Positive Thinking after Radiation

WenchLori

Hi, I've been trying to think of a topic for all of us finishing radiation in March and April to keep in touch andto keep our positive thoughts, prayers and visions going. All are welcome of course.

Butterfly1234

This is a great thread to share positive stories and to find a myriad of ways to support one another as we navigate through our individual breast cancer mazes.

"Realize deeply that the present moment is all you'll ever have." Eckart Tolle

The past is over and the future can only happen in the present.

Blessings all!

WenchLori

I had a fantabulus day today! It was the first time in a year that I was able to get my old job of mowing the yard back. It helped with my DH buying me a new riding mower. We have about 3.5 acres to mow so it took me about 2 or 3 hours. I had such a great time that I mowed one area twice!

My DH was cutting up one of our huge silver maple trees that had to be cut down when I walked out the door and I just watched him for a little while. All of a sudden I had this great rush of love and admiration for him from out of nowhere! He's been my rock since I was diagnosed without a single complaint. My DD and her family live in Austin TX, my DS and his family live in San Antonio TX and my SS and his family lives in Des Moines IA. They are all quiet a distance away so the only family support I've had is my DH. I have some wonderful friends from church that have been here for me too. I've been very blessed indeed!

Here are some things I came across while mowing the yard...

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He has all four of his legs wrapped around my thumb!

These two scared the begebers out of me when they hopped onto my face as I was pulling the pool cover off of the pool. I screamed bloody murder until I realized what they were. My DH was just about rolling on the ground with laughter!

When my day is done I love to sit by our pond and feed the fish. This is a big catfish that weighs about 10 lbs. We restock our pond twice a year, I love feeding and watching them grow. 😊

Until next time!

Blessings to All 🤗

Butterfly1234

Wench - I love these photos! Thank for sharing your fabulous day. I had a lovely birthday dinner last night with family. Fabulous seafood. Even had dessert. I am blessed

misslil

Great photos Lori.

I wasn't nearly so active this weekend, took it easy to give myself a break w/some slight discomfort but very happy to have finished my radiation treatment late last week.

WenchLori

Butterfly, a late welcome to you! It's great to see you! It sounds like you had a very special time spent with family and friends. Seasfood is one of my favorites, with dessert. Yummy!

Misslil, welcome! It's great to see you here! Congratulations on finishing your treatments! 🎉 Relaxing and taking it easy is very important for our all around health and wellbeing. I find my down time is much more enjoyable now that I have time to just breath and think about all my many blessings.

Today I am blessed to be living in God's Country.My day ended with listening to a pack of coyotes singing. I used to get annoyed by their constant "howling" but since my diagnosis I see and hear things with more clarity than I did before. Now that it's warmer I start my days with a cup of coffee on our deck. I've put up some bird feeders and I just sit listening to the birds sing. It makes me smile to watch them go about their days picking out just the right seed.

Praying we all have a Blessed day

pupmom

I finished radiation 5 years ago, and have had absolutely no problems. Best wishes to all who are starting this treatment. Best wishes to all who are starting this treatment. Only difficulty I found was getting to the facility 5 days a week!

WenchLori

Pupmom, welcome! Thank you for your best wishes. We all seem to be taking things one day at a time and keeping our positive thinking and our spirits high. If any of us is having a bad day we can come here and hopefully get a little break from all of the negative things that comes with our BC journey.

ILSunrise

Lori - Love the pictures you posted from your weekend! I love being outdoors as it always lifts my spirits!

All - Remember, even though we are facing great challenges, there is always something we can find to be thankful for in our daily lives. As we all face the emotional roller coaster that BC can cause, keep these thoughts In mind on your own personal journey.

"The place where you lose the trail is not necessarily the place where it ends." Tom Brown Jr.

"Gratitude is the soil on which joy thrives". Berthold Aderbach

WenchLori

ILSunrise, welcome! Thank you for your encouraging words. I've been wanting to ask you what part of Peoria are you from? My DH is from Peoria also. We try to go a couple of times a year to visit his family. It'd be great to meet you!

ILSunrise

Lori - DH and I live downtown in the Warehouse District. PM me next time you head to town and maybe we can arrange to meet up somewhere.

WenchLori

ILSunshine, I'll definitely let you know when our next trip will be.

I had a great day out in my garden planting pepper and strawberry plants. I had to make a cage out of bird netting so I'll be the one eating the strawberries when their ready. I even got in 7,800 steps while I was out and about. I got 13,000 steps yesterday but that was because I forgot to take my Fitbit off while I was riding around on my lawnmower. So many steps that didn't happen lol

Butterfly1234

My DH and I took a nice drive along the water and had lunch. We browsed through some antique stores. Being by the water is so claiming and peaceful. It was a wonderful day. Gave myself a break from exercise. Back to yoga tomorrow.

Lori - I always wanted a vegetable garden and may consider starting one this year. Going to get my fresh basil and assorted herbs as soon as it warms up a little more.

Sunrise - Thank you for the inspiring-words.

Misslil and Pupsmom happy to see you on this thread.

Love to all! Wake up smiling tomorrow morning.

pupmom

Happy to read that people are having great days and enjoying life! That's the way we're supposed to live! I'm working on a quilt and taking care of my grandson after school. All of that keeps me very busy. I've decided to substitute teach, but keep putting off filling out the application, lol. But I think today is the day. It's hard to think about working even part time, after being retired for 3 years. But I do miss the interaction with my peers and hustle and bustle of schools. I really appreciate you gardners. I've never taken to that. I react to poison ivy and poison oak, plus any other weed by body comes in contact with. Also, at this point, there's no way I could bend over enough to tend to flowers and vegetables.

Hope all have a fun and fulfilling day!

Oh, and thanks for the welcome Butterfly! We need more of these positive and uplifting threads!

Butterfly1234

pupmom - I'm a retired teacher but only since last May. I miss the kiddos but not the BS. No plans to sub at least for now. The Dx was an unexpected detour. Concentrating on making myself feel better and recuperate.

Enjoyed yoga today. Took my first Arimidex this morning. Will focus on being positive.

Kisses all

WenchLori

Butterfly, I'll be praying your SEs from the Arimidex are none! 🙏🙏

Pupmom, I'm sorry to hear you have such a bad reaction to poison ivy and poison oak. I have 2 brothers that can't even walk by p-ivy and p-oak. They are also allergic to honeysuckle. If I roll around in the p-ivy and p-oak I'd get a horrible rash but it takes a lot to bother me. I've always wanted to try quilt making as I have aunts that used to make beautiful quilts but I've never taken the steps to even start. Maybe this winter?

I woke up with a smile this morning. The coyote pups were singing again last night. I wondered what the words to their song would be before falling to sleep. I had lunch with 2 of the most important women in my life today. I picked a small restaurant in our very, very tiny downtown. It was my treat but when our lunch was over I was told they didn't take cc! I felt so bad not to mention embarrassed. We all had a great laugh and the girls took care of my lunch and I'll get our next lunch. My Mom is in a nursing home and my 2 friends have kept Mom company this past year when I couldn't go visit with her. I love them to the moon and back. To infinity and beyond! I'd be lost without them. I am so blessed to have these ladies in my life!

Have a wonderful evening! Blessings to everyone!

pupmom

Butterfly, I went ahead and applied today. I know what you mean about the BS! Some of my best friendships were forged while we griped about supervisors, meetings, and everything else irritating in the school bureaucracy! I was a school psychologist, so was frequently put in the middle between special and regular ed squabbles. Ugh, how quickly we forget!

But, subbing is different, in both positive and negative ways. First, I can work when I want (I plan to only work a couple of mornings a week). Also, I can now travel again with DH, and don't want to be tied down to a regular job. Subbing is perfect that way. Second, I can ignore the internal politics, YAY. Negative is, unless you sub in the same school, you don't know the kids and the rules. But I'm looking forward to working a little bit again. There's no contract, another bonus, so I can always quit if it becomes a pain.

Odd thing about my plant allergies, is that I did not have them until age 35. My DH had the same experience.

Have a great day everybody. Wednesdays we take our middle grandson out to dinner and then drop him off at church. Always enjoy those family times with him.

Butterfly1234

pups - glad you're enjoying subbing. It's the joy of teaching without the extras.

Last night was the first time in weeks that I slept through the night. I'm going to attribute it to Arimidex. It's my story and I'm sticking to it ... lol. The sun is shining and life is good. Sipping my tea and listening to the chirping birds.

Have a lovely day all!

ILSunrise

Butterfly1234 - I love the sunrise and the sound of birds chirping in the morning! Sipping tea while listening sounds perfect! Enjoy the day and the time it allows you to reflect.

I went to the local minor league ballpark last night to watch a Peoria Chiefs game. Was such a pleasant evening to sit outside and enjoy a beautiful spring evening.

Remember ladies......we're getting better everyday! We now have new strength and courage to face any of life's (hopefully little) challenges thrown our way.

WenchLori

ILSunrise, Amen!

Butterfly, I'm drinking my coffee out on our back deck over looking our pond. Mama and Papa Geese #1 and #2 brought their goslings over to visit. It's amazing how fast the little fuzzy bodies turn into half sized geese. They grow way to fast.

DH had decided this is the year for a boat ramp. He says it'll be easier for me to get in and out of our boat and our paddle boat. I'm looking forward to getting both boats out on the pond for some fishing and exercise. I'm so looking forward to some fish frys this summer with friends. We have a rule I catch, hubby cleans and we eat. Works for me 😊

Blessings to All 🤗

Butterfly1234

Wench - sounds and looks like you have a piece of heaven right in your own back yard ... lovely!

Tappermom383

Congrats on sleeping through the night, Butterfly! I like your way of thinking positively - I'm trying to avoid negative thoughts and posts about radiation as I get ready to start (and then will do the same for Arimidex). The SEs that come will come and I'll deal with them but there's no point in putting thoughts of them into my head! And that's why I'm following my "friends" here in positive thoughts!

MJ

WenchLori

Butterfly, sleeping through the night is a wonderful thing. Is insomnia an SE of Arimidex?

MJ, this is the place to be for positive and encouraging thinking.

Butterfly1234

Tappersmom - rads were relatively easy for me throughout my treatments. Now a week out, I'm mostly itchy, a little rash, and my nipple is a bit tender. But nothing horrible and hasn't affected my QOL. I've been exercising the whole time with a day or two just to rest. You can do this! Frankly after reading about all the potential SEs for Arimidex I felt like I was already experiencing them even before I started. Crazy!

ILSunrise

TGIF ladies - Here are some inspiring thoughts for the day.

"The art of living lies in a fine mingling of letting go and holding on." Havelock Ellis

"There is no music like a river's".....Robert Louis Stevenson

"Act as if what you do make a difference, it does". William James

Certainly we are all struggling with moving forward in our own lives and facing our "new normal" after the challenges of diagnosis and treatment. So, I believe the three quotes above really apply to what we face as we start this new chapter of survivorship. Spending time in nature can be healing to us and help us appreciate our blessings. We now probably look at life through a different lens and can truly appreciate how reaching out to others (like in the BC community) can help make a difference to others (I know these forums have been invaluable to me personally.). Likewise that gesture can help with the emotional healing of ourselves.

Butterfly1234

Beautiful words Sunrise. Blessings all!

pupmom

ILSunrise, LIKE!

CeliaC

ILSunrise - Thanks for the wise words!

scaredashell07

hello ladies!! Happy Mother's Day to all the moms and grandmas here. I am looking forward to brunch on Sunday and seeing my own mom. here's one Ofmy favorite quotes " nothing is worth more than this day "

WenchLori

Beautiful words Ladies, they actually brought me to tears. I seem to be more sentimental these days 😉

Butterfly1234

When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.Wayne Dyer

Love you all!