Spirited and Lively Older Women Thread

Good night, Barb!   Sounds like my lst reaction to penicillin and then later when they found out I was allergic to shell fish.   Did you eat something that may have triggered it or do you think it is a contact allergy? You need to go back and figure out everything you ate and were exposed to before it happened.   Hope you are back to normal soon. 

BTW, for BC research I donate to Dr. Love's foundation, but there are probably others as well; just my preference.  My other medical donations stay local. (we have a great facility, and whenever we can, we help new projects).

Hello over on this thread Lyn Michael!



Thanks for the taffy picture Marybe! It looks WAY better than I expected! Me want.

Geez, Marybe, you had a feeling it might be high, but how high can that number go anyway?  They might as well scan you real good and find out why your markers are up there and do something about it, but I hope it turns out to be just some weird abnormality about the numbers not even being a good indication about what is going on.  Maybe it is some weird way that your body reacts to Xeloda.   

Lyn:  Welcome to this board, I know I have seen you on others!

Marybe:  {{{{Hugs}}}} 

BarbA:  Yikes!  Hope the Zyrtec worked for you.  Are you doing any better today?

Phyllis

Well, thanks Barb, you believe what you want to believe, but I know that tumor markers are reliable for me and jeeze they went up almost 1000. 

The nurse who gave me the bad news is so sweet....she called tonight and I was telling her how I just don't know what to do.  I don't want SEs that are going to ruin my life yet I want to live.  And I don't care what anyone says....no SEs for me, means it is not working....that's the way I am and the way it always has been with me. She told me she thinks I am incredible which I think is BS and I told her so....said compared to so many women I know, I have had it easy. Then I asked her and I said I know you aren't supposed to tell me this, but is Wendy dead? and she said yes and how sad because she was so young.  She was the one who was doing so well on the halaven and then Bam all of a sudden she ended up with brain mets and the last time I saw her she was in a wheel chair and didn't look like the same person....and she had two little girls...and I mean little, like under 7.  And I have no idea what is going on with my friend Cyndi, the one I gave the electric blanket to.....she called me from the hospital when I was in MO and was having a pic line put in for antibiotics.....had decided on no more chemo, had her port removed and got an infection.   I asked the nurse about her and she said she stopped being a patient there and they hadn't had any notification about her.  I can't get any response when I leave messages on her cell phone.  Now that lady was incredible in my opinion....she had been on chemo of one sort or another for 2 1/2 years!...could barely walk or talk cuz her voice was shot and she just kept plugging along....the finally she decided enough was enough.  And there are so many women on these threads that have really had it hard. So I am not special at all, I am just plugging along and hoping we come up with something that works that isn't going to knock me down and out.   The nurse says I just need to tell Dr.Cody how I feel, but I told her he isn't that easy to talk to and she said I should tell him that, that maybe he needs to hear that from a patient.  Heck, I don't know anything, but I think I need to sleep on this for a few days. 

They scheduled my CAT scan for th end of the month, but I called the hospital and am going Monday at 6:45....I don't want to wait almost a month to find out what is going on with my liver.  Liver function is still normal and I feel fine so I just don't see how the tumors can keep growing and aren't causing me problems.   I will call tomorrow and get a bone scan scheduled.  I am supposed to stay on the Xeloda until we find out what the scans show, but this is my break week anyway. And today my INR was 2.1 after two days of being off warfarin altogether so they are having me take 2.5 mg daily.....I have never taken that low of a dose so maybe Xeloda is doing something good.....getting me off the blood thinners....yeh, right. When I get my own little machine for which I am being trained to use Mon afternoon, I may just start substituting a big fat margarita every night for the pills and see how that goes.   This disease is enough to drive one to drink big time!

Take a pic of your chipmonk look.  What is the doctor saying?  

Thanks, Lisa. I will be OK.  It doesn't take much to get my one track mind going in another direction.  Right now I am soooooo very upset with my father buying a new car, upset over anyone selling an 89 yr old man with a cane who is very wobbly when he walks a car, that I can't worry too much about my latest report.  I bet he didn't even check with his ins co and they are for sure going to raise his rates since this last wreck was the 3rd one that was his fault in less than two years!!  

Yikes Barb, just saw the pic.  Does it itch?  Does hydrocortisone cream help?   

Marybe - my thoughts and prayer are with you as you think about what you want to do next.  Whatever you decide will be right for you and hope you know that you are truly loved by many, especially me.

BarbA - Good Grief girlfriend!  Hope you get to feeling better and the swelling goes down soon.  Did you ever figure out if it was something you ate or came in contact with?  Hope the steroids are not making you too crazy.  Tale care my friend. 

Marybe, I can only offer my love and support for the crap you are plowing through this week. Next week, different piles!!!

Barbara A I had something like that happen to me when I took a drug for a lung infection years ago, but my lower face was so swollen it was actually weeping through the pores!!! The hospital gave me a Benadryl to bring down the swelling and it started to slowly work. The steroids you're on will add to the swelling won't it? How will you know what is steroids and what is the issue? FYI, it doesn't look THAT bad from the angle you took it at. I saw you last in Niagara on the Lake. 

I'm being totally selfish here ... all this talk about Komen and research and costs ... I have had two family members affected by ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) and I've seen firsthand how ALS Chapters truly help family members in concrete ways. My niece is currently battling ALS and I've put links on my FB page but will unabashedly beg here also ... if you have a few bucks and don't know that your $2 or $5 truly goes to research if you give to BC orgs (other than our favorite, breastcancer.org, which does) then I implore and beg you, give a dollar or two to ALS. Please PM me for my ALS donation page if you haven't seen it on your FB page from me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Marybe - sending you hugs along with everyone else. I don't know what else to say. I hope and pray that this time the tumor markers are wrong.

Re your dad and his new car. First of all, who the hell rented a stooped, cane walking 89 year old a car so he had transportation to go out looking for a new car in the first place.  The way we got my dad to stop driving was by refusing to take him to buy a new car when his died. Since he couldn't get to a dealership, he couldn't buy a car. The people at the dealership should be held libel if he gets into an accident. Then, there's the insurance company. He's got to be costing them money. I'm surprised anyone would insure him. 

I've been lurking the last few days - no time or energy to post. Our family has it's own DAD issues. Early Tuesday a.m. - like 1:00 a.m - my soon to be 93 yo Dad decided to go for a walk, in the pouring rain. He managed to get about a mile from home before the police picked him up. He had fallen and had some abrasons on his face, but was otherwise fine. He spent the night in the hospital. He definitely has some form of dementia - no short term memory at all, not oriented to current date, asking for people long dead. But he still knows all his children, knows what to do with household objects, usually exhibits common sense and still has some problem solving capabilities - a very different profile from my mother's Alzheimers. He's never wandered before.

He lives with my DB #2, who is currently on vacation in South Africa. DB #1 is staying with him and slept through Dad leaving the house, the police ringing the door bell and numerrous phone calls from DB#4 before finally waking up from his ambien induced slumber. Up until now, we've felt ok about leaving Dad alone for short periods of time and overnight on Saturday. That obviously will have to change. He hasn't been left alone since his midnight adventure.There's no apparent change in his day to day mental function. DB#1 installed an alarm on the front door and put a note on the door telling Dad not to go outside by himself. He's always been able to respond appropriately to notes left around the house - I don't know about this one. Once DB#2 gets back from his vacation, we have some decisions to make - not looking forward to that at all.

   I guess we who still have Dads should just be thankful for that, but I was just absolutely furious when he called me up with the news that he had bought a new car.   Guess if I live long enough, I will be making stupid decisions also......if fact I often question some I have already made, like getting married for insurance!!! WTH was I thinking. 

Marlegal, I will PM you about donating to ALS.....my best friend from way back when, the one who was in the pic with me in fact who used her miles to fly me to MDA and I was in that contest....her father died of Lou Gehrig disease and it was so sad to watch him lose one function after another....lst he was still walking around for exercise, but his arms just sort of hung down to the side, then he couldn't walk, then he was unable to feed himself and at the end the only way he could communicate was by blinking his eyes....he was only 60..  I have often said there are worse things than cancer if you look around. 

marypraying for your scan results... Joyce, HOW did you think to ask him if he had put thrm BOTH on one foot? i'd never thought of that!!!(but) i'm the one in this house doing crazy crap just like that!!!i must say; thats' the best laugh i've had in awhile............3jaysbe