INSOMNIACS place to talk in the wee hours

queenmomcat

Wren: were they at least interesting hallucinations? I was somewhat in the other camp: I didn't want to fall off the cliff of surgical menopause, though in retrospect, I might have been able to convince the surgeon to take my uterus but leave the other ovary. Not that that would have done diddly for my breast cancer.

Jazzygirl

Mags- I had numerous cancer scares around ovarian including when I got diagnosed. The last time around the bc diagnosis they found a mass that was the size of a grapefruit. I was told I had likely had Stage IV ovarian. I figured it was all over with and was thinking about where my will, power of atty, and other things were. My surgery found a ruptured appendix with an abscess that formed to catch the infection (otherwise I would not be writing to you right now.....). I did not have ovarian cancer. I remember my friend poking in me in the recovery room telling me it was good news, I did not have cancer, but a ruptured appendix. It was the most lift threatening situation I have ever been in.

I have had other friends who were told similar things. You have a large mass in your abdomen. It is probably Stage IV cancer and it wasn't. They scare you to death with the speculation. I guess they have to prepare you, but they get your head in a bad place. I am learning not to panic even when the doctors are......

Queen- I think one of the most critical things missing from the cancer treatment process is having that resource available right up front to ensure folks have counseling support if they want it. We all know you get your dx, and then get dragged through all the tests, apts, etc. and there is no time to think. So many people have to process it after the fact. My sister was told about support groups and other things by her doctors, I got none of that and found this site on my own. The whole thing is traumatizing and you need that support. I think places like the Cancer Treatment Centers of America have that type of thing, but often those places are for people with more advanced or rare cancers. The whole process is disjointed. PTSD is a common companion to many here.

Smarty- I have known many people through the years who have had cancer. I won't say before I went through it myself I understood exactly what people go through or how to help. But now my attitude is "pay it forward." I told myself when I knew someone who got a dx, I would step up and help that friend. Last Dec, a friend who was not a super close friend got diagnosed with endometrial cancer. I sat down and told her about my bc, and that I wanted to help and could be someone to discuss the process with her if she needed it. She finished treatment in May and is beginning her recovery. We went out to celebrate her end of treatment recently now that she is feeling a bit better. The door may open for you to help someone in the future.

Mommy- congrats on winning the goodies! You are doing well with your AVON sales!

Going to listen to more music shortly. Wishing everyone a good evening. Hang in there friends going through the tough stuff (okay, all of you!)

luvmygoats

No Queenie, I don't think gyn has genetic expertise but I could be surprised. Not sure my insurance would cover it anyway.

Which is onto another subject. Last week when I was in MO's office they were going to arrange Prolia injection. Decided I'm going to wait until next bone density in April to see what Fosamax has done ($3.99 a month what a deal). Have I heard from them, heck no! I want to at least find out what the insurance would pay. Think DH's insurance may be changing this fall. Bet it's going to high deductible, health savings account.

OK dog has some intestinal infection. Not parasitic per se. Now on Flagyl, probiotics and 1/2 of a Zantac. Was running a fever but it is awful hot out there even though car ac blasting and she's an inside dog so prob. was truly fever. I declined any lab work for now. Doc was truthful, looking for CA in results. We'll see how she looks next week. Today she acts/eats like normal but geesh I had to mush the Flagyl suspension up into peanut butter. PTL it must not taste that bad. No way could I give it to her 2x/day without the peanut butter. Now to try to get the probiotics the tech says her dogs just lap off their food. May have to buy some canned stuff. Never had any in the house. Since I started this I got the probiotics in her. Licked the bowl clean ha ha.

Mommy -

Glad you got rewarded.

Jazzy - I got a bagful of literature from the mammo place and then from nurse navigator - competing hospitals. BCO was one of them but I found it after drifting around Komen for a while. I know my onco office has counseling but never outright offered to me. Also dietitian and social worker. I finally used one of their accessory services, talked with pharmacist about Metamucil and Femara interaction. Thought I had paid my money to them so she could look it up.

Big fire going on in LA. Not really close to 2nd Time at all. But prayers needed for them. Not looking good at all.

queenmomcat

"Does my insurance cover this?" has rather been my refrain for the past few years. That and the insurance company's purpose is to say "NO, your blueness!" (we have blue cross blue shield)

Spookiesmom

Goats, try pill pockets. Most all stores carry in pet supplies. They look and feel like Play Doh, smell vile. Dogs snarf them, and the pill right down. Think they're made by Greenies.

luvmygoats

Queenie - I really haven't stressed ole Blue too much. They got away easy last year, didn't even meet my deductible. I do get fairly frequent calls from Express Scripts. The one time I talked to them I wasn't really satisfied with answers. I don't want my Femara changed monthly to whatever generic brand they happen to have at that time. I have my local pharmacy trained. Otherwise they could do anything they want with my other meds. I think it would save me money. Hmm maybe next year. I did have to do mail order with CVS with one job I had and hated it and I was only on one BP drug and one eye drop. It would be a nightmare now.

Thanks Spookie. Dog takes pills like a champ, loves peanut butter. Giving suspension was like wrangling a wild horse. Stirred it into peanut butter and she ate it. There's a medicine I can't remember what very good for a goat parasite. One version is just nasty judging by the goats objections and the other is banana custard flavored. Yum.

Wren44

They wanted me to give my cat a medicine that kills off all parasites. Good luck with that. I got one dose down and then he proceeded to show me how well he could cheek the liquid and then spit. Judging by how much I got off the floor, he didn't get very much inside. Even the kittens fight that one. It must really taste terrible. He will take capsules in pill pockets -- yum yum.

My strategy with health problems is to get thru one thing at a time. When they came looking for me to go to the operating room for my hysterectomy, the tech showed me the slip because she wasn't sure how to pronounce my name. It said prob ovca. Gave me a moment and then I decided I needed to concentrate on coming thru the operation in good condition. Then if it was ca, I could concentrate on it then.

Jazzygirl

What a night of music! We got to meet and hang with all the smooth jazz artists after. Peter White put on the best show, and surprise guest artist was Greg Karukas on keyboards. What are all these people you speak of Jazzy? Smooth jazz peeps extraordinaire!

Loveroflife

Nice Jazzy!!

Loveroflife

I would like to share a passage from " A time to live" written by Barbara Karnes, a hospice RN. I hope I am not violating BCO's rules and that this won't upset anyone.

"Dying is very sad, but it doesn't have to be bad. Death is normal and natural. In fact, life could be called a terminal illness. From the moment we're born, we begin to die. The only difference between a healthy person and a seriously ill person is that the seriously ill person is reminded every day they aren't going to live forever. The healthy person (and we really don't know just how healthy anyone is) lives with the illusion that they are going to live forever.

It will never be OK to die...so don't expect acceptance. We can, however, reach an understanding-an understanding that everyone dies, including ourselves. With that understanding, perhaps we can accept our gift- our gift of time....It isn't until we begin to lose something that we find its true worth...You have been given the time now, each day, to focus on what has real meaning for you....You have been given the opportunity to say I love you, to amend the mistakes...to say good-bye."

She ends with a quote from Ecclesiastes:

"There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What does the worker gain from his toil"

Tomorrow is not guaranteed to anyone of us. May we find our purpose in life.

Loveroflife

Loveroflife

M0mmyof3

I know the craziness of trying to give a furbaby a med. I have no problem getting my dog Jackson to take a med for his joints, but to get him to take a calming med before whatever drives him bananas is a whole other story. I have to put peanut butter on it in order for him to take it

 

queenmomcat

Who knew that cats could spit at all? But I swear Cat #1 (he who provided my username) was a champion cherry pit spitter in a previous incarnation. None of this sticking it in his cheek and skulking off to drop the damn thing in some inconvenient (for the humans) spot. But my sympathies to you, Luvsgoats: I can only hope that large animal veterinary science has found better ways of administering parasite medications in the twenty-five years since my horse died.

Wren: Prob Ovca? Jesus. Be glad she had to come find you rather than just calling your "name" from the entrance! But at least reassured that I"m not the only one with both reproductive system issues AND breast cancer.

Jazzygirl

Speaking of cats, someone did NOT want her picture taken at the zoo last night.

sas-schatzi

Morning OWlies, another day in Paradise. Had a busy few days. DBF quit his job Tues. Started a new job Thursday. I had to find him car insurance, a new cell phone, and transport him all over. You know I can't do anything without research UGH. Finally just pushed the buy buttons and passed out. The phone I'm most likely going to get MOTO G announced yesterday that a new phone is coming out at the end of the month. The plan is Republic Wireless. Plan charges vary, but 5$, 10$, 25$. I'll work with it for awhile and let you know. It's a second tier company. All the second tiers are trying to improve their share of the market. What they were even two years ago aren't what they are today.

Saw Gyn doc this week. Reason: The path report of the biopsy in May, final dx written as CIN(cervical). Should have been VIN (vulva). They are completely anatomically different areas. I wanted to know why. Gyn said he had reviewed his notes when he got the report back and not to worry, he knew where the bx was from.

BUT BUT I had reviewed five path reports from the same lab prior to meeting with him. Three of five had something wrong. The pathologists (multiple) misidentified location or source, or dx didn't match location/source. The president or VP over that area will be getting a call this week. May have to take it to JACHO. Or the National accrediting Laboratory organization. This is a different lab from the one where the pathologist twice failed to identify thyroid cancer

One person. SEVEN path reports. Five of seven reports wrong. Three of five if you exclude the thyroid errors as incompetence.

I know how to read reports as a nurse. The way all medical stuff is to be read is--Check name, date of birth, date of procedure. Then the diagnosis, specimen submitted, dx. Last check before completion(signature) is the same. Making sure all the info is correct. Obviously this wasn't done by multiple credentialed people.

queenmomcat

Gah. Mis-done pathology reports. The errors may or may not affect the information contained therein...but the mere existence of the error(s) raises red flags like whoa! I'm lucky that my stepfather's (a neurologist) is willing to look over my pathology reports--different specialty, to be sure, but he has a far better idea of what to look for than I.

sas-schatzi

Queenie, you betcha. Shit's going to hit the fan on this one. The internal review is going to shake up allot of people. I have decided to take it to the national accrediting laboratory agency. The process will keep people working for years. They will go over the HCOwith a fine tooth comb, discover root cause, revise procedure, train, re-evealuate, retrain----that's at least three years right there. Then the national body will make rules and evaluate all departments that are accredited.

This HCA(health care organization) owns 4 hospitals, all kinds of ancillary facilities, >5000 employees, and the insurance company.

luvmygoats

Lovely - I could think of no policies you could have violated on BCO. Very lovely quote says this former hospice/palliative care nurse here. Beautiful sheep/goat picture. Mine are real cuddlebugs in the winter. The little outcast goat I hand raised even made a buddy with her 1/2 sister this past winter.

I might coulda gotten the susp. down doggy but DH leaves house at 6:15am and is no mood to assist with 2x/day doggy meds. Peanut butter still doing it's magic. I figure whatever bit of med I lose is better than getting it squirted on my foot which is what happened yest. and my foot does not need medicating lol. But I will say dog licked bowl clean from probiotics. Smelled a bit yeasty maybe, maybe just the way it smells since mine is in caps with no odor, whatever she loved it. Appears to feel better. I had given her her heartworm med about 10 days ago maybe a bit less. I use those individual dipper things of Jif, thought maybe it was old - it was down to the very corners - so tossed it and opened new one. More expensive using these but barely make a dent in even little cheapo jar of peanut butter.

Wow Jazzy you had a night. What are you doing today to top that lol?

Geesh Sassy. Now they've given you a different diagnosis to really screw up your insurance was my thought. Try erasing that from your medical record.

Don't even get me started on EMRs. Not seeing that great an improvement from paper records. I have 5 docs in the same practice group and they can't seem to find c**p in there even when I tell them the date/when it was sent from consultant. If their version is anything like my patient portal they are in deep doo. I have to search 10 minutes to find stinking lab work. And to top it off my PCP was the head of the EMR migration.

Called DH's dental insurance. Denied a $35 claim. I know peanuts in the grand scheme but I detest insurance and believe most are trying their best to rip off the consumer. Large bits/small bits I'll argue for any of them. Dentist has billed 3 times in the last year for an evaluation. Will only pay for 2/year. He does it again gonna make DH have a talk with him. Don't even know how many more times he has to go. He "forgot" to call dentist this week about resolving infection. His tooth, his call, his problem.

queenmomcat

Sas: Good good a thousand good for you's. Though there's a strong "No sparrow falls unobserved" element here for me--it doesn't matter how many patients are affected by this problem--the sheer numbers going through THIS organization means a potential shitstorm an order of magnitude larger than if the same happened where I'm being treated.

luvmygoats

Yay LA area is getting some rain today.

sas-schatzi

On to other things.

Loverly Hugs, thanks for sharing your story. No placating words. It all sucks. We never forget the beginning. Analogous to where were you on 9/11 or when JFK was shot. The emotional pain changes, but it takes time. Not sure if you knew DH of 38 years was dx'd with lymphoma three months behind me. He passed in 2010. I agree, my belief and ability to pray got me through that time. Can't conceive, how I would have made it without Him.

Loverly lovely pics. Funny nurse cartoons. One of our OR jokes(remember we are a strange breed). "Never say oops on a local circumcision"(we only did adults). What drug for Tinnitus. Never heard of any. I'll do a search later on the vibration. I started doing it after searching a few years ago.

Wren glad to see you wondered if something was up, you usually pop in more

BLONDIE where are you? Happy Thoughts What up? You go home the 22nd according to my calendar.

Mommy Helllooo, sorry you are having chit with the boss. Suggest you write the name of the company backward. We will know what you are talking about. Reason when someone gooogles the company name. Google will pull up your BCO posts.

Queenie, what everyone said & read the topic box for stuff about sleeping. Keep up with the counselor. I still go to mine(6 years) --now once a month. I keep him as a safety net for the next thing to go wrong. Not to imply you will have more. I have a bad gene.

Littlegoats, sorry about your butt. I can empathize. You know my poor lady part problem since the RAI131. April 21st till now. Better, but not ready yet to declare it healed. But light years ahead of the day I prayed to die. Bottom parts are so uncomfortable. ....Soory about Terra, it's going to be tough. She's your baby. You lost so many in the last few years. Tough to go through each time. HUGS (not gently, very hard)

Smarrty hadn't seen that about the mammo thing. The dickdocs are working again. They recently convinced Medicare that testing for the most common Cytochrome450 malfunctions didn't have value. Medicare will no longer pay unless a short list of drugs are the reason for testing. The real reason is they would have to spend much more time learning their drugs and how they work in the body. Criminal........... On a happier note. I've decided to send you MY Mary's very old hem measurer. It stands on the floor and has a ruler type thing with an attached bulb that puffs chalk. It's going to be an odd long packing thing. The ruler measure is 24 inches. I have no one to hand it down too in the family. Your IT!. Please, make sure it goes to a sewer like yourself when you are ready to hand it down. My Mary was my moms first cousin that I took care of for years. She had no children. When I broke up her estate, I tried to give all the families something from her besides what was gifted. She was born in 1908 and passed in 2001. Sewer extraordinaire. Everything except her bras. It's anywhere from 50 to 100 years old. Now must search the markings on the bottom LOL.

Hear2day

great pics. And even better advise! Uplifting. Everyone can use a really wise an encouraging post. Thanks again!

sas-schatzi

Mags, well, I have to be descriptive.Didn't realize I was THAT descriptive. Loverly, has designated me the expert on Essex. Not true, but someone has to take up the standard.(flag) I just haven't decided what title I should have..........I'd forgotten we had talked about your ovarian scare.......bad scare, not nice.

Chevy???? can you give me a title?

LMG how about "Breathing leads to cancer" Dickdocs, dickdocs, dickdocs.

Wren, hmm, the belly washing wasn't for cancer cells. It was b/c of the cells that may have sloughed from the gangerous fallopian tube. Gangrene comes from an anearobic bacteria. "Washing" is a standard procedure when they're is a break in the intestinal tract or in your case the tissue is dead. The other part of the standard procedure is using Ancef / kefzol/cephazolizin (liquid form of Keflex) in the washing. I'm guessing when he told you what he did in the procedure, he missed a few words. The usual is to not close the belly and pack the wound. This would prevent the closed environment that gangrene likes when it's in the belly. Since the advent of the Wound Vac that is the standard. Did you have a Wound Vac? What I'm describing has been the standard care for 70 years maybe longer. Ancef as an adjunct was started to be used in the 70's when I started. If the belly was closed, not unusual to be in the hospital for 5-8 days on I.V. antibiotics

OMD they're is our MammaR. How you doin' Sweetness?

sas-schatzi

Mommie. tested google and Avon, it's not pulling to here. My concern was overboard. Did find out that Avon is into funding BC stuff allot. But I didn't eval the quality of the funding.

Jazzygirl

Luv- well, believe it or not, I am going to an all day event here called the Route 66 Summerfest with three stages of music, street fair, and more. Starts around 2 and goes until 10 p.m. Meeting a bunch of friends there. I am telling you, I am on a total music journey this week. Not there is not more music the rest of the summer, but today sort of culminates the big week of music here. Four events in 8 days, whoot whoot. I am tired this morning but taking it slow and gearing up to go again in awhile. More pics tomorrow from the events today!

I am thinking Mags would like to be there today. She likes Route 66 and she likes all kinds of music, which they will have today. Heck, I wish you all could come with me!

Jazzygirl

Oh and how about Cami? Anyone heard from her lately on any other threads?

Loveroflife

Hey everyone, we have another new blood-Hear2day! Welcome!

sas-schatzi

Hi Hear2day, if you stick around , Chevy will be along to change your name

Marley, YOOOHOOoooooo you alive?

Hi Spookie I know you're there.

Chevy, what up, tired from the kids. No morning show?

Rosie, ?????? quiet for a couple of days?

Talked with 2Ta last night. Stuff sucks. For those that talk or text. She needs support.

Talked with Phyliss. She's back in Nebraska. Didn't to the Stim trial. They weaned her off some meds--Neurontin----neuropathy was tame and off some pain meds and pain was tame........now they are weaning the rest to see what's underneath the drugs. Bottom line she may not need the stimulator.

Patty. Where are you. Swimming?

Jazzy, what town do you live in? It's a fun place. Nada goes on around here.

Loveroflife

Jazzy, big Sis, could you swing by and pick me up? Do they have Depeche Mode or New Orders? Still stuck in the 80's, although I do enjoy some 60's and 70's music but don't know name of most artists from this era. I like classical and baroque too