Starting Chemo February 2009?

Nancy - oh that does not sound like fun. Sorry to hear about it all, but I am glad they could remove it OK. So, not sure what lymphoma is - is it another type of cancer? Fingers crosed it was just enlarged, and you will be OK.

Jaimie - happy to hear you are home safe and sound. I can just imagine the kisses you are getting! 

Judy - well, hope you are doing OK - fingers crossed no more clots or problems or anything.

Artemis - Happy Chemo finishing anniversary day! Mine was a week or so back, I am just happy I am here and feeling healthy. 

Kerry, lymphoma is cancer of the lymph glands - Hodgkins Disease is one form.

Michele, I will definitely post the path results. May not be for up to 2 weeks according to the surgeon. 

Trying to walk as much as I can but the lung is SO painful. When I walk I cough. 

Happy Mother's Day Ladies!!!! 

Happy Mother's Day to all of you!!! 

Okay ladies how was your Mother's day ???  Mine was boring....just the way I like it . 

I did have a breakdown on Mother's day about my recon. which I adore but one little spot was bothering me and now I feel silly because it looks like my bra was causing it.  Anyhow I feel better now.  I think surgery after surgery is getting to me.....So I think I am done even if my minor flaw is not fixed for a while. 

Hello ladies and a happy belated Mothers Day! Isn't it wonderful we are here to enjoy it?

 Got the final result of the biopsy late yesterday. As we had hoped it was negative Whoot! Whoot! Biopsy showed it was due to a past infection - reflecting, it had to have been when my lumpectomy area got badly infected last May. Then my onco said to get myself to the surgeon and have that mediport removed. Double Whoot! Whoot! 

Can't seem to stop the water works, now. I cried for 2 1/2 hours yesterday after that call and all through the bottle of champagne we popped open to celebrate. But these are happy tears. I refused to cry tears of self pity these past 16 months. Must have been a lot backed up in those tear ducts.

Glad the lungs are feeling better. That sounds incredibly painful.

Boring? I'll take a little bit of that "boring"! 

Nancy~ I may cry some happy tears for you.  Beyond thrilled for you!!  Now do not stay away so long.....

Nancy, best news ever! I am so relieved for you.

Judy - how're the lungs??

Hi, Furies ~
Have we talked about bc-related dreams?  I don't think we have, but maybe I just don't remember.  I have chemo brain, y'know!

I've dreamed about my hair five times since all the junk started, but have not dreamed about my breasts at all.  I find this odd. 

Twice I dreamed that it was long like before (once I was washing it, once I was braiding it), twice I dreamed it was shoulder length and I was happy to find that I could braid it, and last night I dreamed that I was getting some blonde highlights.  I told the stylist that I wasn't sure my hair was long enough to work with then all of a sudden it was VERY long.

I wonder why I haven't dreamed about breasts?  Not that I want to, mind you.  Maybe it's just my mind looking forward to having that bit of normalcy returning.

Soooooooo...what's in your dreams?

Hugs to everyone!

Oh, shoot Jaimie, that sucks. If it is any help, there are a few women I know here who had many many + nodes, and are doing well over 5 years out. Still, it sucks big time. Fingers crossed for her.

OhJaimie, I'm so sorry to hear that. Prayers out to your friend. I'm with Kerry - I believe I remember my former next door neighbor having that many nodes and faring well so far. Scary but beatable.

Linda, how are the lungs? That sounds SO painful!

  I've been thinking about this dream thing. I have dreams but they make a swift exit from my brain once I'm awake. Upon reflection, though, I remember hair being a big subject. My feet and hands were the other. I still feel like someone has taken one inch bands and wrapped them around my instep. Neuropathy sucks. I've signed up for a blind study between a local university and my hospital system that will start soon. They are using 4 types of "holistic" non-prescription treatment: yoga, reiki, meditation and patient education. We will be placed in one of those groups for 6 weeks. What they look to accomplish is to learn whether any of these helps with the long term neuropathy. Me? I vote for hand/ foot massage but that wasn't an option. Of the options, I'm hoping for the yoga.

Kerry~

Feel  free to repost!  She's doing well... feeling good.  In fact, her onc told her to forgo chemo and go into hospice when she got her dx and she told him to f--k off; got a new onc, and started chemo.

So, how have you been able to get past your mx?  I feel so much more comfortable physically since the 2nd mx but am still an emotional wreck.  I feel sooooo unattractive and sub-par. <sigh>

So sorry for TWO posts this morning, but I finally read more carefully Michele's post. Any doctor that says "there's nothing more I can do" or "you need to get your affairs in order" I have no respect for, particularly when there's nothing they have even DONE second time around !!  Just this month reconnected with my lost lost college roommate after 35 years. In 2003 she was diagnosed with anal cancer. In 2007/2008 she had mets in the soft tissue of a lumbar disc. Her onco told her the same thing - the getting affairs in order and the nothing more to be done statements. She went to another city for a second opinion, underwent laser and chemo and is still here to talk about it. We have to be aggressive until all possible options are exhausted and then some. She and I are really counting on seeing our kids settled, hopefully married or at lease happy with their lives, grandkids, the whole enchilada. Why NOT expect this?

So Michele, tell your friend: You GO GIrl!!!! I'm with you! 

Have a great Birthday celebration, and an even bigger "one-year-after-last-chemo" celebration! Life sure is better than it was last year.

Nancy:  ugh, I'm so sorry you got sick, that's a bad bug to get.  I'm glad you're starting to feel better now.  Stupid hospitals and their germs!  Your boss needs to get over it, good for you for putting her in her place!  My employer pretty much replaced me while I was out for chemo...which was fine by me, since I didn't want to work for her anymore anyway.

Jaimie:  enjoy your son's birthday!  hard to believe we're all coming up on a year since chemo...I just wish I felt a bit better by now. 

Artemis:  I'm with you on the emotions...and the body image thing, too.  I saw my onc today, and we discussed things, and I realized I'm not doing quite as well mentally as I had thought....she wants me to go talk to someone, so we'll see...

My onc PA didn't do a whole lot today.  No scans, just bloodwork.  She put me back to every 4 months for my appts, which is what I was supposed to be in the first place, but the onc had pushed it to 6 months.  I'm glad we're back to 4 months between appts.  She set me up with another PS, and a pulmonary doctor to see if we can get my breathing back on track.  I told her I'm sooo tired, but she skirted that issue.  She seems to think everything I'm experiencing is stress related....of course I'm stressed, but I don't know if that's causing my fatigue, my breathing problems, my palpitations...  She also took me off the coumadin again, so now I can stress about clots as well.  UGH