2012 sisters

Any chance anyone developed a mild but persistent cough and/or burning nasal passages during AC treatments? Can't tell if I have a cold or not (although I've been surrounded by little children cold germs...). Thanks!

mcook - hang in there with the TEs. You might actually get kind of used to them after awhile. I had surgery July 10th and while I feel them some - I don't feel them nearly as much as I used to. Granted I don't have a whole lot in them - get only 60 cc's each fill, and think I'm up to 300 cc's at this point...

lovely... thanks, Tazzy. Just one more thing to love about all this crap! I put in a call to my MO just in case, since I've been coughing for well over a week. But with no fever I imagine all is well. My poor little guy - I totally snapped at him this morning about spreading germs, when all he really wanted was a big hug from mommy. Did I really think a 4 year old would understand about my nadir??? Ah... life goes on. At least the fog from round 2 seems to have mostly lifted. Hope you're all feeling good today!

Ramols: I had the cough too, as well as a runny nose and eyes. The nose hairs also fall out, right? Maybe that has something to do with the burning, or maybe it is just that the sensitive membranes have temporarily been damaged by the chemo. Glad you're feeling better, though.

Tazzy: Here's to many happy hours in your greenhouse, and to enjoying the literal fruits of your labour in there!

Jpmomof3, so sorry to hear about the lymphedema. The sleeve should help. I don't have lymphedema (not yet!), but wore one recently when flying, and did not experience any swelling. Maybe wearing it when running is a good idea. A friend of mine with  bc gets some arm swelling when walking. She says pumping her hand by opening and closing in a fist helps a lot for that. Like you I will be really ticked off if I get it. We have enough to deal with as it is. I am upset because my shoulder and surrounding muscles are so stiff from the rads. Don't want this asshole illness to debilitate me any further than it already has. Screw cancer!

Mcook, my PS is making sounds of filling my TE some more now that I'm having contraction around it after rads. It was overfilled a little long before rads to compensate for that. The fills were really unpleasant for me too, but if she's insisting on filling me some more, it will be no more than a TEASPOON at a time. I don't know how it has to go in, because it is contracted really tightly. Sigh!

Everybody else, have a very good day. I'm off to the gym now to see if I can loosen up my frozen shoulder muscles. Want to go swimming too, because I think that will be good too, but the pool is closed for maintenance. Dang!

Thanks for info about TE and for the most part I can deal with them but what a Pain in the ass! Atleast I feel like they don't look too awful. I expected to wake up from surgery and be so depressed by how they looked. But it was another situation, my Pre fear mind set was worse than the reality.



I am so pissed about my short term insurance company right now! I have not taken any time off from work until surgery! When I have called them to check status, they have continually said they had the paperwork from FMLA on my approved leave but again said their fax machines were getting worked on last week so maybe that is the reason they still don't have it! I am going to be screwed if they don't process a check in next two weeks! Just me! I have savings but I did not want to dip into that! I guess this is the case but dam it! That was for my house and my trip to Italy not to pay for fucking co payments, drugs, and time off work. I know I am lucky I have insurance but this sucks and so unfair when you work your ass off 24/7 for last six years of my life to have to use my vacation and savings for this Dam diease! Whew!!!! I feel better yelling at my iPad now:) just one other thing to get through!



so I baked my first ever cheesecake and still in the oven! pumpkin cheesecake and hopefully dam thing turns out ok:)

Mcook, short term is one that I am blessed with. Mine has kicked in and thankfully, bills will be paid!! Yay! My health insurance pays 80% for prescriptions. How expensive is Tamoxifen and Hercepin? Ugh I hate BC!

Mcook: Thanks for the update on little Maiya. It sucks that she has to get chemo, but as a 2-year old she will be blissfully unaware, and will not have the anticipation and dread that an adult has going into this. I know a little boy who had a huge tumour removed from one of his kidneys along with the affected kidney. He was just 18 months old at the time, and received chemo for six months afterwards. It was much harder for his parents than for him, and today he is a normal, healthy, energetic 3-year old little boy. Still gets check-ups reguarly, but his prognosis is excellent. Hopefully it will be the same for little Maiya. The other big blessing in her case is that she will probably not remember any of this.

Chrissera, congrats on being done with chemo and especially for having such good news n the MRI. Sorry you are having job issues. So much of this shit just isn't fair. Rant away. That's all I feel like doing these days too. There is just so much to rant about.



Mcook, sorry to hear about the insurance bullshit too. I am sure it will work out before long but man is it scary and frustrating. Unfortunately if is left to us to be on top of things because no one else will and they make so many mistakes and we just don't need that type of stress on top of everything else.



I just got measured for a lymphedema sleeve. Yippee. Though I ran 3.5 miles and nothing got worse. I will pick up the sleeve in a couple days. Not sure how much I will use it yet. Just keeping an eye on the pitting skin on my forearm. I will do my manual lymph drainage and keep my arm high. Yeehaaaa. When does this shit ever stop?



I think tamoxifen is cheap. Herceptin is 10 grand a dose...

Chrissera, the bc did take my job, but I survived. I had too many days off so I was terminated. And, yes its legal, I used up my FMLA, and used up my descretionary leave, and, obviously, my supervisors patience. Oh, well gota just get through it. I don't know what the future will bring, and maybe I should be happy I don't! LOL I just keep chugging along, "I think I can, I think I can! LOL much love

Mcook, I feel ya and you're right, only us ladies on this board can honestly say "I know how you feel". My husband, bless the saintly man I married, catches himself when I am in a mood as you are now and wants to say "I understand" but he's so afraid I flip out on him because as much as he wants to understand, he can't. All he can do is comfort me as I go into a psychotic break down and ramble about nonsense, usually. Let me tell you, THIS WAS NOT ME BEFORE I WAS DIAGNOSED!!! I am cool and collected. Almost alway calm. Now I have to take a nerve pill to go into a Drs office because it's all too new to me. Plastic surgeon? Oncologist? I never pictured me there.



I know venting in our virtual room helps so feel and we all listen and empathize. I'm sorry today is your day for the breakdown. Mine is coming, don't worry. I have my first appt with my Oncologist on Thursday. I know the chances of me having to make the chemo decision is looming and I'm dreading it. Then I hear all of yalls stories a about Tamoxifen and I cringe. I find myself crying and asking "What did I do to deserve this????".



Im here for ya.

Mcook,



I had a hysterectomy almost 4 years ago. They left my ovaries. Couldn't I just opt for them to take them now since that's where the Estrogen comes from? Or does it come from elsewhere?? I understand that Tamoxifen can help the ER/PR+ but the side effects that come with it make me wonder if it's a good idea. Everything I read basically tells me that whether it's hormone therapy, taking ovaries, etc stops your libido and that makes me so depressed. I mean, why not, this fucking disease has taken everything else why not that too. Ugh!

Christine, that sounds like a great course-is it given at a local university or hospital?

Hi Susannah: It's given at our local university....University of Toronto.....somewhere during the course there is a one-day retreat.....doyou think Hawaii is too far for the day.....LOL.....BTW how was the wedding?

Haha, mcook I love it too! I have stressors in my life of course but in my room, in our bed, all of that disappears and it's my time (and DH of course). It's something we never had to work at, its just always amazing. Thats not something that just happens every day, ya know? That time is already disrupted and I most certainly do not want it to get worse. Blah.

I hope we all have minimal side effect on that one bring on all the dam not flashes you want but let's stick that SE!

  HI, THIS IS MY FIRST TIME ON THIS WEBSITE.  I THINK MY DOC SAID HE WOULDN'T DO THE SENTINAL NODE THING--MY BIOPSY SHOWED TWO POSITIVE NODES AND DOC REMOVED A TOTAL OF 14.  ONLY TWO WERE POSITIVE, BUT HAD ONE UNDER MY COLLARBONE THAT WAS INOPERABLE.  ANYONE ELSE HAD THAT HAPPEN?  I KNOW THAT'S NOT A GOOD THING BUT, OH WELL, IT IS WHAT IT IS!