I say yes, you say no, OR People are Strange

Bren,

If it's the system from Ohio, batten down the hatches.  It blew through here, lots of wind and lightning!!

Just want to second the recommendations for "The Emperor of all Maladies". The author is a compelling writer and the story of how the understanding of treatment and the funding of research has evolved is interesting. 

On the topic of being "cured", my surgeon says they consider me "cancer-free", my oncologist says I am doing great and she doesn't expect me to have a recurrance, but she has patients recurr after 30 years so she never says cured. I'm three years out now and it seems like too many women I met here during chemo and such are now having recurrences. Women who did all the recommended treatments, and were on tamoxifen or an AI. It makes one nervous. Surely I don't know the whole % who recurr within 5 years?

And on the topic of folks not commenting on one's post, I thought about changing my name to "threadkiller" at one point, because it seemed that everytime I posted that was the last post on the thread! Now I don't post very often, but when I'm on in the evening (Pacific Time) I try to look around for new posts that aren't getting answered. It can get pretty lonely on here after 10 PDT!

And sometimes people just overlook one comment if the thread is moving quickly in another direction. It's not necessarily personal.

Stay safe East Coast friends. 

Update!

HL's temp is back to normal but today's walking attempt didn't go as planned.  They may keep her an extra day but DH doesn't seem overly concerned about it.

I celebrated the bone scan news by passing out and sleeping for over 3 hours.  

hillck - sorry!  I didn't see your post but I've not been on BCO much lately.  I'm glad your onc *thinks* you're cured but I'm with everybody else's opinion on that one.  It's good to have an optimistic onc, though.

revkat - I wasn't going to post just so you'd think you were still a thread-killer.  Hahahaha!

Thank you for the update, E.

I am not on FB either - pretty please to post for the benefit for those of us here everyone. Some of us have problems with the lack of privacy on Facebook but we want to be able to communicate and stay in touch and keep this thread and our friendships, plans and ideas alive.

.....with a cherry on top....and with no right to tell anyone where to post....

And hoping Cindy will return. I suppose breast cancer treatment reliability is a bit like God. Some believe, some don't and some are agnostic, so it was hard to gather a universal reaction to the words "you are cured."

I agree with you guys .. I wouldn't want Libby to go home until she was 100% ready.  After such a long arduous surgery it doesn't surprise me that they would want to keep her an extra day.

E .. no wonder you took such a big nap.  I would have been exhausted just from relief over the bone scan!

Hi Revkat!  and Sharon too!  Good to see both of you!

hugs,

Bren

I am trying to find ways to create a FB account that provides anonymity while enabling contact and spontaneity and staving off junk mail, "junk" friend requests, etc.... If I find a way, I will get it patented. :-)

Blue: Can something be done about that?

I don't know how to get rid of the 'junk' friend requests.  I don't know why people who don't know me would want to be my friend.  I only have a handful of friends and family on FB ... some people I know have hundreds and hundreds.  I don't get it .. you can't possibly know that many people!

Bren

PS .. Sunflowers, I finally had to break down and get a cell phone.  I'm not a techy!  I do like FB though for keeping in touch with family .. and sometimes Tim when he's on the road.  I don't know how to tweet either.

There have been several conversations over the years on here about the 'cure' terminology.  I think that some of us are 'cured', i.e., will never have it come back in our lifetime ... and some of us will have it recur locally ... and some of us will have it recur distantly.  But nobody knows how to tell who will end up in which group.  So you can't tell any one individual that they are definitely cured.  I still think there is good reason to be hopeful that we will never have to deal with the monster again even if we can't be certain.

Add me to the list hoping that they do not let Libby go home too soon.  That was mega surgery she had and I like the idea that they are keeping a very close eye on her. 

ETA ... I was leery of the privacy stuff on FB too but you can lock it down to where only people you have accepted as 'friends' can see your stuff.  I've hit 'ignore' on friend requests and never seen them again Bren.  The people with hundreds of 'friends' are the ones playing the games like Farmville I think.  The 'help' each other with the game.   

Wow, Blue, that might certainly explain it. Thank you for sharing the picture. No small surgery that!

One of the first things my BS said the first time I met him was that, as far as BC was concerned, they'd gotten away from using the word "cured". It felt like a slap in the face at first (and scared the crap outta me), but he went on to explain that although rare, recurrences past the 5 yr mark DO happen. It didn't mean it would happen to ME, and it didn't mean we're all doomed to die from BC, but that he would be remiss not to tell me this. I prefer "remission" or "NED" to "cure", personally.

And I've thought I was a thread killer at times, too. Usually when I've posted something that really bothers me, I toss my comment out and it just goes "plop". I try to reassure myself I'm just feeling insecure that day, it isn't intentional, the thread moves fast and that I'm not really so boring that no one wants to talk to me.

What's the rallying cry of dysleixc union organizers - Untie!!!