Anyone starting Chemo in August 07?

Hey Harley,

Nice to hear from you but am sorry to hear you're having such a hard time in the job department.  If you don't mind I had a couple of thoughts for you.  If memory serves I think you live in the Wilmington, NC area....is that right?  Anyway, there are a lot of senior communities there, both independent, assisted living, and long term care.  Very often they are looking for part time help to handles the phones on the weekend, etc.  If there is nothing that pays an actual salary they are always looking for volunteers to assist with activities and trips.  I've known several people who volunteered and then were able to move into a paying position.  This may not be your cup of tea my friend but I was thinking about you.  Best of luck....something will come your way.

Hugs to all....

June

Thank you, Jackie. And thank you, Harley. <<<<HUGS>>>> June has a good suggestion about volunteering your way into a paying position somewhere.

Jackie--both you and your sister will be very much on my mind this week and especially tomorrow. I will be praying for a safe surgery and good path results. Update us when you can. 

June, thrilled to get your news. yahoo for the next six months!!!! yaay!!!

Of course it is terrible about your DH... and of course it hurts. separation is not a fun thing, and we all carry with us those bruises.

Jackie, I hope the surgery went well. Can't wait to get some news of her.... I hope you are having a decent week.

I am hopping off, I am tired to my wit's end..... heading for a bath and bed - or maybe just my bed .... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz  

Well, Jackie... all in all it sounds positive, hurray for the negative nodes. Shortly she will feel better - and she is indeed lucky in having you there to love and care. We all know how important it is!

Yes, we are all spring chicks, right??? ) right now I can see the sunset out of my windows, the mountains are still snowy  and are taking a lovely tinge of pink and orange. It is blustery weather (remember winnie the pooh and the blustery day????), so the lake is quite mean... and it is cold. We are supposed to get rain and slush again later this week, but I am sooo happy that the week-end is showing itself in a sunny perspective!

Love to all, and special gentle hugs to Ann and to June's hubby.  

Excellent news, Jackie! I'm so, so happy to hear it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wow, it is almost Kaye's Cancerversary. It doesn't seem possible that we're all coming up on two years. 

Good ideas, Kaye, and if anyone makes it out to stay with Kaye, I'd drive up to the desert to visit.

For us, I think a 3 day cruise out of San Diego is most realistic in terms of cruises, but I realize that it might be hard for people who have to travel to San Diego. I'd want to travel with DH and kiddos, so that kind of ups the expense. This summer, DH and DD are traveling to Okinawa for DD to train with her karate weapons Sensei's Sensei (does that make sense?) for ten days, plus attend an international tournament that only occurs every ten years. So that's a big, really expensive trip. Then next summer, we're planning on all going to visit DH's family in Chile. Another, really big, really expensive trip. So, I'd have to do some sort of short meetup sort of deal. Unless you all want to come to Chile with us.

Plus, there is still an off-chance that I will get the ice show off the ground eventually. I've switched coaches, and am now training with the skating director of the rink. She's in charge of the shows that the rink puts on that are independent of the skating club. So, there is a possibility that I could convince her to have part of the proceeds for the next show go to bc.org. Last year's Christmas show partially benefitted the Children's Hospital here, so I don't see why we couldn't do a bc.org benefit like that. It's something that I will be working on.

Speaking of skating, the World Championships are being held in Los Angeles this week, and we have tickets to the Ladies Free Skate on Saturday night. I'm SO excited--this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to go to the competition--it's rarely held in the States, and almost never on the West Coast. It'll be on NBC Saturday night, so if you watch it, look for me in the nosebleed section of Staples Center, LOL.

The other cool thing is that a lot of elite skaters are driving from L.A. to our rink to train this week, and Shizuka Arakawa, the 2006 Olympic Gold Medalist, was skating yesterday at my session. She's retired from competition, but is here to do TV commentary for Japan. Anyhow, I gave her a few pointers, and she was appreciative. It was so cool to be right there with her--elite athletes are amazing. 

Jackie! Such good news about your sister! I'm so relieved to hear that she is at stage I and won't have to do chemo most likely! Very good news.  (I definitely wouldn't have done it if I had been at Stage I, but I didn't really have much option).

Most definitely I would love for all of us to get together! I will for sure be coming out to Southern California sometime in August, most likely the last week of August before school starts up. My son's daycare is closed, and we are going to take my in-laws on a vacation for their 40th wedding anniversary and my MIL's 60th birthday. I don't have the exact details worked out yet, but when I do, I'll let everyone know and who knows! Some of us might be able to connect!  I would definitely be up for a short cruise too. I can't do it this summer because of the CA trip, but winter would be a better time for me to get out of the cold anyway!

Nash, sounds like a lot of fun stuff happening for you!

 DeAnn

Jackie - be patient. they are huge, because they will dramatically stretch out and become tiny... so fear not!

Jackie--did Ann find out her ER/PR/HER2 status yet? If it comes back ER/PR+, HER2-, I wanted to mention to be sure that the onc orders OncotypeDX for her.

OncotypeDX can help make the decision about chemo. It gives a score (low, intermediate or high) that indicates the probability of recurrence, and also measures how hormone sensitive the tumor is. A low score means that HT is the way to go, a high score means chemo will be more effective, and an intermediate score is a grey area. You can get more info at www.oncotypedx.com. It's only available for ER/PR+ tumors.