Calling all TNs

Wow, all this talk of stress and cancer has me really thinking. Heather, I too am an only child. I lost my mom in 2010 after she spent a month in the hospital after suffering a few heart attacks. At that same time I had to leave my job after a computer security breach I was accused of.. (left my logon info unsecured). I am now medicaly retired. Then my stepson got himself in a huge legal mess. I discovered the tumor July of 2011 and waited to go to the doctor. I put everyone else first, my yougest was getting married, DH was having knee replacement.. so I waited till Oct. STRESS STRESS.. yep

It's me first now, always! I will not put ANYTHING or anyone in front of me.

Annie, I swear you could be the identical twin of a friend of mine!! You guys look so alike it's freaky! When I first saw your avatar, I thought it was her!

Inmate, I love to garden to relieve my stress. Planting flowers, and creating beauty! I will add that my energy levels are not as great as yours, (could you spare a few viles). DH now creates from my guidance.

I'd say stress was probably a big part of my dx, too. I've had financial problems most of my married life - dh has lost job after job after job - all through no fault of his own - companies have moved, closed, downsized, etc. I'm the major bread winner which is very, very stressful. I never wanted to be a full-time working mom, and I've been pretty resentful, but after 6 years of counseling, I've finally learned to accept it. Throw in a preemie baby and a mom dx'd with MS 11 years ago, and yup...stress sucks.

Cocker_spaniel - Taxol has been much easier, although I'm more nauseaus with this last treatment, but it's not too bad. I've lost my eyebrows and lower lashes, but I have more energy than I did on A/C. I hope you don't have many SEs with it.

You're so right, Heather, we have to put ourselves first now.  It's not horrible, it's survival.

 My Lexipro dosage is 5mg once a day.  I hope it kicks in soon. 

Annie, I smoked for years, quit exactly 2 months before being diagnosed.  What a kick in the a**!

Mccrimmon- I know its ironic that you stopped two months before diagnosis but what an achievement. It has surely got to benefit you.  Well done, wish I could do it.

Onvacation - I have picked a quit day so many times its not funny.  Funnily enough my oncologist said not to try at the moment but when I have finished treatment to give up then. She said why would you want to beat cancer and then get lung cancer.  She's so right but its hard.

One made it, one is going to make it. Good on you girls. I hope I do too. Annie  

I quit smoking a year before being dx...i have did well until Jan. of this year, and I picked it back up. I keep telling myself why do you want to do this, you beat bc and am setting yourself up for lung cancer.??? I don't smoke much at all and sometimes I will go for days  without one.  

Heather I wish we had  a "like" button on here, I would like your comment lol!

DOH deleted my post because I don't know how to read!  Think it is time to go to bed! 

Here's to a great week! 

To all my fellow TNs who are smokers and drinkers..Chk out this link:

http://hormonenegative.blogspot.com/2011/04/smoking-and-alcohol-use-not-associated.html 

I had been a smoker and drinker for 45 years. When I was dx I just knew that was the reason I got BC.Well guess what...not true. Click on the above link. When my RO said absolutely no tobacco products during tx, I quit cold turkey.Haven't started again but if the f*cking cancer returns, I'm going out and buying a carton. Do I miss the cigs? Not so much, as none of my friends smoke so I was "in the closet" for the last 10 years. Just saying, don't beat yourself up thinking that is what caused your cancer. My cousin who never drinks or smokes was dx'd with lung cancer 2 years ago....it seems it is all just a crap shoot.

I had to laugh at the blog that states drinking alcohol might be good for TNBC. Cheers!

Hi everyone,

Gillyone, I totally agree with you that none of us know why we got cancer.  I think every single human being today has a huge stress on their shoulders, not one person is spared.  We all can think of a huge stress just before our cancer, but even if we didn't get the cancer, one stress after another has become a huge fact of everyone's life, as the morality of our society declines in every part of our lives.  I am East Indian and according to our scriptures, the present period called the "kaliyuga" meaning the "dark times" was mentioned ages ago when our Lord Rama walked on earth.  He predicted that a time would come when morality will decline, spirituality and religion will be no more, and disease will be everywhere.  Just before the golden age, the kaliyuga will prevail at its worst, which seems to correspond with our current day.  This is written in our vedas, the Indian scriptures.

Throughout my life, amongst us Indians whenever we listen to the news or hear of bad things happening, I have seen people nodding their heads and saying "this is kaliyuga".  It is very common for Indians to understand this period of time.  It also mentioned global warming and wars. Mention the word "kaliyuga" to any Indian and he will know immediately.

Above, I meant to say was that - how is it possible to have less stress or no stress at any given point in our life these days.  Before, there was more love and selflessness amongst people, there was empathy and compassion each felt for the other, now there is none.  Everyone has fears and their fears are coming true.  Really bad times.

When I had mentioned earlier that maybe the flaxseeds had given me a few painful lumps on my breasts, well, I just want to correct that - those painful stuff could have come from other things too.  I hope it does not discourage anyone from trying the budwig protocol.

Frankly, I have met so many women with different variations of lifestyles, some don't eat meat, some have never eaten fast food in their lives, some are fit and have no fat, but they have all had BC.

My personal theory is that (and my phD Onc. told me that the theory that environment causes cancer has been proven), the environment is mimicking all hormones in living things, including animals.  Nobody knows how it plays a role but the environment is playing a role in both negative and positive BC.  In my case, I know that something declined pretty badly in my body when I was 47.  I had all sorts of symptoms for which I had tons of blood tests done, and many scans and what not.  Nothing was ever found, except one single thing stood out - a blood test which showed that I had >20 ER, whereas normal for postmenopausal was >41.  There was a note which said "this should be interpreted with caution".  From that point on, I could clearly tell that I had hardly any estrogen to work with, it had declined pretty badly.  When I eat flaxseeds (not the budwig protocol), I feel very energetic.  I honestly feel that it helps me get some ER in my body.  But I am not sure why I got those painful spots last week.  I honestly believe that this complexity of hormones (either lack of, or too much of)  is giving women all kinds of diseases,  fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, painful hips and joints, some lose all their hair - all hormonal issues.

I hope no one gets offended by my post, this is just all my own opinion.  All of it.  I am a kind of a very opinionated woman, sorry  - it comes from 54 years of living and personal experiences.  Please forgive me if any part of this bothers anyone.

Cocker_Spaniel,

I'll take that hug please and thank you...first Oncologist appt tomorrow.

As for what triggered the cancer...well now let me start;

I am in the best shape of my life, non smoker, yoga fan, love to bicycle and walk, great BMI, clean eater/love to cook, social drinker no processed foods ,over 50 and looking young, happily married and oh yeah, TNBC as well. So there goes that healthy theory. Oh and of course, no history of BC in our large family. Felt 'off' for the past 2 years, amazing considering how hard I worked at staying fit and healthy.

Ativan is my new friend. My best friend has lung cancer/mets brain, my other gf has ovarian, terminal now, my other friend has always grown organics, master gardener with a  personal trainer, just finished ovarian cancer treatment NED.

Cancer sucks big time. Hate this shite and I am just getting started.

Just to clarify, my reason for quitting to begin with.  We were going on vacation and I would have been the only smoker.  I didn't feel like holding everyone up with "oh, let me have a quick one before we go in"  Things of that nature.  It wasn't so much the cancer reasoning.  I figured I had just turned 41 a week before I quit, way to young for cancer.

Within the past year, I've lost quite a bit of weight, quit smoking and exercise a lot more.  I have to say, I feel wonderful.  I haven't felt this good in years, I'm really enjoying the "new" me.  As far as drinking, I try to limit myselt to 2 a week, which works well because we might go out to eat once a week.  I'll be moving home and seeing my friends again next week so that could change. 

(((Maureen))) 

The lexipro may take a couple of weeks to get its full effect, it's very gradual.  Ask your doc for an anti-anxiety med, like xanax or I believe a lot of women get ativan as well.  This will help for immediate need, especially before going to a drs appt.  My script for xanax is only .5 milligram, doesn't sound like much but does take the edge off and keep me calm

Good luck at your appointments.