Calling all TNs

Wooo hooo!  Onvacation.  Doing a happy dance for you! 

 onvaca..congrats on finishing your chemo!!! Dancing with you tonight.  You should find the rads to be much easier than the chemo and hopefully this will be so for you. 

Had 2 employees call in sick today and 1 that just never bothered to show up so I had to do a 10 hr day on my feet today.  I find my stamina is just not like it used to be but made it home safely and now am enjoying this fine cabernet. thanks for the great laughs Bernie and Cocker.  I just shared your jokes with my family and we are all wiping away tears we are laughing so hard.  I Love you guys!

Maggie

ps  LE sux

Shar - have to agree with onvacation, very cool.

Ladies - the metformin trials (or those whose PCP or MO will prescribe it) are being used the same way as Tamoxifen, Arimidex or Femara) and yes, TNs can participate in the trial.  There is a discussion thread you may want to check out, including a link to the clinical trial information:

http://community.breastcancer.org/forum/73/topic/765092?page=14#idx_399

I think it makes us TNs feel like we have something to help us after we've finished standard treatments.

Hi Marshajfox, your feet and legs will definitely get better as neuropathy from chemo does eventually get better.  I am two years out, but I still have pain at the bottom of my shoulders.  The joint pain which I had from Taxol in my hands was disabling, however, it is pretty much all gone now.  Congratulations on finishing chemo.  The Rads is not as bad, except for some fatigue and skin burn.  Everything is very doable from now on.  You have finished the biggest part.  Please just one more thing - don't compare other cancer deaths with yours, each cancer, each person is different.  I also had TN, but I plan to live a full long life, which I am sure you will too, unlike your husband and mother.  But I can iunderstand your worries.  Good Luck! Let us know how your rads go.

My Calcium serum and PTH test came in and both are within range! It has been a long month. I feel like I can breathe again.

I have a question, has anyone had chemo pre and post surgery. I thought I was done, but since there is nothing else for them to do for me since I'm TN, my onc wants to give me chemo again. My first reaction was to start crying, I don't want to go through chemo again! What do u all think, anyone?

Naan1004 - I don't understand your situation very clearly.  Your diagnosis is not that bad actually, being a Stage IIa and Grade 2 (most TN's are Grade 3) and no node involvement.  It seems like you have taken all the chemo drugs which are the common ones, adrimycin, cytoxan and taxol, the same ones I got.  How many treatments did you do?  Why aren't you doing Rads?  Did they find more cancer or what?

Annie where are you going for radiaition? I have finished Chemo and am waiting to here from the Radiation  Onologist in Palmeston North. I think i will proberly start in August. I have come through Chemo pretty well but feeling a bit tired 

Hi Ladies hope you are having a good day and hopefully some rain to freshen the air for you.

Onvacation - last chemo congratulations, well done you clever girl.  Probably will be joining you on Rads soon. I'm a bit apprehensive but I'm sure it will be go fine.     

Tifj - although you have really hot summers, do you have really cold winters? Hope you and the kids enjoyed the fireworks.

Kathryn - "Dyed the lady fur neon pink: whatever will you get up to next.  You just crack me up.

Karen - thankfully someone is coming in to train the old fellar on the coffee machine.  I can't stand bitter coffee.  Great great news that your tests were normal.  You just keep on breathing away girl.

Lovelyface - why do the Indian ladies shave off all that beautful dark shiny hair, is there a reason for it.  It seems such a shame they are such beautiful ladies. I wish I had hair like them.

Spica16 - I don't know how you cope with cancer and the MS as well.  I think BC is bad enough without another illness to add to it.  You are one very brave lady. We had a shave for cancer week recently and all the nurses and reception staff at work shaved their heads for me and the Doctor's all donated for it.  Was so wonderful of them to do that for me.  So yes, nurses and other people are inspirational when they do that sort of thing.

Luah - congratulations on your follow up and no issues. Woo hoo and on making nearly three years.  You go girl.

Jan69 - "Berry Cobbler" sounds bloody nice to me.  No girl you are not a loser,  just normal. We have to have some incentives to get over this crappy BC you know.

Mags - don't overdo it with those 10 hr days.  I'm working too and my stamina is not what it used to be and seems to be getting worse. Enjoy your fine cabernet, that will perk you up.

Gemmy1 - I'm with you and stressed about recurrence.  Seems to be more and more on my mid lately.   Its funny how animals sense something is not right. My little girl Chloe sits and looks at me funny until I put my glasses back on.  She must think "my mum looks funny" or otherwise she is thinking something else to chew.

Marshajfox - Hi Marsha welcome to a wonderful group of ladies with sound knowledge and advice. I also had the swelling of my feet and neuropathy.  I put a pillow in the bottom of my bed for my feet to go on and its helps take the swelling down. In ther morning they are much better.  Hope this helps.  

CharBB - so you look like Sinead O'Connor and cancer is just a "thorn in your side".  What caused the penumonia during rads. Did you catch cold or was it the radiation.

Gabbi42 - Congratulations on finishing chemo. I will be going to Waikato for my rads.  Yes I am feeling very tired too so not looking forward to the  tiredness of radiation as well. Surely there has got to be something good coming for us soon. 

Well ladies it was a long ride to get the coffee machine.  It was such a beautiful day up there, and also a gorgeous day here apparently but we didn't have the coldness in the air that we have here and we knew as soon as we felt the cold that we were nearing home. We stopped overnight at a motel cause it was a long way for the old fellar to drive there and back in one day and we didn't leave until the afternoon so that made it easier for him and we had fish and chips for dinner last night, was yummy.      

Have a good day.  Keep cool if you can says envious me. Annie

Maggie - wow that had to be an emotional experience - so glad your son was ok!

Annie- LUV ia quite right about the weather here! This past winter though was very mild and I think we are now paying for it with a brutal summer!! Hope you are feeling well today! Yes, we enjoyed the fireworks- we can also see the city display very well from our driveway!

Wow Mags! I can only imagine the fear in your heart when you couldn't reach your son!

Naan- I am with everyone else- seek a second opinion. I too have never heard of a second round of chemo with your stats or a lumpectomy without rads.

Welcome to all the new ladies. We are here to help and have a little fun (thank you Bernie and Annie for all the great jokes!)

Naan - please get away from this doctor, as chemo twice - I have never heard of it.  Especially in your case, you should have Rads.  In addition to all that you have already had, the normal course of treatment is to add Rads to that.  I would not have another round of chemo, no way, unless there was mets.  Please be careful.

Ladies, I am so very very very lethargic. I know something is wrong. The endocronologist, remember that doc who told me that he did not appreciate me calling twice, well, I am still in the process of going back to seeing my primary care and getting anothr endocronoligist to ask for his second opinion.

My cortisol levels and other tests are normal, so the doctor had told me I did not have any thyroid related problems, except for that nodule. But I have heard that one has to take a 24 hour urine test, or at least have a saliva test which is more accurate for testing thyroid functions. I personally feel that I am suffereing from insufficient adrenal function. Can anyone please help me with this situation. Who should I see, and what should I say? There is an internet website called womenshealthnetwork.com - does anyone subscribe to it. They swear that they know how to balance adrenal but I am too afraid to do anything untraditional. In other words, why aren't the traditional doctors able to tell from blood tests if someone has adrenal insufficiency. My cortisol level taken at 7 am. was 13.3 within normal range. FSH is 68.5 (within normal), ACTH is 21(6-58 is normal). What is wrong with me? Please help, if someone was feeling like me. When I wake up in the morning, I am tired, after work, I am tired, no matter how much rest I have, I am tired. My hair is also really thinning out.

I took a tumor marker test again CA27.29 and am waiting for results on Monday. Normal range is up to 34, mine was risen from 8 to 20, but still within normal range. I think it had risen due to thyroid biopsy, but onco. says no, it won't do it. Anyone has any adrenal insufficiency information, please tell me about it, please. Thanks.

Edited by Mods to update link

Luah, I will miss your wisdom here while you are gone.  I almost depend on you, to hear from you.  In a way you are very lucky, although I don't mean that two sisters should get cancer, but in a way you two can connect with each other so closely.  My sister and I have fallen apart so badly after my experience.  I didn't feel that she was in it with me, and that she should have come to visit me no matter what, from New Zealand, but she did not and now she is talking to me asking me to come to her daughter's wedding, as if nothing happened.  I honestly don't know how to deal with any of my family members anymore.  I feel they all left me alone, too alone when I needed them.  So, in a way, you can really connect with your sister and have a wonderful time since you understand each other so well, now, especially after this experience.  We will miss you.  Wishing you a wonderful time, and make a lot of cherished memories to last a lifetime.