twinges and mild soreness of that side. Don't worry, I have had the same soreness in all of my follow up years and it has been viewed many times and nothing truly evil at the cause of it. Collateral damage of treatment.

This year: I just got my letter in the mail and for all the twinges, and I got an all clear on my mammo results. Woot-woot!!!

Okey-dokey. Now, I've set my sights on 10 years and then I will feel as "cured" as anyone realistically can feel with having had BC. At that point, I will also be six years out from CRC, which is also considered "out of the CRC woods." I never stop pinching myself that I could have faced this disease twice and yet may be be able to live out the rest of my years cancer-free. How did I manage to be so unlucky (and yet maybe so LUCKY!)

Of course, the irony is that it will be very unlikely that I am posting in 20 years when I get my radiation induced _______ cancer (fill in blank, but I always think bladder, which I hear hurts a lot.) Sorry, for that pessimism,(*) folks.

(*) Whenever faced with the prospect of whether the glass is half full or half empty, I have to counter, "How the heck would I know...I'm swiggin' straight from the bottle!"

glennie19

I finally made it back to the gym again,,, don't want to comment or think about how long it's been,,, but I think the treadmill walking is helping my morning low back pain. Now to keep it up.  It's hard to stay  motivated.

 

Pass the bottle, Elimar! 

MinusTwo

Elimar - GREAT news from your mammo. That does call for a celebration!!!

glennie19

OH, I missed that somehow,,,, Congrats on the good mammo, Elimar!  And love the new pic !  Very colorful.

Loral

 I go tomorrow for my Mammo...

Elimar: 

Eph3_12

Hi Middies, mid afternoon, just getting up after my 8PM to 6AM shift last night. Tonight, I do it again and it's my "Friday" so then I will be off until Saturday night at 6pm. It is a bit mind numbing but I am enjoying relearning the dispatching job. In some ways it's like riding a bike; in others, it's like WTF????????????

E, please pass the bottle my way. I haven't really indulged much over the last 20 yrs or so, but recently began enjoying a cocktail or 2 in the evening (whatever time that may be in my context), once or twice a week, however, I recently had some labs done and my liver tests show high, so my doc took me off the statin drug I was on, had another blood draw last week, and have an appointment on the 20th to see what's up. Not excited! So all drinking virtual for a while anyway.

I have to call and get mammo scheduled now that I have insurance again. Thanks for the reminder.

Off to walk the dog. Have a good rest of your day, whatever time that might consist of.

Eph3_12

PS I like the bird photo in the header!

Eph3_12

After this, just 100 posts left to reach 30,000!!!!

glennie19

Hi Eph!  Will you always be night shift,, or is that while you are training on the new job?  Sorry about the liver tests,, maybe they will be better off the statins.

Have we flipped the page yet??

elimar86861

Thanks, ladies. And best of luckiness tomorrow, Loral. Do share your results when you get them.

Sorry to hear of your wayward liver, Eph. (Makes me wonder how my "tub o' lard" fatty liver is these days?) I don't want to bring this up, but I think you have read the same reports that I have about night shift workers having a higher incidence of BC. Will you be able to switch to days in the future?

I free-associated "birds of a feather" flocking together in the picture currently at the top. I don't have to tell you all what that ominous pink cloud is...

glennie19

Yikes,, that "pink cloud" is only 2 months away,,,,,

KJSUN

I have some swelling on my right side below my scar and it never occured to me until reading these posts, but now I wonder if it might be Truncal LE. I guess I will ask my MO when I see him in a few weeks. I started my chemo on July 13th and I am not having as easy a time with this one. I am doing Carbo/Taxotere with a shot of Neulasta. I have had major back spasms the weekend after my treatments. It is so bad that my body shakes with each one. I had to go in for fluid, so I told the nurse and she said it was probably the Neulasta. I think there is an alternative, but if not I'm not having the shot again! It is 3 days of hell! There are intestinal issues also. I don't know which one is responsible but I am not liking that either! I have 4 more chemo treatments, so I will be dealing with this until Nov. I need to go to my ENT because my throat is so sore I can barely swallow. The nurse told me to gargle with salt water, but that is not going to fix this. I probably have thrush again. I'm so tired.

Jesika63

just as well keep passing the bottle this way. Cheer to those with good results and good luck to you Loral.

Doggies are too cute.

glennie19

good luck tomorrow, Loral!

KJSUN:  oh no! Not damn LE!  Is there a qualified LE therapist in your area? Doctors don't always "see" LE,,, you may want to get an RX to go see a therapist and have that person take a look-see. My BS gave me the brush off.  Had to get an RX from my MO. So sorry about the back spasms. That is just awful.  Neupogen is the alternate, but it has to be given more often, which is why they like the Neulasta. It might be worth a try to see if the side effects are easier on you, though.  Ask for some Magic Mouthwash or viscous Lidocaine for sore throat.  Nystatin swish and swallow if you have thrush. Salt water,,, what the heck??  like you just have a cold??   Geeez.  Call MO's office and tell them you need something stat.  You need to be able to swallow. ((hugs))

MinusTwo

KJSUN - hope you're on some of the current cycle of chemo threads here. There are always such good ideas. For example, be sure you take Claritin the day before Neulasta and for several days after. Have them do the Neulasta shot in your belly instead of your arm. Make sure the fluid is warmed before the shot. Neulasta usually caused joint pain. Haven't heard of back spasms. I went in for fluid between every treatment. It was mainly due to Big D from taxotere. And I just couldn't hydrate enough. Sorry you have to go through this.

NativeMainer

Congrats on the clear mammo, El!

MinusTwo--motivation is my problem, too.

KJSUN--don't be surprised if your MO has never heard of Truncal LE, many docs have not, think LE only occurs in the arm, or they don't believe in LE at all.You may want to locate a Physical Therapist or Occupational Therapist trained in LE management and get a referral for an evaluation.So sorry about the spasms and throat pain and GIissues.I would call the MO today, not wait for the ENT.Not being able to swallow will create a big problem if not treated ASAP.

glennie19

NativeMainer: you are correct. My MO didn't see my truncal LE.  His PA measured my arms, deemed my affected arm which is the non-dominant one,  bigger than the other, and thus gave me RX to go to PT.  But I pushed for it. If I had not, I doubt it would have come up, cuz the arm difference was/is very slight,, it's the truncal that's an issue for me.

KJSUN: if you get any flack about the LE, just tell them you want to go to PT for an eval.  You can look at stepupspeakout.org to help you find a qualified LE therapist in your area. And Please come over to the lymphedema forum if you have questions. Binney and Carol and others over there are really really knowledgeable on this subject and have been big helps to me.

glennie19

http://www.stepup-speakout.org/Finding_a_Qualified_Lymphedema_Therapist.htm

KJSUN:  here's a link to the site. There is lots of info on here. Really helpful.  Keep us posted.