**NEW** Starting Chemo March 2009

Hi All..

I've just returned from another stint in California and have a wicked cold.  Yay..  The weather in CA was beautiful.  So warm and it was nice to walk around without a coat on.

Alyad - I love reading your posts.  I'm glad everything's going well for you and I hope you enjoy your trip in May.  It sounds great!  And don't worry about your money leaving you as soon as you get it right now.  Eventually, you'll catch up.  I know, I was there once.  hang in there.

BethP - Sounds like you and your family had a great time in Vegas.  I bet Celine's show was great!

Raymon - Hope things are going better for you.

All - Have a great weekend!   Dragon Boat practice tomorrow if I'm hopefully feeling better... ugh!

 My best...

 Beth

Hi Ladies,

Dayla..great news about your job and the health insurance.

BethR..I like what you said about being able to relate to money problems. We have all been down that road.

Well tomorrow is my prophylactic mastectomy and immediate reconstruction..I am optimistic that all will go well and soon I will be able to move on. As I have said before after the cancer all this stuff is just fluff.

Much to do to get ready for tomorrow.

Hugs,

Francine

Hi All,

 Francine - Sending my wishes for an uneventful procedure for you tomorrow.  Keep us posted.

Patti - unfortunately, I haven't had any issues like that (so far) so can't provide any info.  I hope it turns out to be no big deal.

Have a great day all!

Beth

Annette - Thank you for your post.  I have heard that the laprascopic hyst. is a much better recovery.  Glad you did well with it.  Prayers for a healthy grandson, DIL, and son.  Keep us posted.

I also don't post often but read posts on a regular basis.

Prayers and well wishes Francine on your surgery tomorrow. 

Francine: Best wishes for a successful and quick recovery tomorrow. Yes, it's all fluff after cancer but still another thing to deal with. You are a real trooper with all the surgeries you've had! Keep us posted.



BethR Welcome back home. Hope you were feeling well enough to get your paddles in the water today.



Patti: I haven't had that while on tamox as I had a hysterctomy 20 years ago. I had it done vaginally so I think the recovery time was longer...not sure that lapryscopy was even available back then. The wonders of modern medicine. Good luck with the Ultrasound etc. Keeping you in my thoughts.



Annette: nice to see you drop by. Positive vibes for your DIL and grandson.



Dayla: Yeah for benefits...that's great news! Congrats!



Chris: big news for you tomorrow grandma. Can't wait to hear ...boy or GIRL? Let us know!



Hugs to all

BethP

Good news Gals

I just received this note from Francine's husband, Richard.

 Hi,   Francine is fine after the surgery.  She is in her room and eating regular meals, and will remain there until Wednesday morning.   Richard

Chris...Boy or Girl????

Hugs

BethP

Good Morning Francine. Thinking of you and hope you are feeling okay.

Hugs

BethP

Glad your doing well Francine!

Beth and Beth:  Our team is going on the river next Tuesday, can't wait.  What have you two been up to with your teams? 

Good to hear from you, Francine: hope recovery is swift!

Janine, how are you doing?

Chris, boy or girl???????

Patti - keep us informed! Hope it turns out to be no problem.

Annette: fingers crossed for a delayed delivery at least until Easter.

All: I hope you are well and happy. I am off to Sydney this weekend (my home town) for my brother's wedding. The growing size of my belly and thighs (ooh, a poem!) has made finding a dress difficult, but no one will be looking at me so it doesn't really matter. Shnerbil is now nearly 22 weeks gestation and all seems okay.

Sakura, glad to hear that all is well with the Space Turnip.

 My pregnant friend and her parter are biologists and first called the baby Zen the Zygote, then Fen the Fetus...  Now its  Baby Z- and I think they are going to name him Zayden.

Francine - Glad to hear you are recovering well.

Chris, no matter what anyone says girls are much more fun to buy for, now and older too.  Just try finding things for easter baskets for big boys unless you want to spend $40 for a wii game.  Girls are happy with fingernail polish, hair bands, lip gloss, etc.  Our new baby grandson due soon is a boy and we will be happy to have him, but girls have much more choice as far as cute clothes, etc. 

I can't believe Easter is only a week away.  I need to figure out what I still need for in baskets and eggs.  Years ago we solved the problems of little one not finding as many eggs as the bigger ones hidden outside, by giving each child a basket that matches his eggs.  You can only find your color eggs, so everyone gets the exact same amount.  We have baskets in yellow, green, blue, orange, purple, red, black, pink, brown which covers the nine grands we have now.  The oldest is graduating from high school this year, so I think that is cut off for a basket so next year the new baby will just take that spot.  It will be easier than trying to find another color, although I have seen navy blue ones.  The kids pick what color they want each year.  We usually let the littler  ones pick first.  They know what colors they recognize.  I works really well. I usually put a chocolate bunny in the basket along with a T- shirt , color books, or puzzle books for bigger kids.  Inside eggs I put candy, gum, coins, last year each kid had a penny, nickel, dime, quarter, and $1 in eggs.  Of course the little ones think that is a lot of money compared to the big kids.  I also put things like,laffy taffy and hair clips. nail polish, matchbox cars, balls, stickers, tattos, etc in the eggs  I don't put anything that can melt in the eggs because they can be out in the sun for a while after we hide them, before the kids go look for them.  Tootsie roll midgies work ok and of course M & Ms but I try not to do too much candy.  I always put a  bottle of bubbles in baskets so when they are done looking for eggs outside they blow bubbles and chase them.  Little ones are so much fun to watch.  With 9 baskets to fill it takes a little planning to make sure you have  things for everyone  Usually there are about 20 eggs of each color that I have to fill.  I will be busy getting everything together this week.  Hugs to all  Annette

Hi Everyone!

 Francine - glad your surgery went well and hope you are getting lots of rest. Take it easy for the next few weeks.

Rachel - congrats on Shnerbil and so sorry to hear about preg belly and dress shopping. I am sure that is not the best combination. Hope you have something that will be comfortable to wear!

 Congrats too to it being a girl Chris. Very exciting!

And good luck to all of you dragon boaters.Hope that is going well, it sounds like so much fun.

I had my surgery on 4/5/11 to remove all of my uterine fibroids. It was supposed to be laparascopic, but once they got in there they had to convert it to an open abdominal. I had 12 removed, 3 that were larger than tennis ball sized. They were compressing all of my other organs and causing a lot of urinary and bowel problems. I had to stay in the hospital for 4 days, but am home now and on the mend. I should be able to return to work on 4/25.

Hope everyone is well and enjoying the spring weather.  

Hi Ladies,

Janine..good that you are on the mend...Hopefully many of your problems will go away now.

I called my cousin who is a pathologist about the cancer. He said not to worry as this is a very benign form of cancer and that it was an incidental finding during the mastectomy,,very small. Now I can breathe easier. Yes I made the right decision having the mastectomy.

Hugs,

Francine

Hi Ladies,

Feeling pretty good.

Janine..thnks for the sweet comments. Yes I was quite scared.Good healing to you...I had a large fibroid most of my life. Mine never bothered me and in menopause it shrunk. It was so big my uterus was the size of a women three months pregnant.

Off to the PS tomorrow . Hope all is well.

Hugs,

Francine

Francine - Continued well wishes.

Janine - Sorry you had more extensive fibroid issuses then you expected.  Well wishes to you. I am having issues now too.  I was told by the nurse at the gyno's office that I have a "non worrisome" fibroid, but have not yet heard for my gyno about the next step.  He is only in the suburban office on Tuesdays, so I suppose I will hear from him tomorrow.  I am a bit nervous as all my internet searches show that it is normal for fibroids to shink with menopause.  So I'm guessing mine are/is Tamoxifen related since I have never had a fibroid before and have been in chemo and drug induced menopause for 2 years.

Anyway life has been a bowl of lemons lately, just got word my job has been changed from full day to 1/2 day as of next school year.  This means I will have to pay significantly more towards health insurance - basically I will be working for health benefit with bearly any extra cash in my pay.  My husband is a self employed carpenter and affordable health insurance sucks.  Any ideas on how to make lemonade?  Sorry I'm just venting, school district is making cuts to us little guys and not everyone has been told yet, so I can't vent anywhere else yet as we are all on Spring break and not every school employee affected has had the "meeting yet".

Well wishes to all!! Enjoy your holidays Passover and Easter whichever you may celebrate.