Starting Chemo March 2015

ksusan

Aww, you guys!

Sharon, you look fantastic. Katy, Tutti is a discerning kitty. FWIW, I shaved the fuzz and it didn't come back.

Jackbirdie

You look FABULOUS!

Italychick

ksusan you look great! The amber jewelry works well on you.

And Sharon, I agree with ksusan, you look fantastic. Your skin really glows and (don't put me on the stupid comments forum please) you look healthy and full of vitality.

IndyGal35

Poor little Tutti! Give her plenty of kisses from me!

Linda, I've tried to increase my protein quite a bit. Meat is still hit and miss for me. (I still gag on certain things like chicken strips due to chemo associations. Am I the only one with psychosomatic food issues?) I'm supplementing it with beans, milk, PB, etc. If it helps with fatigue, I'll start monitoring my intake more! The RO said I'll probably start feeling the tiredness and an increase in burning in week 2 or 3. At least rads are going quickly!

slothabouttown

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-aeSpmEz1eA

Tutti's having an oopherectomy!

Has she met Scooter the neutered cat?

ksusan

Would Lupron be an alternative?

Jackbirdie

haha- yes an oophalotomy! I just showed her Scooter. She was like:

There gonna go what to me? Let me ouuuttt. Yeoweeeeewww

pboi

Sharon and Ksusan....you both look fabulous! 😊

PB

littleblueflowers

Awww! little tutti! Wonder if cats get hot flashes?

Ksusan and sharon, can I just say...HELLOOOOOO SMOKIN!

ksusan

I've wondered this myself, Jen. I don't know how menopause (or meowpause) goes for animals without monthly estrus.

Meme117

Ksusan your hair looks fabulous!

Sharon beautiful, you go girl! How was the survivorship class? Were you told anything about avoiding saunas due to risk of lymphedema? My pt said I should never go in one again and hot tubs are also a concern.

Katy oh poor tutti, I remember when my girl dog had to go in, she stayed overnight and I was a wreck worrying. Your harvest looks great. We belong to a community share farm and we received a pumpkin this week, welcome fall.

It's not fall weather here, Theresa same here as yours so damn hot and humid I can barely be outside for 5 min.

I'm also waking all night with the hot flashes. Fan blowing right on me and I feel like I'm on fire, definitely not getting enough sleep.

Thanks Karen for the rads info! I'll know my start date and specifics tomorrow. Today I picked up my genie bras, aquaphor and vit e cream, ready to get er done

jumbledbamboo

crawling back in. It's ask nice to see all this positive attitude and energy about. I hurt so bad. Everything I read says it's normal. Oophs are not easy procedures to recover from. They did Jack up my port when they accessed it. My gynecologist checked it for me and days it's just a hematoma...It's a pretty big lump. So, I see my good nurses Monday and will have them look. Not at all happy . I will never let anyone access it again but my trusted nurses so, that means I won't keep out in like I had considered. What's the point?

Jackbirdie

oh dear Jumbled. Ouch. Gentle hug going out to you.

And I get you on the port. Messing with that is like messing with the hoo ha. Don't touch unless you know what you're doing!

I hope tomorrow is better. Have you got pain meds? If youdo, get ahead and stay ahead for a couple of days. Effing cancer

ThePrincess

Jumbled - I hope you feel better soon! They were just saying they might use my port for my lumpectomy IV so no I think not! I can't imagine anyone's as good as my onc nurses!

Susan! That hair looks awesome, I would totally think you were wearing it that short on purpose, it looks GREAT!

Sharon! WOW that hair came in fast!! It looks great!!

eheinrich

I'm so sorry you're feeling crappy Jumbled.

KSusan - love the hair! and meowpause is too funny

Poor tutti. Tell her thanks for the encouragement re face fur. It helped

molly1976

Sharon and Susan, you look awesome!

I had an MO appt before my Herceptin yesterday and got a breast exam for I think the first time since surgery? He said, "ok, everything's normal," and I let out a huge breath I didn't even know I was holding. I have a mammogram in about a month. Think I will need some Xanax that day.

I'm still not having any side effects from Tamoxifen at all. My MO said he doesn't feel like that's anything to worry about, and that my chance of recurrence is less than 5% even without hormone therapy so he doesn't think I need to consider switching to ovarian suppression/AIs. I hope he's right!

A friend of mine was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer this week, just the nicest guy, and it's making me feel really humbled and chastened about stressing so much over my Stage IA breast cancer. He seems to be handling it much better than I ever have, although of course that could very well only be his public face.

eheinrich

I'm so sorry Molly.

neverthought

KSusan - you look lovely!

Trvler

Sharon, good for you! And you look beautiful!

Ksusan: You do look radiant.

Jumbled: I am sorry are having a lot of pain. I hope you can find some relief soon. HOw long has it been?

Just trying to get organized from being gone. And trying to move around. I hate not being able to work out.

ksusan

Thanks! Trvler: Or at last radiated!

Trvler

lol

Jackbirdie

Allison- so nice to hear you are home, when will you be able to start some light exercise?

Jumbled- how goes it today? Sending another hug and a dose of mojo.

E- How are YOU feeling?

Molly- that is certainly a good news/bad news post. So happy you are good for now, and do take that Xanax on mammo day. I'm sure that will be another spellbinding event. Try to remember to breathe? I'm so sorry about your friend. It just isn't fair. Never is. Never compare yourself to others and their reactions, though. We all have a unique set of circumstances, personal cultures, experiences, and skill sets for dealing with stress, tragedy, and chaos. I don't doubt for a minute that someone you know thinks you have dealt with your situation like a super hero. Me for starters.

eheinrich

I'm now having either a reaction to the paper tape or scar cream. Really!? Been in touch w/ the nurse again. Took pain meds for the first time in many days. Getting a bit tired of all of it.

Jackbirdie

oh no! I bet you are getting tired of it. Hope you get relief from the pain meds. Thinking of you.

Tutti turned her motor on for a virtual head scratch.

Jackbirdie

Got some unexpected bling from my brother today. He just returned from Italy and said I was on his mind. Best brother EVER.

pboi

Always nice to get unexpected good surprises. So pretty, and even prettier on you Katy! 😊

PB

shaz101

Thanks everyone for your kind comments!

Katy, beautiful earnings for a beautiful person.

OK, my day started yesterday with positivity and empowerment. Although some of that remains I have another ingredient to add to the sandwich... rheumatoid arthritis! My blood came back positive so now I'm on more drugs and another specialist! My white cell count is also low. Does anyone else have this? He's getting me to repeat the test monthly so he can monitor it.

When I went to the survivorship clinic in the morning I spent about 1 hour with a nurse practitioner. It was so helpful. We talked about my treatment from diagnosis to yesterday. He explained everything in more detail and we discussed my options from here on. As scary as it is I talked about how I could take some control from this point on. We discussed me having my breast removed! And now I'm waiting for a phone call to find out more information about the process. Can I please get everyone's opinion on this? I don't ever want to have cancer come back, and I'll do what it takes to reduce my chances, but I also don't want surgery again. So im very torn.

Jackbirdie

Sharon- I'm so sorry to hear of your RA diagnosis. I really cannot believe you have been dealt more shit. At least you know now, and that has some positive aspects to it, meaning you can treat it and hopefully feel better soon. But i am so sorry.

On the mx topic, I'm sure you will be told and will find in your research that having a mastectomy over an LX + rads will not significantly increase your survival rate. It's very close to the same. The difference is the recurrence rate. I won't quote stats, as I know your doctors have this info and you will read it on your own. I chose mx, and BMX for that matter, because I didn't want rads and I didn't want to continue with the mammos, finding something suspiscous, then because of my history, biopsies, etc for the rest of my life.

What I didn't grasp at the time, but I do now, is that without breasts, there is nothing to scan, and it feels very strange to have no ability to follow up on a possible recurrence except for detecting a lump that is not scar tissue, or some other clinical symptom. I couldn't feel the lump the first time! Even after they showed me exactly where it was.

It's such a personal decision. I can certainly understand you not wanting more surgery. And you have RA on your plate now too. Big hugs coming your way, but unfortunately, no answers

ksusan

Nice!

Eileen, so sorry about today's reaction.

Italychick

Sharon, what is your vitamin D level? I think getting it up high can really help you.

I did lumpectomy and mastectomy is a future consideration. What I did was push, push, push to have my breasts scanned and monitored. I don't know how Australia works, but in the U.S. Scans can be ordered if you have "symptoms." So that is something to think about. I know they "say" lumpectomy with radiation is the same as mastectomy, but if anything comes back, the girls are gone. I don't want any cancer cells roaming around my body to try to set up anywhere else. I'm not saying what others should do, just saying what my approach is.

And remembering, surgery is 70-75% effective, and you also had the big chemo guns and radiation.

I guess what I'm saying is I am not ruling out a mastectomy, but I don't want to go there if I don't have to. So I am electing to do aggressive monitoring, pushing for all the follow on testing, and even paying for it if my insurance won't.

My breast doctor did convince me to do the genetic testing because she said it helps her with how she monitors me, not that I have to do further surgery, etc. insurance approved it, so we will see what comes out of that.

Again, remember, surgery is 70-75% effective all by itself. I tell myself that statistic every damn day.