March 2009 Rads Group?

Have you tried Weight Watchers, or you could look for TOPS in your area.

Take Pounds Off Sensibly.

Or try cutting Carb intake, eat lean protein and veggie and fruit(complex carbs are good).

Good to hear from you Nelia.

BTW I am starting with just cutting breakfast down for starters, like 1 egg instead of 2 and 1/2 slice of toast.  It would be nice if just increase in exercise would be enough! 

Susie

Hi guys,

I have always been a bit obcessive about weight.  I am not sure if this is the healthiest plan but what I did was give my self, things I could eat and things I could not eat.  For instance, breakfast could be one egg, one piece of toast and a slice of melon, that is it.  Then if you get tired of that, switch it out with some oatmeal and fruit.  Never have pancakes, or another piece of toast or a cookie.  Just tell yourself that those are not allowed.  You have to have will power.  But I noticed when I just told myself that certain things were not allowed it worked better, rather than saying well just today I will have an extra slice of bread....not allowed.     Crackers are my down fall and I know that if I sit and say I am only having 5 then I have given in, it is better not to have any...go for a walk, go pull weeds, dust, there are a million things to do.  This whole thing also helped me because I did not need to meal plan very much, I knew what I was going to eat.  Dinner I had about 4 meals modified with.  It is a bit boring, but it works and it changes your focus from eating to living.           Plus my Mom was always over weight and dieting and I didn't want to be consumed by that my entire life.    Hope it helps  Kristi

Hi Everyone!


It has been awhile. I just wondered if anyone else is having some pain after being done with rads. I have been done with them for about 2 months now, but, I still have some pain in my breast. It isn't bad, but, noticeable. There is no way I could even think of a mammogram. My rads oncologist and my oncologist say it is normal. Is it? LOL Does anyone here still have it? Ok, thanks!

Love, Jeanne

Jeanne, yes there will still be pain, not only from rads, but from recovery for surgery too. Our bodies have been thru h*ll.

BLUEDASHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great on the test results!!!!!!

YAAAAY for you Blue!!! Wow cool to be done in 10 weeks.

Purple Carol- nice to see ya!!!  Love the avatar!  

Here's me and Mary:

I think I've mentioned here before that I was on the SWOG 0307 clinical trial and was concerned that the drug I was on for it, clodronate, was causing elevated creatinine levels which indicate that there is stress on the kidney. I did internet searches on creatinine elevation and found conflicting information about whether my elevation was serious or not. I talked to my PCP and oncologist about it and they couldn't say what the elevated level meant about risk of damage to my kidneys by staying on the drug. Finally Monday I got my oncologist to refer me to a nephrologist (kidney specialist) and I got an appointment for Friday.

She was really good at taking a full history, discussing my concern and answering my questions. I brought my husband along so that he could listen too to catch anything I might miss and to help me decide what to do. She agreed that it is likely the clodronate that is causing my elevated levels. She said that the risk of permanent kidney damage goes up with dose level (the study dose is pretty high) and duration. I may be more at risk since my creatinine level is already showing that my kidneys don't handle the drug well. We all agreed that the risk to my kidneys of being on this dose for 3 years is too high compared to the potential benefit of lower recurrence. 

(Clodronate also helps for osteoporosis but I have no sign of that and I don't have risk factors for it. And if I did need treatment for it the dose would be lower and there is at least one drug that doesn't list kidney failure as a side effect though it has other potential issues.)

So I've stopped taking the drug and I'll tell the clinical trial nurse on Monday that I'm leaving the trial.

Great news Susie!!!!  Keep on walkin girl!!!

Rachel, Ibuprophen, Aleve (naproxen), asprin and any other NSAIDs go through the kidneys. Tylenol (acetaminophen) goes through the liver and doesn't pose a problem for the kidneys. It is the one I've been told I can use. I preferred using aspirin in the good old days because the pills are smaller than tylenol and I'm not a great pill swallower. I've found the Tylenol cool caplets go down pretty easily.

Zometa does also list renal failure as a rare side effect.  I don't think that this means that people shouldn't try it but creatinine should be monitored while on to check how the kidneys are coping. My nephrologist also mentioned that for IV bisphosphonates like IV zometa, the risk increases with shorter infusion time. If you get it, you might ask for a 45 minute infusion time rather than 15 minute.

Boniva (ibandronate) is the one arm of the trial that doesn't list kidney problems in its side effects. It's rare but serious category is stomach ulcers and complications of reflux.

Also, the doses on the clinical trial are higher than the doses when bisphosponates are given for bone loss. For example, the clinical trial zometa arm starts out with zometa infusions once a month for the first 6 months and then goes to every 3 months when the usual dose for osteoporosis is once every 6 months. Higher doses makes the risk of kidney problems greater. For Boniva, the trial gives the pills daily when it is given monthly for osteoporosis.

Anyway, I'm not suggesting that most people would have the problem I had on it. Just if you try it, stay away from NSAIDs and make sure they test your creatinine levels from time to time to keep an eye on your kidneys.

I was also having occasional muscle cramps and some diarrhea both of which are on the less likely side effects list for Clodronate (the muscle cramps is only on the Clodronate list, not the other two). A couple of times I woke up with an excruciatingly painful muscle cramp (and you guys know I'm not a complainer about pain so when I say it hurt, it really really hurt). So I'm not sorry to say goodbye to Clodronate.

More good news is that I've gotten the results of the urine test she had me take and they all look good which means that the effect on my kidneys is probably still reversable by stopping the medicine.

And in 6 weeks I get my last Herceptin infusion which means I'll be done with breast cancer treatment and ready to get my port out.

I love to substitute non-fat plain yogurt for sour cream too. It tastes as good or better to me on my baked potato. When buying a lowfat or non-fat product, I read the labels to see how much they had to doctor it up to do that. In some cases, they add a lot of non-pronoucables and I try to avoid those. The non-fat plain yogurt is still real food - milk and cultures. One brand I get has pectin added to those.

I sometimes make yogurt cheese by putting the yogurt in a coffee filter for 24 hours to drain the whey out and it can be used in place of cream cheese. 

I'm working on an avatar on that site, but I have trouble figuring out which features to use. I need to sit in front of a mirror with my laptop I guess. And I can't figure out which hair color to use for my silver and brown mix.

Rachel, Yes, you can read or use your laptop while getting your infusion.  I always brought my laptop to my chemo and Herceptin infusions. They even had a power strip available for me to plug in which I used during chemo. The first chemo was about 6 hours and the ones after were about 4 hours. When I go for Herceptin, I don't bother to bring my power cord because that has been 90 minutes. Now they have decided to try speeding up the Herceptin infusions for people who aren't having side effects at 90 minutes. I only have 3 more, but they will be pretty short.

Here is as close as I was able to come on that Madmanyourself site. I don't think I'm in any danger of running into someone and hearing "you must be bluedasher" from the resemblence. They didn't have enough choices for that. They had some pretty wierd noses.

I had my 3 month follow up with the rads onc today. We agreed that everything looks fine. That breast is still a bit pinker than the other one - like it has a bit more blood flow making it a bit flushed but that's okay. It is a bit bigger too but I only notice the differences if I stand in the mirror looking at them. They work fine under clothes and in bed. He said that I don't need schedule any further visits with him though if I had any problem I could call and they should usually be able to get me in within a day.

One more step toward being done. I'm finding that I'm really in count down mode - looking forward to getting my port taken out and wondering when we will be able to get that scheduled.

rock on Mary!

Hey Martha, congradulations. 

I have good news too.  My oldest daughter told us that my youngest daughter's boyfriend is going to propose to her.  I'm so exited and I can't tell anyone.