Starting Chemo May 2008

And can I just add that I kind of miss when we were all in chemo, and that was our job, and we talked and got support from each other every day and every night, sometimes?  Yeah.  I kind of miss that.

K- Sue is in Texas. Today is Friday, we are 1/2  day behind you I think. 

Looks like I am 12 hours behind you, which would put Sue 11 hours behind you and the west coast girls RanD, Eddie, Cris etc 9 hours behind. 

 I think I did this right. 

Here is an interesting vid on a her2 "survivor" I wonder if they are talking about Herceptin.

 http://www.abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=5738692

If the link works, click on the vid about Stage 4 BC. 

 I HAVE to get my shit together today. 

Randie~ I'm sending you prayers and good vibes right now as I type. You should be out of surgery at this moment providing they got you in on time. I hope you are resting comfortably sweetie.

Okay, so here goes with the photo.  It's not nearly as exciting as some of yours because I had just woken up and we were in a hurry to get out and take my daughter her gym bag!  But you take what you get...and I know there's a way to make it smaller, but dang if I know how to do that.  I'm just glad it posted and didn't take the page way out!  Now I wish I had been more interesting...boo hoo.

Christine! look at you! You are awesome. Now I wish I had taken one..I just wanted to GET OUT OF THERE.   Maybe I can fake one when I go in to get my port flushed. How do I post photos? Help! Usually I can work it out but I am a bit thick at the moment.

Rock..omg the sleep. SAME. I slept so soundly I woke up with a concrete head. How cool is that?My family is going to be relieved..I feel they are a bit over the slow-moving bitch in the pyjamas... Drew and I had the big talk about the big T and the big AI and I am THIS close to naysaying. I've trawled the stats and those predictor things, and I THINK I'm going to put all my money on the horse called "Kerry's Family is Tough as All Feck." This flirtation with cancer has taught me that you can't plan, or predict so....Feck it! I THINK I'm going to live on the edge....(thought I was doing that already....)

RanD, I'm sure the first thing you'll do is plug in that laptop....so...WELCOME BACK! How do you feel? I dedicated all the meltdowns during the night to you..maybe they were tracking your progress. There has to be SOME purpose for the feckers, surely.

Today I am going to start packing my house for the move (brought forward to November) and I have no idea how to. Suggestions?  sigh 

Cris!!!!!!  I love this photo! I love seeing you! I love you being done with chemo! LOVE THIS PHOTO! LOVE YOU AND SO HAPPY!

(And Randie -- ?? I wish I were Karin to find and post the photo that will make you smile. Hope you're well!)

xoxox 

Cris~ you look mauvelous daulink! Man look at all that hair you still have. I'm jealous.. once again LOL.

For the tamoxifin ladies~ I asked the onc yesterday about the blood test for tamoxifin you ladies had been talking about. He said that about 99% of the women metabolize the drug just fine. It is a rare occasion that one cames along that does not. (I'm sure I will be one of them) He was surprised at the questions I had this time around, I made him do research while we stood there. I'm such a meanie ;o)

Thank you for your wonderful comments about my picture.  You all are the BEST!!!

Eddie - You made me want to join the Facebook group now.  I've been putting it off because coming here and checking my email are about all I can handle, but I will join it eventually.

Linda - You made me laugh - yep, kicked off my crocs - should've taken one with 'em on!  Now that would have been super sexy!   And I'm sorry I gave you the heebie jeebies! 

Kerry - It's not hard to post at all.  Much easier than I expected.  Otter gave me the instructions a while ago, but she said she would be out of touch for a few days.  Maybe somebody else knows where they are...?

Sable - Yours is coming, honey.  I promise.

Rock - I love that you love my picture!!

Sue - So glad you had a nice weekend!

Noelle - Hey! 

Randie - I'm with Linda.  Can't wait to hear you describe your experience.  Hope it went well.

Jen,

Quick! Tell me how to join Facebook! 

fyi you all have been saved..... I tried to make a new avatar of my new hairs.. couldn't get one to turn out like what I wanted... you are saved for another day LOL

Kerry,

That's right, you don't do Halloween there.  October 31st. Trick or Treat. Everyone dresses up in a costume and goes around to houses for treats. (The trick or treat part is if no treat, people can supposedly do a "trick" such as soaping windows, toilet papering trees, etc., but that hardly ever happens) People give away candy. It's from the auld "All Hallows Eve"  before "All Saints Day" on November 1st. 

So the group on Facebook is "May" or "May O'Eight"?

for the dog, how about "Heebie-Jeebie"?

Sue 

Wake up RanD! we are all here with waffles and coffee!!!

and lots of us are joining facebook too! 

Gracie~ I had bone pains in the same areas as you. My skull would even hurt in the back... that was kinda freaky in itself.

Kerry~My surgeon sent me to a therapist for LD right after my surgery. He said he was for preventing anything before/if it happens. I had swelling right in the beginning and we got it to return to normal. I did good for awhile until taxol came along and then my chest area swelled up. So right now we are working on that area to get it down and hopefully it will stay down once all the chemicals are out of my system. I do a manual massage twice a day right now to help the body find new ways to send the fluid out. I guess with every surgery there is a chance to develop LD. Since I had the left mastectomy and then they had to take out more nodes, I have a higher risk of getting it. I am determined not to. We just have to see how things go over time. Therapist has conned me into ordering a sleeve for the days I do swell up from the heat or whatever. I have fought that battle this entire time.

Randie~ Sending you good vibes again this morning sweetie. We love you and are thinking of you!!!!!

I just joined facebook, too . . . then got booted off the site (before I could try to find any of you) and can't reconnect.  I have no idea what is/isn't on my page at this point.  Or if my page is still there.  I'm good at some computer applications - if you have any Excel questions, I'm your gal! - but not uploads and web stuff.

On the lymphedema discussion . . . Jen, I remember you casually mentioning something about LE before, but didn't fully realize what was going on with you.  I really, really hope it stays well under control.  I'm with Kerry: the prospect of lymphedema freaked me out right from the beginning.  Pre-surgery, I took comfort in the fact that the incidence is less with the sentinel node procedure - except, of course, my sentinel node turned out to be positive.  So I got the full dissection treatment anyhow.  Fourteen stinking nodes out, and the only one that was positive was the first: it makes me angry that there isn't a better way to assess our node status. 

I try to be careful with my surgery-side arm, but it's a struggle, because I'm fundamentally not a careful person.  (I'm one of those who, during chemo, would forget and lick the cake batter, raw eggs and all.)  I'm reasonably good about not carrying bags and such with my left hand.  I'm not at all good about staying out of the dirt . . . I'll see a weed, yank it with my good hand, see another, yank that, see another . . . and so on, until 20 minutes later, I'm scrabbling around in the garden with two ungloved hands.  I did get an off-the-shelf sleeve that I've worn during the three short flights I've taken since my surgery (though I'm not anywhere close to 100% confident the thing even fits properly).  I have a referral to see a therapist for a baseline consultation, but haven't followed up on it yet. 

Since my diagnosis, I've had only one BC nightmare that I remembered when I woke up, and that one was actually a lymphedema nightmare.  I dreamt I took off my watch, and there was a band of swollen tissue beneath it, that kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger . . .

On a positive note: ran a 5K this morning, just a small race to benefit my daughter's high school's athletic programs (not that she's into athletics in the least: she slept in while I ran), broke 23 minutes handily, and won a 6-month gym membership for being the first grown-up female to cross the finish.  (A few of the cross country girls beat me, but not too many.)

Linda