I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Wabbit

alexandria ... exactly!  I did read that Tennessee yanked the gun license of that nutjob that threatened to start shooting people if any gun laws were passed.  Baby step in the right direction.

Enjoyful

I've found that gun nuts REALLY enjoy it when you correct their grammar, punctuation, and spelling on the interwebs.  

alexandria58

E - By George, you've got it.  What we need is to refuse guns to anyone who confuses their, there, and they're, to anyone who writes it's for the possessive it, and anyone who says "them liberals want us to have less guns" instead of "Those liberals want us to have fewer guns."  

Enjoyful

One guy wrote: "Gun owners again Dumb Mom's."  Another decried the move toward gun bands.  THEY MUST BE CORRECTED.

Anonymous

But Enjoyful, were they "axed" politely to give up their guns? Lol

That's my pet peeve.



Paula

Belinda44

bluedahlia

I will not LOOSE my mind!  hehehe!

gardengumby

Hi ladies. I'm back from Hawaii, and totally bummed about it. Took me DAYS to catch up on the thread.



I had my oncology visit yesterday and all seems well, buth they want another CT scan in April as my last one was questionable. They had to wait a year before they would feel satisfied that all was well (or not), and the time is approaching. I'll get all nervy right beforehand, but right now I feel like all will be well.



So very sad to hear of Apple's passing.

Paula, glad you are feeling better!

I'll try to write more later. Now should be in a Meeting...

alexandria58

Garden, welcome back.  Hope you had a wonderful time in Hawaii.

Enjoyful

I will loose my mind if they don't band automatic weapon's soon.  

Just writing that gave me a headache.

QuinnCat

GG - if you just came back, maybe you missed the cold wave we've had, atleast.

Ok, I'm confused, why do some people get CT Scans, some get tumor marker tests, etc.???  I just get the everyday blood tests.  I got the impression, unless I had some persistant pain, scans would never be ordered.

On the other hand,  initially, when I was dx'd as a plain vanilla Stage 1 lumpectomy, no scans ordered, but as soon as my brca test came back positive, I was sent for every scan in the world.  Granted, they did want to check the ovaries with that transvagial probe, but they also did a Pet and CT Scan.

Nothing makes sense to me.  Any ideas?

As far as guns...what is up with this reframing of Obama "opportunistically" using Newtown to confiscate guns?  As if this was just a normal everyday event that had no consequence to the American psyche.  This event is not even analogous to those non-existent WMDs Saddam had.

Wabbit

It's an attempt to deflect the absolute horror of what happened ... by feeding their hatred of Obama to replace that horror in the minds of their followers.

alexandria58

OK, every news organization, including Fox, covered the shootings.  The number of people on opposite sides of the political spectrum who would have to be organized in order for this to work as a conspiracy is staggering.  Republicans and Dems agree on Nothing.  They can't even organize a trip to the bank together.  So they're going to organize this vast and elaborate conspiracy? 

pupmom

Welcome back GG!

I'm confused about the scans too. I will get one CT and one bone scan a year to make sure there's no spread. Of course if there were progression I would probably get more. I also get tumor markers and Zometa every 3 months. I did have 2 positive nodes, but there are ladies on this board with Stage III and many more nodes, who get zero scans unless they show symptoms. Maybe it's related to one's insurance.

IllinoisLady

When you are my age, there are times you so hope something won't change -- like your favorite shampoo and the Dr. who knows you so well.  Then there are things that needed to change some time back.  I'm never going to be able to wrap my head around the ' gun nuts ' who feel so much concern with their rights, and who still feel that it is all the others who are a problem, NOT ME !!!!! 

Just this afternoon ( it was older people and only two ) there was a shooting at a school in St. Louis, Mo.  It was an arts school and only involved two people.  A student who thought his grant was running out and he would not be able to return to school and the schools' financial advisor.  Got a problem --- pick up a gun and use it !!!!

Sometimes I am just so tired of the rt.wingers and NRA'ers that I'd almost like to just skip to 2014 and hope a lot of those rt. wingers disappear.

Sorry --- I forgot my rule of turning on my spell checker along the way....now I'm wishing to find out how "bad" I might have been and I'm not going to be able.  Uurrrgg.

Jackie

crazy4carrots

Yorkie -- I wonder if the "scans or no scans" is perhaps related to the financial investment the oncologist has in the scanning equipment?  Think "medical industrial complex".....

I've never had a CT, PET or MRI (although if I were really, nervously concerned, I could ask for a breast MRI).  I do have regular U/S, mammo and dexascans.  Tumour markers were only done during the year immediately following my treatment - every 3 months.  And yes, scans would certainly be ordered if any symptoms made their appearance.

I think this is pretty "standard of care" here in the great white north, and studies have shown that our outcomes are just as good as those of our southern neighbour.

gardengumby

Kam, I guess we missed the worst of it, but it sure seems cold to me.  When we left Kona it was 85 degrees and sunny.  When we arrived in  Seattle it was 31 degrees and this morning it was 21 at our house.  I'll take the good (i.e. warm) weather ANY day over the cold.  I've enjoyed reading everyone's posting about loving the cool crisp mornings but have been think that y'all are NUTSO!!!  I enjoyed getting up, putting on a sarong, going to the Lanai and having a nice cup of coffee to start the day...  I don't want cool and crisp.  I want warm, slow and lazy. 

I don't yet know, though, whether or not I want to live there fulltime.  I've got some serious traveling that I've got to get out of my system before I place myself in the middle of the Pacific with miles of water in every direction.  We'll see what we see.  No matter where we live, though, I'm sure that things will be fine.

As for the CT scans, I don't know for sure.  The wanted to take a bunch of pictures of me last year before my stage 2 DIEP, to make sure that no there was no recurrence or spreading prior to moving things around.  In the process they found "stuff" in my lungs.  I was REALLY scared when they first noted it, but in the year since, and after lengthy conversations with my oncologist, I'm fairly certain that it's just that - "stuff"..  in the form of dust, mold, pollen, etc - "stuff" - not cancer.  That said - right before I actually get my next scan, I'm certain that I'll be gawdawful nervous that they'll find cancer....

about the guns discussion...  I feel really odd saying this, but my husband has been talking about getting a pistol, literally for YEARS.  We both like target shooting, but have always used rifles, and he does skeet shooting some, but the shotgun is too much for my bad shoulder....  Anyway, for his birthday this year, which was the day before the Newton shootings, I gave him his present which was payment for a pistol to be purchased once we returned to the mainland.  Since we returned home, we've been shopping for it, and the people in the sporting goods stores and gun shops we've visited have some SERIOUS ISSUES!!!  I really had no idea.  I've always been around guns, as Dad and hubby were outdoorsy hunters and fishermen, but my gawd, I had no idea that people were as weird as they are and as fearful as they are that someone is going to come and take their gun(s) away.  I'm sure the timing and the political climate right now adds to the oddness, but it has definitely been eye-opening.

pupmom

Linda, I don't know about that. My MO has been on the cutting edge of breast cancer research for her entire career. She's also at an NCI hospital. I think she is highly ethical and committed to her patients. For instance, she did not prescribe chemo due to my Oncotype score. The chemo regime could have made her money. Anyway, I HOPE that is not the motivation.

bluedahlia

E, the nuts have a lose screw and I'm gonna loose it!

1Athena1

Bartender - your stiffest gin please!

When PowerPoint and Excel stop talking to each other --and my efforts to produce and enter data become lost in history-- I have no choice but to stop for the day and call it an almost totally wasted work day. A simple task intended to showcase the perils of the fiscal cliff has become a psych session between two software programs that I am unable to solve.

Climbing up to a low branch and letting tail hang while I wait for my drink at BCO B&G.

LOVE the cartoons and pictures.

1Athena1

Lynching black men in the 21st century, that's what's going on here, figuratively. The black man's second term has to be met with violence. Racism has been the uniting factor for certain elements of the right wing.

Obama wants to govern all of America but a minority of cowards with powerful spokespeople in the congress and media are preventing that, calling it gridlock and politics, when in reality it is civil disobedience, plain and simple - when it isn't outright sedition, that is.

The republican party is moribund due to:

--The ideological bankruptcy of pure capitalism

--The end of the Reagan revolution and the demonstrated non-viability of its tenets

--Lack of testosterone

--Lack of patriotism

--Racism

--Racism

--Racism

I'd say all in that order.

RetiredLibby

With my first go-round with DCIS/lumpectomy/rads/tamox, I had an MRI before surgery, 6-monthly mammos for a year, annual mammos after that, a once-a-year visit with an indifferent onc, once-a-year with the surgeon, once with the rads onc, and annual gyn visits. My PCP did blood work but only for liver numbers because the tamox and my liver started up a civil war. At my second dx, I had an MRI right after the stereotactic bx results and before surgical consult. Before DIEP I had a CT to map the blood vessels. I saw my (now former) indifferent onc once before surgery and another, equally indifferent, after surgery. (Self-referred to another onc later who was delightful and put many of my fears to rest.) No TMs, no PET, no CT other than mapping, no more tamox (because it failed), no AIs (DCIS both times and consensus is AIs have worse SEs than benefits for me). So I see my breast surgeon once a year and my gyn once a year (alternating 6 months). No scans, no mammos (they are not real boobs -- they are tummy boobs or toobs), no blood tests other than standard maintenance from my PCP. An MRI if my bs finds something of concern, otherwise nada. Sometimes I feel pretty defenseless!

QuinnCat

I'm adding the scan or not be scanned (and tumor marker) question to my list for my next MO visit.

Honestly, I don't get the gun thing. It's like an addiction from where I'm sitting. I use to come into work and there was this certain male phenotype (at my old work place) that were constantly looking at gun catalogues (and not working!).  You could see them drooling over there intended 9mm purchase, or whatever.  Maybe it's a hold over from childhood.

pupmom

Want to add that I get a diagnostic mammo every 6 months on my bc side, and regular mammos once a year. I guess that's called the works.

Kam, men who never grew up sounds apt. Unfortunately, they're no playing with toys, but assault weapons that can blow dozens of people to bits in seconds!

QuinnCat

I have no breasts to scan (brca) , but I'm wondering about the whole body ones (besides the dexa).  When you said CT Scan, are they doing head to toe?

I once read that Ruth Bader Ginsberg found her pancreatic cancer early due to a routine CT scan.  That struck me funny as who has a "routine CT scan?"  She had had a previous cancer, I think colon, so maybe for that, but it was 10 years earlier and it is my understanding that colon cancer is considered cured after 5 years.

And then there is the radiation....

pupmom

Kam, no I don't get head to toe CT scans. I think it is just the torso. Of course the bone scan looks at all my bones.

Yeah, how strange about Ginsberg. Maybe she paid out of pocket or they have awesome federal insurance for SCOTUS. 

gardengumby

The CT scans they have done on me skip the head. I've had one PET/CT. The onc wanted me in a study prior to the mastectomy to see it the AI's would shrink the cancer. But it would have meant getting a PT oncea week for 4 weeks. I politely declined. I'd probably still shine in the dark if I'd gone along with it.

crazy4carrots

Kudos to my neighbours across the river!

Source: New York Daily News

ALBANY, N.Y. — New York has become the first state to dramatically stiffen its gun laws after last month's massacre at a Connecticut elementary school. 

With Gov. Andrew Cuomo's signature Tuesday, parts of the measure that sped through the Legislature in two days take effect immediately. 

The law calls for a tougher assault weapons ban and provisions to try to keep guns away from mentally ill people who make threats. 

It also calls for background checks on ammunition, a ban on large magazines, stiffer penalties for gun crimes and background checks even on private sales, such as those at gun shows.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-passes-1st-gun-control-bill-newtown-school-massacre-article-1.1240644 

pupmom

I really wish I lived in New York. Kansas sucks. 

gardengumby

Glad to see that! There is NO reason not to perform a background check on everyone who purchases a gun, regardless of the venue.