Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!

Peachy2

Great wig Lovestofly! And congrats on the genetic test results.

marijen

So ah what if one of your direct relatives comes up with BC or OC later? How many do you have? I don't like his criteria.

Loves to Fly that's a nice wig - looks good.

PontiacPeggy

LovesToFly, I also like the wig and great on the genetic testing. I'm always surprised at the number of diseases that Ashkanazi Jews are susceptible to. Wonder why?

HUGS!

Jclc83

My insurance would not pay for genetic testing even though my BS had already ordered it and it was done They said it was research! Even though I have relatives with breast cancer and have an Ashkenazi Jewish background.

My oncology nurse told me my insurance would not pay for a neulasta self injector. My MO said he's never heard such a thing It's enough to drive me crazy lol.

Everyone should do what feels right with them.

Jclc83

inbreeding Peggy. Jews tend to marry other Jews.

PontiacPeggy

JcLc, That did cross my mind but I wasn't sure if that was the case. Nothing like starting out with a strike against you in many cases

HUGS!

Italychick

I have read over 40 posts on this group today, and all I can focus on is that Peggy didn't get coffee until 3:00. Omg, I would die!

LovesToFly

thanks all, regarding the wig and genetic results.

Jclc is correct...especially in years past when European Jews lived in small communities and ghettos!

*I'm not related to my husband as far as I know!

ChiSandy

Suzanne--yes, it was Tru. Never was able to snag a table at Alinea or Next--though we did get to try Achatz’ first attempts at molecular gastronomy when he took over the kitchen at Trio in Evanston a year before it closed. (Another restaurant recently opened in its space, but haven’t read any reviews for it--our go-tos in that ‘hood are Davis St. Fishmarket or Pete Miller’s on live jazz nights). We finally hit Girl & the Goat a couple of weeks ago--it was late on a Wed. night, otherwise we’d never have gotten a table. If you go, bring reading glasses (the tables have flashlights) because the menus are small fonts, light brown on beige. Don’t dress up--didn’t see a tie in the whole place, nor a jacket that didn’t have a zipper. And it’s noisy. But the food, while not for the unadventurous, is delicious--and meant to be shared.

614

I agree with ItalyChick:

I have read so many posts and all that I can focus on is that ChiSandy mentioned champagne and eggcreams.  That sounds amazing.  Eggcreams remind me of Brooklyn and my childhood.  My grandfather had the old fashioned squirting glass seltzer bottles.  Do you make the eggcreams by using champagne instead of seltzer?  Inquiring minds need to know!

Melclarity:

Good luck going back to work.

Peggy:

Congrats that your tests went well and that you were FINALLY able to have your coffee.

LTF:

I love your wig, and hat, and all of the other wigs.  You rock.

I worked a 13 hour day today including my commute.  I am sorry but I cannot remember who else to respond to.  I must go to bed now.  I have to get up at 4:45am for work.

Saturday is the Susan Komen Race for the Cure.  I am looking forward to it.  I am walking with my breast cancer survivor group - Team SOS (Save Our Sisters) - Dragon Boat Paddling Team.

Brightsocks

PontiacPeggy- Does not my tx not show at all? That is all the info that I know at this point about my BC.

PontiacPeggy

Brightsocks, now your surgery (with no date) shows up. I think that's what has us confused. Are you awaiting surgery? Many things are found out with surgery.

Italychick, it was really hard without coffee but I did survive. I much prefer my days with coffee earlier

LovesToFly, how nice that you aren't related to your DH. That would be awkward

Egg Creams, I had to google that one. Never heard of it. Are you all adding champagne to it?

614, that was a nice long day Enjoy your Race for the Cure event! The company will be great at the very least.

HUGS!

MLP3

Great news about low BP Peggy! Sorry about your late coffee indulgence:(

Chisandy- I'm so sorry for your friend... What a circumstance with diabetes too.

Ltf- you had me at chewbacka....😝 And that wig is sooo good!

Melclarity- I had the oncotype automatically maybe due to my grade 3. Why doesn't the "land down under" use that test? Happy to hear that you have the top docs in Melbourne. Hopefully they can figure out a plan soon.

Just got home from Revenent. What a powerful movie! A few times I was sitting there and it dawned on me that I was actually at a movie, in a theater 3 days post-op from BC... Strange but liberating feeling at the same time. Our daughters friend saw me and looked like he saw a ghost! But he worked there and bought us two $15glasses of Meritage. So sweet😊

HappyHammer

MLP3= Glad you enjoyed the movie and it felt good to be out!

Peggy-glad about the low BP AND that you finally got some coffee. Never heard of or had egg creams wither. Champagne- well that's another story!

LTF- your wigs are just great. Chewbacca- hahaha!! Glad for your neg. test results. In your pocket for chemo tomorrow,

Brightsocks- the waiting is so hard!

Hey y'all- I FINALLY have nose hair again..crazy thing is that it is black and a bit on the curly/coarse side...oh MY! Showed it to my husband and he tried to ask me if I needed to trim it with a straight face... he wasn't successful and we both had a good laugh. It looks like it belongs in the nether regions. Good grief! (Maybe I should go back to the old glasses, lol.)

HappyHammer

Brit- sorry abut all of the side effects...sending healing mercies your way!

ChiSandy

Oh, Jill, you SO rock! Heaven forbid you need an LE sleeve down the line, you should get a tat-patterned one from Lymphedivas. If you can carry off so edgy an image at 43, you will never grow old no matter how long you live.

614, I use seltzer to make my egg creams. (Champagne? Never the twain shall meet....at least not within 15 min. of each other). It is darn near impossible to find a good one outside NYC (and these days, most of the Manhattan diner-coffee-shops haven’t a clue either). In Seattle I had to order “chocolate Ice cream soda, hold the ice cream.” And not long after I moved here, a Haagen-Dazs shop in Lincoln Park advertised “New York egg creams.” To my horror, they used cream. hot fudge and PERRIER!!! To prevent further perpetrating such atrocities, here is my recipe:

Into a 12-16 oz. tall glass (if you can find a real fountain-style Coke glass, even better), pour about 3 fingers’ worth of whole milk (2% will do in a pinch). Into the center of the milk, squeeze or pump chocolate syrup (Fox’s U-Bet is traditional, but IMHO Hershey’s tastes the chocolatiest without being cloyingly sweet. Do NOT use Bosco, Hershey’s Special Dark, sugar-free or any touchy-feely organic health food store brand, including Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. If those are all that are available, forget the egg cream and open a bottle of champagne instead). Stop when there’s about 1-1/12 fingers’ worth of the syrup at the bottom of the glass. It should NOT mix with the milk...not yet. Open a fresh can or bottle of ice cold seltzer. (Homemade via SodaStream is okay, via CO2 syphon is not--too weak carbonation). Take a long-handled spoon (iced-tea spoon is perfect), turn it over and pour the seltzer slowly over the back of the spoon until about an inch from the top of the glasss. Stir vigorously, keeping the action at the bottom sides of the glass. (You want that tap-tap-tap sound you used to hear at the corner candy store or newsstand). A white foamy head should form. like on a cappuccino. If it slops over the top, gently skim it level with the rim of the glass. If the head stops short, you can very slowly top it up. Close your eyes, think of playing punchball with a brand-new Spaldeen, and sip. Heck, GULP!

Nobody seems to sell seltzer in those heavy glass sealed syphon bottles any more. We used to get a wooden “flat” of a dozen bottles delivered each week when I was a kid in Brownsville/E. Flatbush.

To those who have never lived in NYC, or who moved there after the 1970s, you may ask “egg cream? Where’s the egg and the cream?” Obviously, there isn’t any. Legend has it that originally, the drink was made with heavy cream and an egg white, sort of like a milky, chocolatey non-alcoholic Ramos fizz. But one soda jerk discovered at the turn of the previous century that if he reversed the flow regulator on the seltzer spigot at the counter, he could eliminate both the egg and the cream and nobody’d be the wiser. (Reversing the spigot produced a thinner but much more powerful stream). Soda fountain owners all over the city soon followed suit, as it made for heftier profit margins. (Little did they know they were also preventing salmonella from raw egg whites; and because the milk was less filling than cream, patrons would order seconds).

PontiacPeggy

HappyHammer, the dog thought I was having a fit I was laughing so hard!!

ChiSandy, that sure is involved. Bet my DIL from Queens knows about them. Laughed all the way through your detailed instructions

HUGS!

octogirl

I can't keep up!! Away from the boards for just two days and so many pages of post! Peggy, I gather your test today went well, so yay for that! (and boo for no coffee till the pm)...and a belated happy birthday to ChiSandy!

and hugs to all! Will try and catch up tomorrow

Octogirl

HawaiiMom

thank you, Melclarity! I felt like i was going nuts!

We are facing a similar decision...mx or bust (lol...i just made a joke...but not funny). My bs followup is on 2/4, after my mammo. Praying for good results.

Sloan15

Fitbit ladies - We are all doing great! I noticed that all of us are walking more! Seriously, all of us have more steps this week! I'm still on vacation at the beach so I'm getting tons of steps walking everywhere, including walking to the restrooms! Jill I a beast! How can you guys do so many steps in a normal day? I hope I can keep this up when I get home!

Sally - what is the Goal Day challenge?

Anyone else want to join our Fitbit group? Send me a pm and I can add you, and you can look at ny friends list to find some of the other ladies from this group.

Question: Do your MO's let you take vitamin C supplements once chemo and rads are over?

Melclarity

Marijen - I have zero relatives present or past apart from my Mum and she had a mastectomy at 40 and no treatment and was 26yrs free. If in time say my daughter and another family member got Cancer, that'd be a stronger indication to do genetic testing, but not without all the other criteria. I'm one of thousands of patients am sure, and Im quite certain Im just random which is 95% of BC apparently. Oh well!

MLP - I have no treatment plan as such now, Im 6 weeks PFC, and just starting Arimidex. I see my BS with his opinion on mx but again its not urgent, its preventative. So Im basically going back to monitoring again, just praying I make it past 4yrs this time. I feel confident having done Chemo, plus Arimidex is very different to Tamoxifen and my MO feels it will be more successful.

614 - Work its good and bad, Ive started exercising, riding my exercise bike (brand new) OMG long way to recovery!

1step

MLP- yay, you! Getting out there and enjoying a movie.

Peggy- so glad to hear your stress test went well, although it's a shame that the tech had such a bad attitude.

Jclc- people/paperwork can be such a PITA, sorry you're going through extra hassles. Medical care should be based on medical need.

LTFly- once again you're my inspiration! That wig is super cute. I guess I'm having a bit of a hard time with the thought process, so I tried to talk to my mom about a haircut in preparation of all of this. I think that might have really got to her, though. I know I'm having a hard time with it, and was looking for her support while she's here in town. I guess I'll be looking for someone else for this part.

marijen

Sorry Melclarity, I just want the doctors to try harder. I don't understand why you have to make a decision with a time limit? Hope your next opinion clears things up for you. You are too young and beautiful for this!

Melclarity

On a happier note like LTF these are my 2 wigs I live in pretty much LOL...this is my longer one Christmas Day..

ChiSandy

Mel, I can’t believe that longer one isn’t your own hair! Fantastic.

I ditched anything that was an antioxidant or herbal during active treatment. I was told to eat, not take my antioxidants. So now that I’m just on an AI, I’ve gone back to taking a couple of C gummies along with my multi, fiber, and B12 gummies. I figure that it’s about as much C as I’d get in an orange, but with fewer calories & sugar. Not going back to the herbals, though--they didn’t work, and why have to swallow more big capsules? I eat my herbs too (basil, thyme, etc.). Don’t have the card that would let me smoke them, nor do I have the symptoms that would justify my asking any of my docs to sign an application.

Molly50

Gah, too many posts!! Melclarity, I get it. I think in your case since you started as stage 0 DCIS it must be very unnerving to end up stage 2 grade 3 later on. What catches my eye is you are PR negative both times. I have read some discussions that might be a factor in recurrence risk. ChiSandy, I am stage 2B grade 2 with 2 positive nodes, one which was 1.7 cm and extensive lvi. You would think chemo would be a given but my oncotype Dx score is 13. The truth is nobody really knows who will recur or end up stage 4. It is taking known risk factors, family history, genetics and maybe lifestyle and you have a probability and then boom someone stage 1 grade 1 turns up with mets. I think the best we can do is follow the recommended TX, get good follow up care and take good care of ourselves including living life without being under the constant shadow of cancer.

Melclarity

Thanks Chisandy, I have a brilliant hairdresser that cut my wigs around my face the way I used to wear my normal hair. I now have a hairline at 6 weeks pfc but man!!!! I want to ditch the wigs but cant uuugh.

I only take Vitamin D as pathology came back end of Chemo with it very low. I have heard of the Vit C, gosh I just try eat as healthy as possible.

marijen

Two things I discovered this week - I found ice cream, Clemmy's, at Whole Foods no sugar. And did you know, milk has 12 grams of sugar per 8oz glass - that's three teaspoons, why? Half and half has 1gram I think.

Melclarity

Molly - Interesting about the PR- and recurrence, I admit I dont know about it, you are right, doesnt seem to be any rhyme or reason its completely unpredictable which I find very unnerving now...I don't think they really know, there are common denominators that they factor together, but in terms of BC where they list contributors, I really didnt fit the criteria, so its odd. Just want to get past it all now.

Molly50

Amen, Melclarity. When my BS said that I am one of her high risk patients and she will take care of me I felt both good and bad at the same time. Your wigs are beautiful like you. LTFly, I love how you are enjoying the variety of wigs. You have a great attitude. Peggy, glad you got your coffee. Everyone else big hugs. Sorry if I missed anything.