Chemo June 2010

Joan,   Very well said for advice to lavendar----  Lavendar it will get better I promise but right now be really good to yourself and remember to hydrate well.   I hope your mastectomy is not bothering you much.   Sleep with a pillow under your arm and it will help a lot to relieve discomfort.  TC is not as bad as AC I think so maybe your chemo will not be too bad.  Wishing you a speedy treatment and recovery.

There's more....

Joan, I hope you are having a better day today!

Latte--glad work is ok.  That's great that you are getting together with some other bc gals.  You always have good advice, so I'm sure they feel lucky to have you!

Sherry--Sorry about the fatigue.  That is so difficult to deal with.  I hope you are able to enjoy your summer and be well rested for the new school year!

Gin--Love the Julia stories!!

Jackie--thinking of you!!  Hope to hear some good news soon--you aer in my prayers.

Love you all!!

Have a good night!

Tina- Always love to hear from you !  You have so many kind words to share.  I agree with Dmom.  Don't worry about the to do list and cut yourself some slack.  You need rest and quality time with you family.  Have you considered asking about physical therapy ?  I am considering asking for it to help ease some of the pain and tightness I feel thanks to surgery and rads.  Maybe PT can even help you with your aerobic capacity once you are done with Herceptin.  Geeze Tina I just realized your still gettin Herceptin.  I think that gives you a special pass to Relaxville.  Oh wait !   AND you watch your grandbabies.  Okay... that gives you a special pass to "Ineedadailynapville".

I guess I am in a better mood.  I am still batting around that five year plan.  I think the first step in my five year plan is to stay busier on weekends so I don't spend so much time sitting around thinking.

Joan--You got me laughing with that "ineedadailynapville" comment!  Too funny!  Glad you are in a better mood!  I do need pt for my shoulder.  It has been messed up since my mx. I will talk to my onc about it tomorrow.  The worst of my pain is on my 'bottom" from radiation nearly 2 years ago. Radiation is a b****!

Mimi--good to hear from you!  You know I'm a big fan of colonoscopies (having had colon cancer!).  I will be cheering you on!  Go, Mimi, Go!    Stay safe!

Joan and Tina-  Okay, now I am laughing like crazy with you too!  I think we need to put that on our tee shirts for our reunion. "Ineedanapville".  I'm still laughing!

mimi-  Good luck with the colonoscopy.  One lady I knew of asked the doctor if he found her lost car keys during the procedure!!!

Hi My wonderful peeps!

Well, you have all been busy posting away while I was out getting that oldest child of mine married.  I truly believe cancer fear will be with us always but that is why we have each other to hang with, vent to and rejoice with!  We are in this for the long haul.

Now, wedding news - it was AMAZING!!!!  What a fabulous weekend!  Started out Friday with dinner with my family that came in town early as well as the groomsmen, my son and daughter in law and the maid of honor.  We had a great time relaxing at the Cheesecake Factory together.  Saturday was the rehearsal and dinner.  It was so much fun running through the ceremony.  The priest was so good at making everyone relaxed.  Wedding day was great - neither one of the kids was nervous.  They both were gorgeous!  Did I mention I am going to have beautiful grandbabies??  The reception was a blast.  I was so proud of my son - he was the perfect gentlemen.  He talked to everyone and took time out ot make sure he stopped at each table and chatted with people.  He danced with his bride, his aunt's and most importantly his Mom.  I did well - no tears until he and I danced the mother/son dance.  They played Anyway by Martina McBride.  I felt like that one was appropriate.  I am always telling him that even when things don't go my way do it anyway because sometimes the experience of it is the best part. 

I will figure out a way to post the pictures up on webshots and give you all the link. 

Bon - I wore those pearls!  That looked fabulous with my dress

I am going to call onc Friday and have them schedule my bone scan.  I figure either way it won't hurt to have a base line and maybe we can just rule out the rib thing.  I will keep you all posted.

For now, hugs all around!
Jackie

ahahaha, you girls are so funny, im out the door again for another visit to DR's in San Fan, ill be home tomorrow and let youknow how it went,

love you all

Chey

Jackie I am so glad you enjoyed the wedding. 

Hey Dmom how about t-shirts with fake pearls on them too !

Chey and Jackie good luck with the doctor visits.

We are getting all that rain everyone else had.  My basement is turning into a wading pool !

Hey,  I definitely do not want pink because I have to wear pink scrubs to work a lot and being a BC survivor everyone keeps giving me pink things so I, too, am sort of sick of pink.  It has never been one of my favorite colors and less so now.

Jackie, I am anxiously awaiting the news of your negative bone scan.   Let us know ASAP.  Would also love to see the wedding pics.  I know they are awesome and I can just see you and your son at the mother son dance circling the floor to that beautiful Mcbride song.  She is one of my favorite recording artists.   She has some great music.

Joan,  I really like your new motto with the "Ineedadailynapville".  It would go well on buttons or on t-shirts.  

TMarina, good to hear from you and I know what you mean about trying to get on with things.   Tomorrow I visit my onc for a 4 mth f/u after chemo.  

Mimi,  I see I will have to add your town to my prayer list that the wall of water stays on the other side of that levee.   

Went to see Julia today and am taking her tomorrow to another visitation.  An old friend and resident at her assisted living facility died yesterday after falling and hitting her head.  She was 84 and had terminal lung cancer so her death could have been worse.  I don't think she suffered much from the head wound but they did put her on life support to give her 6 children long enough to get there before they let her go.  I will be sure and post whatever antics she gets into then.

Joan...your post made me cry! Bless you dear friend...run that victory lap for us all and know we are pushing from behind and lifting you over that finish line! Enjoy it and relish the feeling of all those people cheering you on. YOU SURVIVED!!!

Liz...I bet it's great incentive to think of that trip to Ireland in September!  Just an aside...there is another board about Herceptin SEs (some of you on here go there, too) and there is actually a man who joined in from Ireland. HE is receiving Herceptin as adjunct tx for some form of advanced gastric cancer.  He is the first male in Ireland to receive it and his doc had to fight like crazy for him to be able to give it a try.  He was resourceful enough to come to bc.org knowing that it's approved use is for tx of HER2+ bc. He didn't know what to expect or who to ask questions of, so he found that board. Pretty wonderful that #1, he is able to get Herceptin and that it is being looked into for other cancers and #2 that he found bc,org and all the wonderful info that is shared here.

My largest charitable donation this year will be to bc.org.  It and you all helped to save my life! 

Joan, you GO GIRL!,  We will all be there right  beside you in cyberspace.

Dang Joan--I'm crying too!  I'm so proud of you for doing the relay.  I don't think I could--too emotional!

grneyd--You look great in your picture!  Still waiting to see those wedding photos   Glad you are not stressing out!!

lizzy--you still have a lot ahead of you--it's great you have that trip to look forward too.  I'm so proud of all the gals here that have spoken at some event! I am not brave enough to do that! (not yet anyway...)

Hi !  I survived the walk without having a break down.  There were very few cancer survivors to don the shirt when we did the survivor walk.  There were many many teenagers cheering us on as we walked.  Thanks to the fact that I have two kids and work in the school district I knew many people there.  So when the kids cheered I was the only survivor who cheered back.  I sort of felt the need to act brave.  My daughter walked the caretaker walk with me and would not hold my hand.  She was feeling very,very, 16.  Overall I am glad I went. It was sort of like "coming out of the closet" for me.  During most of my treatment I stayed away from people and I am sure they haven't known how to approach me. 

Oh ladies you are the BEST !  I thought of you often last night.  I don't know if I could have done the walk without you !  Even though there were hundreds of people there I felt very lonely at times.  I felt exposed and uncertain of how to behave or feel.  I walked beside an old friend and she chattered on about this and that and I pretended to care about what she was saying.  I thought.  Will I ever connect with "real life" again ?  Will I ever relax and just go through my day worry about the little stuff again ?  That's when I wanted to cry.  So, I conjured up images of you gals while I walked the track.  "Seeing" you in my minds eye really helped.  I held onto my little pearl and felt like I was holding onto you ladies. You support me, guide me and even protect me in ways that I can't even explain. 

So believe it or not I would reccomend doing an event like that.  It is another way to acknowledge the struggle to survive.  And since it is a huge event with people milling around everywhere if it's too overwhelming it's easy to disappear into the crown if need be.

God bless my pearls !

Joan-  Okay, that does it, I am nicknaming you "Tearjerker".  I'm crying along with Bon...good, tug at my heart, proud crying.  I am so proud of you and every one of these pearly girls!