Starting chemo Sept 05

Hello ladies. Sorry for the sporadic posts – but I have some new issues to deal with and my time is limited once again. I’ll explain later – but first..

Peg – best of luck on getting back to work! I only did 4 dose dense A/C – no Taxol. I was fortunate to be in a job where I have a great boss who let me work a reduced schedule throughout chemo and rads. Being back to a full time schedule has made me feel like I am truly moving on – I hope getting back to work brings back the same feelings for you. Also, thank you for the list of the September Sisters!

Lisa – best of luck on the completion of rads! I made it through with only a very mild reaction during the boosts. My tech told me the same thing – sometimes people have little or no reaction. Hopefully you're one of them!

Susan – I am so happy for you and your Symphony opportunity! I hope that you got back to your desired professional shape in a timely manner. I have no musical talent and am in awe of those that do. Go get em!

Calico – warm thoughts and prayers for your PET scan today.

Maxine – congrats on the last chemo!

I did get my port out last Wednesday, and all went well! In and out of the hospital within a few hours. Unfortunately, I was back there on Saturday with my father. He has Parkinson’s, and is starting to show some signs of rapid progression. Up until now, he has been living at home with my mother – who is 82! We had some outside help a few hours a week, and my siblings and I spend lots of time there. Overall – it worked pretty well. It looks like this will no longer be an option – and we are struggling with what to do next. It is so hard to see him like this. I could fill pages with wonderful stories about him – he is a wonderful man who is loved by everyone who has every met him.

Throughout the last 6 months I have been such a warrior. Today I feel like a lost little girl.

Thank you Susan. Your response brought tears to my eyes. I wouldn’t even know where to begin with the stories. My father is a retired physician. He was from the ‘old school’ of medicine. Not in it for the money – but for the pure love of his craft. He was one of those doctors who would take vegetables, cookies, chickens, or whatever anyone wanted to ‘pay’ him with. We never had a lot of money growing up – but we sure ate well! He was on staff at the same hospital that I have been going to for all of my treatment related ‘stuff’. Many people who worked with him are still there – and I can’t tell you how many people have told me what a wonderful man he is. The nurses always tell me that he was their favorite. He had the utmost respect for the nurses – and it was mutual. If you just mention “Dr. Bob” at the hospital – everyone knows who you are talking about! I get the red carpet treatment whenever I am there because of him. I met a woman recently and we started talking about where we grew up. She grew up in the city where my father had his private practice, so I mentioned that my father was retired, but used to have an office there. She looked at me wide eyed and said, “Do you mean Dr. Bob?” When I told her yes - she started crying. He had taken care of her and her family for many years. She was overwhelmed remembering all of the things he had done for them.

He also had a very good – but strange – sense of humor! One time - my then 80 something year old great aunt called about having chronic diarrhea. She asked him to call the drugstore and have them send something over to take care of it. He sent her a cork!

I apologize for the long OT post. I hope everyone is doing well and thanks for listening.

hopeful - your dad sound great, the cork thing cracked me up but I bet your aunt was not to impressed..lol

Susan-Congratulations on returning to the Symphony, it will be such a confidence boost to know that you can do it again.

I am sure that all of us have wondered how much our treatment will effect our lives after an if we can return to "normal" after this. To all those returning to work congratulations you have made it back, take it easy you have nothing to prove, enjoy the experience take a rest if you need it.

Chemo brain is still going strong, getting half way through a conversation and .......

Oops, sorry...forgeting what I was talking about or what the point of the story was..lol

I have been in Sydney for the last week doing set up for Rads and they said that I should be starting in approx 3 wks. I am looking forward to starting so that I can be finished but am not looking forward to being away from home for 6 wks.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Sandra - best wishes for your test results

Chat soon
Nicole

Hi all

Just a quick update from me.

I had my last taxol last wed (YAY) and apart from the usual manageable aches and pains I am doing well. This is lucky since Scott is away for 6 weeks and it is just me and the babies!! Fun....

My rads planning appt is 21 Feb and I am both nervous about starting and excited too as it will be another step down once I have finished. Fear of the unknown I guess. Herceptin will continue as usual.

I have been giving a lot of thought to mastectomy vs lumpectomy lately. Wondering if I should have had the mast. I am also looking at having a reconstruction done after rads- kind of as a "present" to myself!!

I hope you are all getting along well no matter what stage you are at.

xoxo

Quote:

---

I am also looking at having a reconstruction done after rads- kind of as a "present" to myself!!

---

Sorry I am confused do you need reconstruction with a lumpectomy? was it the location of the lump that means you need a reconsturction?

If I had to face more surgery then I would definatley like you consider my options before hand.

I too an starting rads soon and looking forward to moving on with my life.

hope the kids and yourself are well
Nicole

Sandra,
best wishes for good results, we should both find out the same time.
A PET scan is a scan where they inject something like glucose that binds to cancer cells and then the area lights up on the scan. Actually a lot lights up anyway but cancer is brighter. You have to be fasting for 6 hrs so there is no glucose in your system. (hope that was acurate )

Hopeful,
I will pray for your family.

I hope you all continue to do well.

God Bless

Hi all!

Oh my goodness Leanne.... I didn't know that a G-cup was possible! We all make our own decisions, but I don't want to have any surgery if I can avoid it. Keep us informed so that we know when to send good thoughts in your direction.

Hopeful, thank you for sharing a 'dad' story. He sounds like a really special person who touched so many people in a meaningful way. Of course, sending you all my good wishes that he can come home once again.

My concert went well. The physical aspect was okay; some soreness starting around hour 9 of the rehearsals. Mentally, I am out of shape. I am having to actually work at concentrating which is new to me. And so I am adding that to the list of things I need to practice.

Sorry not to respond to each posting above, but I am under the gun to get some files back to clients. The next two weeks are jamm-packed with deadlines.

Take care all......

*susan*

Hi everyone

I went to see my breast surgeon today (he is such a sweet man).

I took a list of questions, and he was very helpful.

Q1 Can i have some scans? Ct and bone scan maybe?
Answer: He has no problem with the bone scan, he will have to put the CT scan to the board, but will see me friday to let me know.

Q2 How soon can I have an Oopherectomy?
Answer: He dictated a letter there and then to the gyn unit, stating all my facts and asking for an appointment for me asap.

Q3 I cant see that my second cancer lump IDC, (found after mastectomy) has been tested for HER2 on the pathology for my mastectomy.
Answer: he dictated a letter to pathology to see if it had been tested, and requesting the results.

He has arranged an appointment for me to see him on Friday, so he can tell me what happened when the board discussed me having a CT.

Well thats all my news at the moment ladies, I will let you know how I get on on Friday.

Best wishes to all

Maxine

hi all

Jdancer- WELCOME! I am sure you will find this group of ladies a fantastic help and support. Someone is always around to 'listen' and we all seem to be at similar stages of treatment so there is usually someone who can understand what it is you are going through at that moment.

Maxine- your onc sounds helpful which makes life so much easier doesn't it? Let us know how you get on friday.

As for me, I had a pelvic ultrasound yesterday as I had been experiencing some pain and now I seem to have a cyst on each ovary measuring 3cm each and my right ovary is stuck to my uterus with endometriosis! (big history there) Fantastic. Not. So now I am in the process of organising Gyn appts and working out when I can have surgery (yes, more of the stuff!!) working around herceptin and rads dates!! I am now wondering about having my ovaries removed? Can anyone help me what made their decision to do this easier?

Chat soon
xo

I would think depending on your age and situation the determination to have your ovaries out is such a personal choice. I currently have only one ovary because at 30 I had to have the rest of the stuff removed due to problems with fibroids and endometrios (as well as an extensive history of cists). I chose to have my kids early as I had known that cervical and uterine cancer run in my family and was very glad I did due to the problems later on. I am in the process of discusing removing the other one now and that just may happen. Before all this happened my BF and I had talked about harvesting an egg and then having a surrogate (once we can get married...lots of details there with no health insurance if we were married I would get NO help). We had not totally came to any decison on another child or not and now it looks like we will not even though he has no children. My girls are 13 and 15 and I really do not want to start over and in another 10-15 years (let hope that long..LOL) we will be grandparents anyway. Then we can send them home when we want to....LOL

I was divorced the first time very young and had made the decision at 22 to have my tubes tied for one simple reason...two children under any circumstances (married, divorced or widowed) was more then enough to finacially care for. (I just turned 36 last month).

SInce you are having marital issues this is going to be a tough decision

1. Is having my two beautiful children enough (with or without staying in the current relationship).

2. Is harvesting an egg for later use an option?

3. How old are you? (I could not remember for sure if it was posted somewhere).

Hope this gives you a little bit of insite into why I made certain decision and when....some things to think about if nothing else.

Tina

Maxine,
go girl for being pro active. Sounds like a good doctor to me.
I pray your scans will be negative as well as your test for HER.

God Bless

Maxine what is a Oopherectomy please? (well I think I have sort of worked this out from your later posting – ovary removal??). I have had a bone scan (all clear) and would also like a CT scan or PET scan at the end of treatment, although I don’t think they will give me this easily on the National Health Service (NHS). YES, no further treatment with the womb business – everything OK? (heard by letter). Reading your posts though I am wondering if it would have been ‘safer’ to have had everything removed?? (yes Maxine I understand the paranoid feeling). I still wonder why my womb was enlarged in the first place but will leave this and ask my Oncologist when I next see her. Actually next week is the first week in a long time that I will not have a hospital visit – Wowee ;-). Near Menopause at 41 Maxine?? I am 48 (nearing 49) and it hasn’t happened yet, even on ‘treatment’. I am down for Herceptin (if licence through) after rads for 1 year (is 1-year the norm?). A lady here in the UK has just lost a High Court battle against her Health Authority for the right to have funding for Herceptin. Well actually, she is getting it until her appeal is heard.

Leanne – you don’t do things by halves do you? Hugs and thoughts for fitting everything around those 2 adorable children and your family worries – as you know and as Jdancer (welcome) will hopefully appreciate, we are all here for you.

Well ladies I am off out tonight with my widowed sister-in-law – my other sister-in-law and I have sort of hatched a plan to make sure there is quite a number of us – including an unattached ‘suitable’ male – fingers crossed cos my sister-in-law is lovely and needs to ‘get a life’ – her words over the past 6 years. Her grown-up children (2 of them) treat her like a door-mat (grhhhhh).

Enjoy your weekend Ladies, whatever it throws at us.

Sandra from the UK

Lynne,
thanks for the prayers, no results yet.

Tina,
sorry to hear about your heart. Hope you can get things checked out and keep going through treatment. Is Co-enzyme10 an option for you? Stay away from sodium if you can, makes your heart work harder.

Sandra,
good to hear about clear scans!!

Have a wonderful weekend, it is bitter cold here in CO.

God Bless

Tina,

I am sure that you will get stronger again, but gosh, doesn't seem fair that you have had this setback. Let your SO and daughter help out however they can, and follow your doctor's orders.

How is your new position going?

*susan*