Calling all TNs

Karen...I wish I could come sit on your porch too! Sounds like you have had an amazing week! Enjoy the parade!

Nice one, Bernie.  I love your posts

Two and a half weeks PFC and now the Taxotears kick in.  So annoying and not good when one's face is painted on in soft kohl pencil.  Looking like a badger all the time.  Willing my hair/eyelashes/eyebrows to grow back faster.  Did everyone's hair come back in the same as before chemo, or did it come back different?  I just have the "peach fuzz" at the moment so can't tell.

EnglishRose,

I started getting grey hair very young and so was dyeing my hair most of my life so I KNEW the colour would be different when it grew in - what I didn't expect was the CURLS. I now have short, white, curly hair. Only started going out "au naturel" in the last week or two as I found my hair way too short and have already been called a "poodle" and a "labradoodle" (by close friends in a good natured way). What I don't know is whether or not the curls will stay, someone further past tx may be able to answer that one - I finished chemo in July.

Good luck in your wait. It does take a while to grow back in.

Love to all our sisters going through tx, dealing with SEs or just needing a hug.

Doreen

Hi Ladies

Talking of hair,  my own hair is/was a light auburn but I have come back in two tones of grey with silver tips (you could hang me on the christmas tree and you wouldn't know the difference between a bauble and me).  I do like the silver tips though goodness knows where they come from.  I was also very wavy before and now its as straight as, not one curl in sight.  Its also still very short even though I finished  chemo early June. The only trim I have needed was around my ears because it started to curl over my glasses.  Would be so lovely if we could all get together and see each other.  (One day perhaps!!)

NavyMom hope it was not too hard on you with your son leaving.  I can imagine just how tough that would be for you but with you seeing  your grandson at Christmas hopefully this might be able to make up a little for your loss. Your boy will be home before you know it.      

Karen with all that you manage to get done in a day makes me feel so tired just thinking about doing half of it.  I just don't know how you do it manic or not.  I would just love to see your christmas parade and sit on the porch and listen to your son's playing in the band.

DorMac bet your white curly hair looks absolutely smashing. Fancy some silver tips to go with it??

Mags glad you are healing well.  Once you get the other boob done you will look like a teenager again. Lucky you.

EnglishRose could it be the time of year making you teary (Christmas). I am always like that around Christmas especially when I hear those lovels carols being played. 

Today I have iced another cake. This one is for my workplace.  I am going to make a frosted church with bells and shiny windows for it with a pond in a pretty coloured blue with a swan on it and a snowman with a jaunty hat, carrot nose and fashionable scarf.  Hope they like it.  Each year I do a different theme on it but this year the church caught my eye so hopefully it will look good for them.   

My poor Tessa (Cocker Spaniel) has been very poorly with pancreatitis.  I have never seen her so ill and it worried the hell out of me.  For three days she vomited with tummy pains and then at the end had diarrhoea.  It all started after the old fellar gave her a big ham bone to chew. The vet said it would have had too much fat on it for her tummy. She had to go into vet hospital for two days and be on the drip.  I was so scared I was going to lose her but she has finally come through it and seems a lot better although not quite back to her jaunty self.  I am so pleased it really would have been a lousy Christmas without her. So the old fellar has been told no more bones.  He thought he was doing something right by giving her a bone.   She's on a strict diet now which is just as well cause she was getting a bit tubby around the tummy.  Gonna take her for a run on the beach now and a dip in the lake cause its a beautiful day. 

Have a good day my friends, keep well and I hope your side effects and worries are few.  Annie 

ROFL Annie!!!  And I hope your puppy is feeling much better. 

I hope everyone is having a fantastic weekend.  We have decorated the tree and the mess is all cleaned up.  DH was ambitious and vacuumed everything so it looks pretty nice!

All those posts today about getting ports out reminds me I have to have mine out. I can just see me being like this picture below lol

When I had my lumpectomy two years ago, it was my first time in the hospital since 1980!!!  It was all surreal that I was having surgery.  Now, after two years, it's pretty much "old hat" LOL!

Annie - my DH would love to visit Australia and New Zealand!  It's on his bucket list and I hope that I can muster the strength to make that happen before this crappy disease takes me down.  He heard the doctor tell me not to vacuum after one of my surgeries and so he's been pretty good about doing it - just not often enough. But I don't always have the energy to do it either so I hired a cleaning service that will start on Wednesday.  He has enough to worry about and I really don't want him or me spending our time together on cleaning chores. 

By the way, my port removal was done in the surgeon's office. It was not a big deal.  Of course, I'm seeing the surgeon Wednesday to talk about getting a replacement.  C'est la vie!

I am a newly diagnosed tn, 1.2 cm tumor, 1 day after I turned 40. I had mastectomy on 11/7/12, and am ready to start chemo next week.... TC 4 treatments... Very healthy and fit and had a great big 40th bday party. Started at my new job the week I was diagnose for bc! What a timing!



Any advise for the newbie?

Welcome Yananma!

Great advice coming from you ladies as usual which will certainly help to put the newbies at ease and help with all their worries about chemo etc. as it did me.

LUV you would love New Zealand at the moment. Its lovely and warm but not bakingly so yet and is so pretty in the spring but don't talk about a bucket list. None of us is going to need one of those for years yet,  just make it a plan or a dream then you will do it. So sorry you have to go and have a port put back in.  I really don't think I have ever hated anything in my life until all of the ladies on here and myself got cancer.  It just sux big time.  

Welcome Yan.  Yes unfortunately bad timing for your new job but hopefully you have a kind and understanding new employer.  You will do fine as we all have done but you are very welcome to  rant, cry, swear and anything else at the unjustice of this.   Everyone of us will hold your hand through the ups and downs  and you will be surprised at how quick the time goes. Just hang in there girl you will make it.  

Not long to Christmas ladies.  I love this time of year and its especially nice this year as I didn't think I would be here. Hopefully Santa will call on me again and bring me some extra special chokkies to eat.

Annie            

Wishing everyone a Happy December. I haven't been here much but have been catching up on posts tonight.

Wanted to show you one of my Solstice Cards. I keep on drawing and painting.

I see the radiation oncologist Thursday. It will be my one year follow up. Time actually moves forward.

My best to everyone here.

Bernie - what an adorable pooch!!!

Annie (and everyone) - when I mention bucket lists, it's because I am stage IV and I can't deny it.  The prognosis for me is not good, especially now that I've had brain mets.  I will see my oncologist on Wednesday to decide on chemo (probably carboplatin and gemzar) and I will also see my surgeon to make a date for a new port.  I am doing everything I can to fight this f'ing beast, but right now I'm on the losing end.  I need a miracle, a serious medical breakthrough.  It's scary at this point to think that I may not be here at this time next year - the average survival once you have brain mets is just one year.  Nothing about my cancer has been average, it's been screamingly aggressive.  I am trying to make plans for living life in 3-6 month increments so that I have things to look forward to.  I am hopeful and I won't give up the fight.  Despite giving it my all, I may not win as the odds are stacked against me.

I'm not looking for sympathy, just your understanding of the reality of my situation.  My husband has this on his bucket list and I'd love to be well enough to go with him; and if the carbo/gemzar works, we may be able to pull it off.

We haven't heard from Inmate (Dawn) and I suspect she's going through a journey similar to mine.  I hope I'm wrong, but she is also Stage IV and had radiation for brain mets.  It would be wonderful to hear from her or one of her friends to know how she is doing and to let her know we are all keeping her in our thoughts and prayers.  I hope someone can shed some light.

Thanks for undertanding. 

Hugs to all,

Michelle

Speaking of hair, mine was always curly, and it has come back the same way...   I was hoping for straight.  It is coming back gray because of my age and is only about 3 inches long even though it has 7.5 months since chemo.  It used to grow fast but seems to be snail's pace now.  It is sticking up and curling all over the place and looks horrible.  I may take the advise of a straightening iron because I cannot seem to control it.

Luv, hoping you get that trip and agree, it would be nice to get an update on Dawn.

Fighter, thanks for the tip.  I also started taking a baby aspirin a day so will be extra vigilent.

Navymom - hugs!



Luv - I hear you! I'm doing 6 months at a time. I am on gemzar/carbo. Here's a tip - start taking Miralax, the day before treatment - stay on it for the first few days or so. The gemzar gives me muscle spasms - wish I had

known that was a SE - it alarmed me when my uterine wall started hurting. I hope it keeps your FC at bay!

Luv - you're amazing.  You can't leave any regrets as you move forward.  Keep on keeping on. 

I am friends with Inmate on facebook.  Last she posted that she had her lung drained but also a friend posted after she had been to visit, so she's still getting out.  She's likely busy with everything else.  She knows we're thinking of her.  As for the others, I don't know but I to wish we would hear something.