January 2017 Surgery Group

Vargadoll

3bears - how is the lymphedema? Mine is still annoying the hell out of me! I should be wearing a compression bra but it's much as me so flat I can't stand it. I tried to wear it three days out of the week that way I can still feel girly the other four. I wish I weren't so attached to my boobs. But it 52 the hair and boobs is the only thing I feel like I've got going for me!

It was a year ago today that I had my mammogram that found the BC. This Thursday is the day they called for me to come back for an ultrasound and 3D mammogram. Just noticed today's date. How long will we remember these dates? ???

Bevmomduck

3bears: remember to withhold judgement of reconstruction for months! I thought I was too small at first and a couple of months later thought I was too large! Now it’s somewhere in between. It takes a while......

annoyingboob

bevmom, how is your wrist healing up? Are you out of the cast now? Thinking of you and hoping all of your body parts fall back into place and are filled with health for the new year to come!

YES to whomever mentioned how different this Christmas is compared to last. I’m ready to decorate the tree and bake cookies and belt out carols in the shower and just savor every little moment of cheer.

Hang in there girls as you approach diagnosisanniversaries. Take some big deep breaths. There is so much to be thankful for.

Xxoo

Vargadoll

Annoyingboob- girl you have been on my mind! Not sure exactly where you are in California but dang the fires!!!

Today is the day I got my first phone call that I needed to come back for a ultrasound to get a better look.

It' freezing here and possible snow tomorrow!

Hugs!

Teresa

annoyingboob

I’m back in Paris - just arrived - might snow here tomorrow too!! I’m excited for the potential of a white Xmas!!

No fires near me in CA. Beachbaby are you ok? My aunt had to evacuate her home near LA. And she is trying to sell her mother in laws home which is right near the fires - luckily she died at like 103 last year bc how hard would it be to evacuate a home you’ve been in that long when you are that age?! So, it’s sad, but better this year than last for them. Sending good thoughts to any of you or friends and family that might be affected.

I’ll send pics later bc things are looking Christmasy and pretty here, but for now I just want to buy some cheese and crawl into bed, lol!!!

Post snow pics - I love snowy winters!!

Xxxooo

Vargadoll

duh! I forgot BeachbabyK was in California to! Snowing here now!

Just stepped out a snapped a quick picture. My nandina's are bent over with snow . Expecting 6 to 9 in before tomorrow .

Bevmomduck - got snow?

BeachBabyK

I'm safe and sound! No fires near us (at the moment). It's crazy though, they are trying to move horses to a stable nearby that is taking in emergency evacuations. Many horses died, getting caught in the fire. So incredibly sad! Still wearing shorts during the day... Stay warm everyone!

Happy Holidays!

docmama

So happy that you're fine BeachBabyK. I can't imagine what those fires must be like - the pictures are just mind boggling! Stay safe everyone!

annoyingboob

oh, all the animals!!! And I heard ojai was on fire which is just one gorgeous ranch after another. Praying for safe animal evacuations.

Varga, your snow is no joke!! Really gorgeous - I’m jealous!! No snow here. Cold and clear. Here is my jet lagged heffalump in her new parka:and here are a few of the Xmas windows:

Vargadoll

Annoyingboob - I'm so jealous! The jet lagged puppy in the parka is adorable! We have over 9" of snow now. DD's power has been out for hours so my house is packed right now! Babies and toys everywhere!

Vargadoll

Full house tonight! DD and SIL power will not be restored until Monday! Lord help!

Cowboy-Up

Cowboy-Up

We only had an inch and a half but it makes the roads a mess. People forget how to drive in it the first few times.

Annoyingboob, love your pics

annoyingboob

good to hear from you cowboy up! My dad had a health scare before I left, and I’m wondering how yours is doing.? Praying for health for the holidays. Those were always such empty words but are filled with meaning now!!

I’m loving the snow pics - such a hassle to live in, but so beautiful and magical to look at!! No real snow here but friends in Amsterdam are covered in it! I might have to jump on the train to do snow Angels!

Cowboy-Up

Annoyboob, mom is slowly recovering. It has been a long 3 months. Today she is having a filter taken out that was in to catch blood clots. Of course last night I saw a law suit comercial about these saying they could be deadly. Praying for a smooth procedure.

dcbc

Happy christmas, all! Loving the snow pics... we had some here in DC, and it was the first thing that got me even remotely in a christmas mood. My daughter has just returned home from LA for her winter break, and I am SO glad she is here... my heart is full!!! AB, christmas is Amsterdam sound LOVELY!!! GO!

Next week is the anniversary of my first surgery -- the failed lumpectomies before BMX of January. It is an odd time to be reliving all of the chaos of last year, but so nice to have a christmas this year! I remember almost nothing of last years!

XO to all of you, my sisters!

Susan

annoyingboob

I’m feeling christmasy too - Cheers to full hearts, dcbc! Last year was such a blur and I was (we were) so distracted thinking about everything. Let’s promise each other to really be present in every moment of the holidays this year. To listen to people. To appreciate the big and the small. To be generous with hugs and quality time with those we love. Put up an extra ornament. Light another candle. Listen to another Xmas carol. Savor every moment!! I’m virtually making snow angels with all if you in Vargas backyard!!!!

Vargadoll

What a joy to read all the posts! Cowboyup - hope your mom is on the mend! Dcbc-I did not realize you had failed lumpectomies! Bless you my friend! Yay for having your daughter home. Last weekend when we had the surprise snow that came with lots of power outages and my DD and family didn't have power so they were here with 4 of the grandkids. I was in heaven!! Seeing that baby first thing in the morning was pure joy!

Annoyingboob - Love the picture! What a cute Santa suit on an adorable dog! Not to mention the setting...

Now for my brief whine secession. ..my surgery was easy, radiation was uneventful, tamoxifen has not been an issue but this LE is about to push me to the edge! Sunday my elbow was a little sore. I noticed it was tender when I did my Flexitouch pump on Sunday night. Monday morning I found a lump on my elbow. Great I thought. .I have lymph fluid pooling. I had a full week of appointments so I didn't worry. I had my 3D mammogram on Monday..all clear. Tuesday was ultrasound (the one were the machine sits on your boob and smushes deeper and deeper can' remember what it's called) then off to therapy. I was referred to OT now for the laser/infrared therapy. Get there do the paper work. I tell the OT about the lump. Take my compression sleeve off. The OT sent me straight to urgent care. Apparently it's not fluid. Since I'm on tamoxifen time to rule out blood clot. IN MY ARM???? I wasn't even worried about that. Urgent care decided I need to see the oncologist. Oncologist office calls and says "you have an appointment in 9 days. We will check it then"...uhhhhh no you will see me now. I got an appointment the next day. The lump was puzzling to the oncologist so I was sent for an ultrasound. I get a call that night. I have cellulitis. I guess the location and the perfect roundness made it feel like an enlarged lymph node. Since I wear my compression sleeve all day I didn't realize the lump was red and hot. I always have a garment of some kind on that arm. The shower is the only time I don't have one on. If I had waited to see the oncologist on my scheduled appointment I probably would have ended up in the hospital with this cellulitis. Now I'm on mega antibiotics AGAIN! My va-jaja does not like antibiotics. This is my 3rd round of them since finishing radiation. I am thankful that the cellulitis is treatble but dang! Thank you for letting me whine. I truly want to cry but I don't allow myself to. My DH is a trooper for watching the kids and helping out without me asking. When we figured out were the cellulitis came from I think it shook him. He realized how fragile I am now. I have always been the tough girl. (Even though I'm small) the cellulitis came from a poke under my thumb nail. When I was decorating the Christmas tree I stabbed under my thumb nail in the LE side with a pipe cleaner. I didn't know I should be wearing plastic gloves when I handle raw meat. I had handled, beef stew, pot roast, top steak, chicken, bacon and sauage. I am always cooking! That's what a southern girl does! With the kids being here I had cooked more than normal. This is hard. I am a do it my own damn self girl.

Whine over... much love to all my surgery sisters. We have all had ups and downs on this journey. I couldn't do it without you.♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡◇

My tree that has had a 2 y/o all over it...lol it is not a pristine as it normally is but I love it anyway .

Shoregirl

Varga your tree is Gorgeous!! I don't know if you were told, when you take antibiotics you must take probiotics too. This replenishes your healthy gut bacteria and keeps the yeasties away! But you must take them in between antibiotic doses, NOT with them as they would get cancelled out. UNLESS, you buy the Probiotic Pearls. These have a special coating so you can take them at the same time as your antibiotics (much easier). I got this info from my stepdad, who is a Holistic MD, specializes in Lyme disease so he prescribes a LOT of antibiotics!! Hope you get well soon!

Edited to say, if memory serves me I think I did a post on this months ago lol!!

Vargadoll

Shoregirl - I am doing the "vaginal health" probiotics. Right now I'm on so much medication I have to get up by 6 every morning to get it all taken on a schedule that spreads them out! I take the probiotics with lunch right in the middle of the antibiotics. Today I'm supposed to add 5000 of vitamin D.....where??? Thank you for sharing the info I need all I can get!

Shoregirl

Dear Lord, Varga!! I feel for you!! Take the Vitamin D at night with or after dinner. D needs to be taken with a fat to be absorbed by your body. Also it is actually a hormone (no worries..not female hormone!!) and is best absorbed at night. Also, take D with Vitamin K2, as the K2 prevents excess calcium from building up in the coronary arteries which can cause plaques leading to stroke and heart disease. Here is a helpful article from Dr Mercola addressing this point in detail.

Vargadoll

Shoregirl- thank you for all the info! I have been taking Vitamin D at night but only 1000. When I went for blood work my D was 19. My doctor prescribed the prescription strength dose for 4 weeks and I'm to start the heavy daily dose this week. I just hate all this medication! I have to take my thyroid medication first on an empty stomach then fit in blood pressure medication and reflux med. I have silent reflux it was discovered when I had the right side of my thyroid removed(large nodule that had grown on the right side and around my misplaced carotid artery). Then the antibiotics, then the probiotics and tamoxifen and more antibiotics! My goal is to get off the blood pressure and reflux meds. I hope that this one round of antibiotics takes care of the cellulitis. I think I said 3 time I have had antibiotics since I finished radiation but it's actually 4! 3 sinus infection and now cellulitis. I have always been so healthy and active so the is dragging me down!

Thank you for all the info! It' takes a village! ( of surgery sisters!)

Teresa

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

Shoregirl

No problem, Varga! Yes, it does take a village!! Our poor bodies have been through so much, and of course surgery and stress really takes a toll on the immune system. I hate all the meds too, ah...well...

Here's to a much healthier 2018!!!!!!

Hugs!!!

Bevmomduck

Dear Varga: it hurts us all when one of us has a rough patch! So sorry about your annoying cellulitis and all it brings with it. Truly hoping one round of meds takes care of it and that with shoregirl's sage advice on wise ways of using probiotics, your lady bits get back on track soon. You and LE are like a newly married couple learning how to live with each other😹

Keeping 4 and 6 yr olds for the night, starting with the Panthers' game right now. Whoo, boys and their energy! And adorableness!

Vargadoll

Bevmomduck - yes! A newly married couple adusting lol! I just wish I could kick it to the curb and divorce it! (Like my DD father )

Enjoy those grandchildren tonight! I love my house the most when they are all here!

Vargadoll

Bevmomduck - yes! A newly married couple adusting lol! I just wish I could kick it to the curb and divorce it! (Like my DD father )

Enjoy those grandchildren tonight! I love my house the most when all the grandkids are all here!

Shoregirl

Cute pic Bevmomduck!! Any of you ladies get frozen shoulder? I am pretty sure I have it (both sides!) since undergoing my revision Nov 29 Seeing an ortho Thursday....

Vargadoll

Shoregirl- that is the main thing I was cautioned about. A dear friend who has had BC several times said..keep doing your stretches. She ended up with it after her second lumpectomy. She had BC in one breast then 10 years later the other breast. Then this past year she had to have a BMX. Have you been to a PT or OT during this journey? I think it should be standard treatment for BC patients to receive services. I truly feel if I had received services earlier that my LE would not be as bad. I knew I had cording by the first of March but it was the end of April before I got the referral. Then I find out Tuesday while at my eval for OT BCBS doesn't require a referral. ...I could have called my own damn self!! No one told me that not even my nurse navigator for BCBS. I hope you get relief soon!

Shoregirl

Varga, no one said anything to me about stretches or PT. I have always had great ROM, after all 3 surgeries. I don't know how this suddenly occurred 10 days post op. I have been having a lot of random tendonitis over the past 18 months though. Maybe it is part of getting older or could be my supposed chronic Lyme disease. I plan on cortisone injection as it helped with my wrist tendonitis, trigger thumb, and SI joints. Doc also wants to do an epidural in my lumbar, as I have severe stenosis. I may revisit the Lyme specialist (my stepdad) but don't want to go back on endless antibiotics. I may visit a rheumatologist. Will absolutely get back into PT. Once I am cleared by my ps to get in the pool, I have a great PT that has a warm salt water pool and the pool therapist is a bc survivor!!

dcbc

PT was the thing that kept me going after the lumpectomies and node removal... I had terrible pain in my shoulder and lats that drove me to the emergency room on Christmas Eve last year. I was completely gonzo on pain killers -- three kinds! -- last year, I slept through most of the holiday. But the PT helped ALOT... I think everyone should do it if they have even the slightest change in range of motion. It was a joy to do, too... felt like a luxury!

XoXO,

S