Starting Chemo March 2015

Meme117

I also love the chicken coop Amy, fresh eggs ?

E I love your idea. You went from teaching kids to science research, interesting. I am a thrift shop devotee, haven't done the repurposing sales yet but it's always on my mind. Right now I buy a lot of glass items to make glass garden flowers and bird baths. I had an etsy shop too, but never put the effort into it. I also had a boss I learned to hate and walked out one day, real jerk.

I worked with the Red Cross for fifteen years as a program director, loved my job and was only a 15 minute commute. Traveled to some major disaster sites to provide aid, one place was Puerto Rico. After I was laid off I started my own children's party business, eight years of love and hard work. Now I'm on a path of openness, waiting to see where life takes me. For money I do office work for a friend but surely not my future. My son is my priority, he will start high school next year, yikes time goes by. After that I'm open. For fun I troll the thrift shops, hang with friends and play cards, and I love Pinterest and in the summer I can be found at my neighborhood pool or the beach.

Tag who's next

Beachbum1023

so-she-did, I love the chicken coop! I had a small farm and raised Rhode Island Reds, and I also raised 100 meat chickens per year. All organic birds. I also had ducks, goats, sheep, horses, and turkeys. I'm just a country girl moved up to the big city. But good times!

SueH58

OK, I'll go. I work as a process/staff support manager at AT&T. I will celebrate 35 years of service this fall (HOW did that happen???).

I am married with one daughter, 27, who is getting married in October. She is an Occupational Therapist.

I have 2 cats whom I love, and also love my birds. Here in Wisconsin, cardinals, summer finches and right now, bright orange and black orioles.

I love to travel and have done so all my life. My last couple of trips have been cancelled due to health issues for my husband, or me (my cancer dx). I also like to cook and entertain.

I make jewelry and have an Etsy Store (DesignsbySonrisa) and also list on Ebay (sh6131). I also sell my "jewels" at craft fairs. I "rummage" at yard sales and close out sales and list the items on Ebay. Feel free to take a look!

OK, passing the baton!

slothabouttown

Eileen I think this is a great idea, I'm going to tell you about me over coffee in the morning!

eheinrich

After tx then are we in remission? Watching The Daily Show Tom Brokaw has/had myeloma in his back (idk that's what he said) but says he is in remission. The internet says that's what you are when you had cancer but there are no longer signs of cancer. Hmmmm

Italychick

Not really sure. I am holding out some hope for cure. I had a great aunt that had a similar lump to mine removed in her 50s. She lived to 99 and it never returned. But I think realistically we are in remission, or the NED state, no evidence of disease. I'm not really sure how to think about it. Is it like having a gall bladder removed, once gone and if it doesn't return, does that mean cured? It is a very perplexing issue. And we won't know if we have been cured until we die from something else, right

Beachbum1023

Italychick, I hope we all live until we are 99, then we won't care, and it won't matter we can still call it a win!

Trvler

Hi Ladies,

First I want to say thanks so much for all the birthday wishes. I had a pretty good day and felt the best I had felt since Tuesdays spa visit. I had to take a day off from cancer. The reading about SE's was causing me so much anxiety as I near the new regimen. But I realized I am 3/5 of the way through the chemo part of this hell so that's good, I guess.

I read all the posts and I am not going to comment on all of it but I wanted to say a few things.

The 'be positive' thing drives me nuts. I still get it from my husband, who sadly is clueless when it comes to emotional support. I am not going to even try to educate or explain to him.

Eileen: Thanks for sharing all of that about your job and the celebrities. It was very interesting. I liked that lady. She didn't start acting until she was 40, which I thought was great. My dad died of prostate cancer and it used to bug the heck out of him that all the moneys as going to AIDs research during that time. He directed $ on his behalf to go to Hospice and he wasn't happy with the Cancer Society.

So: I saw that about Sandra Lee. I think you probably know that I think having a MX has become 'in' because of AJ. I don't discount that there are plenty of women who legitimately should have a mx but I know many are in fear when they hear their dx and just want them off NOW.

WP: I have been thinking about you lately. Hugs, Sweetie.

I LOVE the idea of getting to know each other. I will post later when I get some time. I love hearing about all of your jobs and lives!

I have to get an echocardiogram today and I finally get to pull this f-ing heart monitor OFF!! Yeah.

SC_Coqui

One quick Pink Ribbon / Lavender Ribbon thing... I don't support the Susan Komen foundation -- too much money get's wasted on beurocracy and product promotion. I do donate to the American Cancer Society which is doing actual research to find what causes cancer and hopefully a cure. 5 years ago I signed up for the CPS-3 study funded by the ACS:(http://www.cancer.org/research/researchtopreventca...) They drew blood and I completed a lengthy questionnaire regarding lifestyle and diet. They're now in the follow up stage. I hope that people like me can help in the study.

My mom died of renal cancer 28 years ago. She lived 3 months after diagnosis. That's how fast it came on and how little they could do back then. To me it's important to support all cancer research. The Pink Ribbon campaigns seem to take away attention from the fact that there are still many deadly cancers out there that we know little about.

Anyway, aside from that... since we're talking a little bit about our backgrounds. I manage a technical training and user support team for a major insurance company. I've worked here for over 10 years. We just moved to the Charlotte area a year and a half ago with my company move. My husband works is a furniture / cabinet maker now (which he loves) and he used to be an Optician back in NJ (Which he hated). I have a 6 year old son who amazes me every day.

I'm originally from Puerto Rico and we have a house there on the old family farm that we're renovating. My entire family lives there -- except for my brother that lives in Hawaii. I moved to NYC when I was 3 and then moved back to PR after my mom died when I was 14. Then I decided to go to college in the states and moved to Syracuse, NY. After college I moved to NYC, which is where DH and I met. We met at the Tall Club of NJ Harvest Moon Ball. Yes, Tall Club.

Well, that is it for now. Tomorrow is Taxol #2 and I haven't heard yet from my MO as to whether or not Herceptin will be added. I've been kind of achy from the Taxol but nothing major -- and just some very vivid and bizarre dreams!

Carrie37

SC, funny you mention vivid dreams. I too have been having the strangest dreams! Could it be related to the Taxol?

wpmoon

I've had a few weird dreams lately too. Last night I'm pretty sure I was talking in my sleep.

I feel like a zombie. Waking up every two hours sucks.

slothabouttown

I have my coffee in hand and so here goes a little about me. I grew up in the Midwest and learned horticulture in college. After school I worked as a gardener and then bought a flower shop in Indianapolis which I ran for about 10 years. In 1993 I switched gears to pursue a career working with animals and trained and as a veterinary technician. I moved to Oregon in 2003 after a long term relationship ended and started working for the humane society here.

I've been the manager for the animal cruelty investigation department for the last 7 years. Our division has police authority to enforce Oregon's animal protection laws so we are out there with the puppy mills, cat hoarders and cock fihters. I've gotta say I never imagined myself in any type of law enforcement job, but I love it. It's challenged me to learn about the criminal justice system, veterinary forensics, crime scene processing, all while rescuing animals from really tragic conditions. I don't have kids or a partner so my job gets a lot of my energy and is my biggest source of gratification. Our shelter is one of the largest in the country and saved over 12,000 animals last year so it is a place of happy endings, not one of those "dead dog walking" dog pounds.

But, when I'm not working I love to explore oregon and camp in the woods or next to the ocean. I'm a thrift shopper too and like to hunt for midcentury modern treasures. I have two spoiled dogs, an adorable obese cat and a 12 pound tortoise that Ive been babysitting for over a year (I think he's probably mine now.) I write sporadically and have had a few stories published but generally I've lacked the self discipline to feel okay about calling myself "a writer."

IndyGal35

Wow, Sloth. Where was your flower shop? I've lived in Indy almost my whole life, so I may remember it - or at least know the area.

Jackbirdie

Hi Eileen- I like your idea too. This "thing" went into my chest last night.

Probably bronchitis now. Doc says try one more day at home and they can check me at blood work tomorrow. So not much energy but here goes.

I was a CPA by trade and most of my career was an auditor or controller. I was not made to be an accountant. Along the way I took up clay target shooting and was a National and World Champion (and states and regions). I traveled all over the world competing and also was on the staff at a magazine and published probably close to 100 articles about competing, people involved in the sport, the travel, stuff like that.

After my mom died I went a bit nuts and had a llama farm in Indiana, then went back to PA and exploded again. Went to Peru and opened a coffee shop. Eventually it, and I, failed, and came home to finally get a proper dx of bipolar disorder.

For the last seven years I have been back, I have made my health and stability a priority. I made a home for myself in Oregon. I love it here. I adopted some parrots and raised a young African Grey who was very smart. Talked like a 5 year old. Then about a year and a half ago, the big slide started. I had first an emergency gallbladder surgery, then quite a large (5 in.) skin cancer taken off my face. Shortly after, with no warning, my sat rates started to drops. As low as the 70s. I was on home oxygen for 4 months, undiagnosed. Many tests run. Finally I went to a pulmonologist who immediately put me in the hospital, lung biopsies, etc etc. not good results. Ultimately it turned out I had an extreme hypersensitivity to the birds. Something called bird keepers lung. Usually only people who work in closed aviaries get it after 15 years. I was told I could never return to my home and had to rehome all my birds. It broke my heart. I cried, alone in a friend's house who took me in, but was traveling, for six months.

I drank and cried until I fell down. A friend helped me find homes for the birds. Each goodbye was a further devastation. They were my family. A friend had to try to clean up what she could of my house and things, but anything fabric or paper had to be thrown away. I lost almost everything. Again. They said even an expensive hazmat cleaning could not have guaranteed my safety. If I did not follow these instructions I would be on the lung transplant list within 2 years. The rest into storage for 6 months.

After that six months I felt I was ready to try to start over. I came to a new town, with much better access to medical care, because I was now considered an invalid. I found a wonderful place to live.

Six weeks later I was dxd with bc.

I realize as I write this that it borders on the unbelievable. The incredible. The dramatic. It is, however, all true. Keeping my sanity through this was a miracle. I am not complaining. I have learned to enjoy life again, and the guilt and shame over my bipolar, my public grief over the losses, has not passed, but is in perspective.

Thanks for listening. I never thought id tell this story here.

Trvler

Wow. You ladies are so amazing!

eheinrich

Wow Katy! See, I'm glad I asked. I like hearing about who we are aside from our bc.

You ladies are the best

Meme117

Katy, Wow you have amazing strength to conquer all you have already. So sorry about your beloved birds. Always wanted a bird maybe when I'm retired. How were your llamas, they always appear so cute but I'm guessing real life is a bit different? Why Peru? I wanted to open a coffee shop many moons ago before there was a Starbucks in our town.

Joanna how tall does one have to be to be in the Tall NJ club?

Sloth - what do you consider a mid-century treasure? does Portland have some good shops? I deeply respect the job you do, we've always adopted our dogs from shelters or rescue agencies.

My eyelashes and eyebrows are hanging in there but my tongue is so red/raw like and my nose is runny and bleeding sore. I could really use something to make my mouth feel/taste normal.

BBwithBC45

Here it goes - I was born and raised in Poland. That is where my family still lives. I went to college (Hotel Management and Tourism) in Budapest, Hungary which meant I had to learn Hungarian. While in college, I spent 2 months in Peru, with a Peruvian family. I also wrote my thesis on Peru's tourism. I'm writing about this because I know that Katy spent some time in Peru, too. After college I lived and worked in Budapest for a few years. Budapest is still one of my favorite cities of the world (after Rome, Venice, Florence, Milan and few other Italian cities. ).

I came to the US 20 years ago. I met here my first husband who died suddenly two weeks before our third anniversary. 4 1/2 years later I married my current husband.

First I worked in travel industry - for over 10 years in quality control department for a travel company. When I started working for them, we were relatively small, then every couple of years somebody bigger was buying us. Eventually, we got so big that my position was "centralized" (from what I gathered, it was mostly outsourced to India) and I was laid off. I felt used, abused, and discarded. Later it turned out that they actually did me a favor, because I found the job which I am currently holding. I work as a data analyst for an insurance company (commercial risks). I like what I'm doing, and I am being treated much, much nicer.

I like learning foreign languages. I relax with knitting, cross stitching and a little crochet. I picked up golf, and while I'm not good at it, I enjoyed playing golf with my husband and was really looking forward to this season. Unfortunately, this has to be put on hold because of stupid cancer. I love going on sightseeing trips with my husband. Our most favorite place is Italy. Too expensive to go there all the time, so we go every 5 years - our honeymoon, 5th and 10th wedding anniversary. We went last year, thankfully cancer waited till this year to reveal itself. So this year doesn't look like we will go anywhere.

Very nice idea to have us write a little about ourselves - thank you!

Meme117

Not sure if anyone else has seen this breast cancer charity http://castingforrecovery.org/retreats/

they do a weekend of fly fishing for free - you need to apply for your area. I'm gonna apply though I have no interest in fishing it sounds like a nice healing experience. Eastern PA retreat is not till September.

so-she-did

Katy - thank you for opening up and sharing your life with us. You are truly an amazing person!

I grew up in Minnesota and became a biologist. I met my husband on winter while we were both working with trumpeter swans along the Nebraska/South Dakota border. He had been working on a goose project each summer on the coast of the Bering Sea in Alaska and when he was accepted into grad school at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, I moved up there with him. Each summer we spent 12 weeks at the camp on the Bering Sea finding nests and putting bands on geese (called brant). We lived in tents and got clean by everyone (and I mean everyone!) hopping into the sauna, soaping up, and jumping into the slough (tidal river). Winters were spent in Fairbanks. The first year it was fun to see just how dark and cold it would get. The second, not so much - lol! We lived in a little cabin with no running water and had a two seater outhouse with no door. We used to shoot snowshoe hares with a bb gun while sitting on the crapper. (We got a lot of our meat hunting and trapping up there since we were so broke).

DH's adviser offered him a PhD and once DH accepted, his adviser announced he was moving to Nevada. I applied for grad school here and we set off along the Al-Can highway to visit family in Minnesota for a few weeks before setting off for Nevada. I still remember stopping midway on our trip to buy shorts because we were roasting. 60 degrees in the summer on the coast of the Bering Sea is considered a super hot day!. We got engaged while in Minnesota and then set off for Nevada. We found a little hole in the wall place to live. I completed a Masters in Education and got a teaching job teaching middle school science (I'm still in the same position). We eventually outgrew the place when baby number 2 came along so we rented a bigger house. DH was in grad school here FOREVER so we finally bought our own place less than two years ago once he had been established in a real job for a bit.

We have 2 girls (ages 5 and 8), two yellow labs (mother and daughter), and six chickens. My DH loves to complain about being the only male - even the chickens are all girls - lol! DH runs a Wood Duck project in a town about an hour from here so we spend time capturing them and banding them. It has been a great experience for the girls. They like to check the nest boxes, handle the birds, and help with writing down data. We like to camp, fish, and hunt (DH on the hunting more than me, but I like the idea of providing our family with healthy meat instead of relying on the sometimes questionable stuff at the grocery store). Getting out into the middle of nowhere is something we all enjoy.

Right now I am enjoying being a stay-at-home mom and having the luxury of seeing the girls off to the bus each morning and being here in the afternoon when they arrive home. Normally I am up and out the door by 6:15 and home around 5 pm. Slowing down has been one of the few perks of this horrible BC. I am already nervous about heading back to teaching next year because I'm not ready for the stress of it all again. This year was so stressful that I think it scarred me. I was trying to balance work and all the craziness of the diagnosis, resulting surgeries, and sub plans, while still trying to have time each evening with my family. I was in and out of school so much that I couldn't keep up with grading and making the next set of sub plans.

Okay, I've got to sign off and take a much needed nap before the girls get home.

Lhuff

has anyone had pain where the cancer was located? After mascetomy? I had immediate reconstruction and have no disease right now, going thru chemo, then radiation. My right breast, where cancer was located, still feels like it did when I found the cancer.

wpmoon

I've been having a lot of pain around my lumpectomy site and my arm still feels fuzzy from the lymph node dissection. I also feel a lump where the original lump was. I'm told it's scar tissue and that the residual pain could last a long time.

I'm crying because I'm so tired.

Beachbum1023

meme, thank you for the fishing info, I sent mine in for Ohio. I hope I get selected, Good luck to you as well.

ninjamary

Katy,

Wow! Just wow. I love that you were a trapshooter! I got my very own shotgun Christmas 2013. My husband's guns always had a too long of reach for me. I still suck though, but I love it. Haven't gone in awhile because of life and breast cancer.I'll try to post mine soon.

SueH58

WP. have you tried melatonin at bedtime???

Jackbirdie

NinjaMary- it doesn't really matter but I'm a pretty bad trapshooter.

What I was good at was something called Sporting Clays.

It is a closed chapter of my life for many reasons. But I was quite proud at the time to represent the U.S. Team for a Gold medal in South Africa in 1997.Sporting is not an Olympic sport, but they had their own version of opening and closing ceremonies. When they awarded us the gold medals, they raised the U.S. Flag behind us and played our national anthem. A very proud moment indeed.

Jackbirdie

Whitney- I'm so sorry you can't sleep. It's avery serious thing. That's how they used to torture prisoners. Makes you crazy. One thing that helps me before bedtime is lavender. I have a mask filled with fresh dried lavender and I also put coconut oil with lavender on my head, temples, neck, around my scalp line. You can get coconut oil already mixed with lavender or do it yourself with tincture. You can get this tincture/oil at health food stores, pharmacies and Amazon. I hope you get some relief soon.

molly1976

Whitney, I'm so sorry you are struggling! I've been taking sleep meds (trazodone) every day for years because I'm a lifelong insomniac. It really is just the worst being so exhausted and unable to sleep.

I had Taxol #10 today and met with my MO before. He said he thinks I'm pretty much in the clear for serious/permanent neuropathy since I've made it so far without it developing yet. I am SO RELIEVED. It was my biggest chemo-related fear. I've been taking glutamine and B-6 and who knows if that's helped, but I like to think so.

As far as my non-cancer life, I'm married to my high school sweetheart. We've been together more or less since we were 16, although we took sort of a break in college to try out other people just in case. I grew up in northwest Missouri about 45 minutes north of Kansas City, but haven't lived there since I was done with school. We moved to Los Angeles for a few years so my husband could go to art school, and then moved to North Carolina ten years ago when we wanted to be able to do things like buy a house and experience normal seasons again. I've never wanted kids, although I am a proud auntie as my sister has 4. We have two cats, one of whom is epileptic and requires meds 3 times a day. Prior to breast cancer, that dumb (sweet) cat was the big stressor in my life but now it doesn't seem like so much of a big deal!

I've been the executive assistant to the CEO of a large wine distributor since we moved here - it is a great gig with fantastic benefits, which I never appreciated until coming down with cancer. My boss treats me like family and they are allowing me to take treatment days off and leave early if I feel bad without having to use PTO, which is pretty awesome. I'm a voracious reader and I love good TV. I also like to exercise and was really into taking Pure Barre classes when this diagnosis crashed down on me - I've put that on hold for now but am hoping to go back next month after chemo is over.

Italychick

Wow, everybody's life stories are amazing. We are truly a diverse group of people. I don't even know how to comment on all of them! Animal rescue, world class athletes, internationally seasoned people who have been able to live in many different places of the world. Amy, I want to do what you did when I grow up, the whole Alaska experience. Seriously, what a free time in your life, to be able to live broke, bohemian, and not care! And I bet the sex was great lol, snuggling in that frozen environment, too broke to do anything else.

I grew up in the Midwest as a blue collar Italian Catholic with parents who never finished high school. I got married and had kids right out of high school (well, I actually had my daughter when I was 16, oops!), and thought ok, I guess I am destined to be a housewife, which didn't fit with my life dreams. A few years later my husband, children and I moved to San Diego. I worked to become an intellectual property paralegal (patents, trademarks, etc.) and eventually ended up assisting with forming the legal department at QUALCOMM back in 1991 when the company was tiny and got a boatload of stock options for it. I stayed there for a lot of years until the company got big. I switched jobs mainly because I met my current husband there (he was a vice president in software engineering), and we didn't want to work at the same place. I have been an intellectual property paralegal for 28 years.

I met my current husband while we were both in the process of divorce. He was standing in a hallway in a green shirt and tight jeans (back when men still wore tight jeans, love them), and the minute I saw him, I said "mine." He moved in with me several months later, and we have been together for 20 years.

We integrated our two families and ended up with a family of six. I have a 36 year old daughter and a 34 year old son, both of them with college degrees. My son has two computer software startups, and he is gonna buy me a convertible when he sells his first company! My daughter works for QUALCOMM (my old boss there hired her), and she is completely indispensible in her department. I am so proud of both of them, especially considering I came from poor white trash and had them so young. It took me until 2008 to get my college degree – my husband and I had cashed in our Qualcomm stock options and paid off all our debt before I was able to graduate college, if you can believe that.

My life had just settled into supreme happy when the breast cancer diagnosis struck. I mean, I have always been happy, but this was the kind of happy, like the rest of my life is going to be amazingly wonderful, peaceful and full of the best of life. I had finally changed to a low stress job, and three grandbabies had come along – Jack (4), Ella (2), and Addison (9 months). And they all live about 10 minutes from me, which is amazing!

My future plans were all about grandma taking the girls to Broadway plays, tennis and golf with all of them, taking the grandkids abroad for like 6 months (backpacking around Europe when they are old enough), and giving them all the opportunities I didn't have as a young child, and I felt fortunate to have the money to do these things with them. My baby brother Nik had a daughter at the same time my granddaughter Ella was born, and his second child (a boy) is due in August. I want to be there so much to see all of them grow, and sometimes I am so afraid that because I have too much happy, it will be taken away from me. It's kind of like you hear the story of the person who was so good and kind, and they die young and you wonder why? I'm not the good and kind person (lol), but I do have the excessive happiness and bounty in my life, and that scares me.

I am so enjoying all of your stories.

Lovemylab

I have had a busy week. Spa day yest for forth and last AC. Yea. The PA then felt the lump I found in cancer side incision area. Sent me for immediate US w biopsy. Turned out to be organizing hematoma in what is left in seroma on that side. Have to see BS next week. Just so happy it is not the big C.

I am new to MN after living /working as RN/ and raising my 3 girls in WI. They had all moved on with life and the city I lived in housed my ex and his new wife. My sisters convinced me to move to MN so I found a job, bought a house for my lab and I and got BC 4 months after starting the new job. They have been great as I have not worked in 3 months. Problem is, I feel like I could never function like I did. The fatigue and chemo brain make me unsure of ever going back to work. I have 12 taxols and herceptin to do yet so will put it off for a while. I feel like SSDI should be available for anyone who does chemo. This is tough stuff. Thanks for listening.

Maurren