February 2011 chemo pals

Thanks for the reply mamav ! I havnt had my thyroid checked yet. I see my oncologist in next month and I'll mention it to him. He wants to switch me to arimidex at that time too so maybe I'll see an improvement once I start that. Chemo put me in menopause too But I came out of it and my onc wanted me back in it, thus the ovaries out. I'm just not feeling 100% and sometimes wonder why it's taking so long to get back to normal. I'll be 39 in October and am worried I'll feel like I'm 60 shortly. Not that's there's anything wrong with being 60, I just want to wait until I AM 60 before I feel like it. I'll def ask my onc about the thyroid. Thanks again

Thanks Special K, i think i might do that. oh to have three weeks of feeling good! and just to get a better grasp on how and why i feel the way I do. a bit of reassurance that im not going crazy, lol Hope everything is well with you. thanks for your reply. Happy Friday! 

Happy Friday to the ladies of Feb 2011!  Ruffy - glad to help!

Thanks Ruffy...I was wondering...I looked into having them removed because I really didn't want to go through these hot flashes again.  You will most definitely want to take Calcium and Vit D if you do not have your ovaries.  When you're 105 years old you want to be standing upright! 

I have a heaping handful of pills myself!  Aside from the prescribed ones, I take several "C-Killers".  If I only had a pill that would make me smell bad to anyone who causes me stress...LOL  You know, like garlic does to mosquitos....

mel - Hi!!!!!!!  Good to "see" you!  Sorry to hear about your thyroid, but I think problems with it are pretty common with BC ladies.  Hopefully they can get you straightened out quickly.  I also heard that news about staying on Tamoxifen longer - eek!  I am on Arimidex, have the typical aching in the joints, but not as bad as it was on Femara.  I might scream if my MO suggests longer than 5 years - I am already counting the days until I can come off of it.  I am having fat grafting surgery on Friday, hopefully my last surgery!  Should be the icing on the cake that has been my recon experience!  I hope the other Feb. '11 ladies chime in and say hello!

Hi ladies!  I'm hanging in there too!  Still wish my hair would grow faster!  Been on Arimidex for 1 year too (after 3 months on Tamoxifen) - tolerable as long as I work out every day!  Just trying to live life to the fullest!

Hi crog, mamav and ruffy - good to "see" you!  Ruffy sorry about the flu, crog glad you are hanging in and knitting, glad that the revision did the trick and you are healing, mamav - keep growing that hair and working out, I am trying to do the same!  I am having a fat grafting surgery tomorrow morning, hope it goes well.  I hope everyone has a great holiday - I am ready early (for once!) because I am not sure how I will be feeling after tomorrow!

Will be thinking of you tomorrow SpecialK..



Cindy

Special K, hope all is well and you're on the mend

Mama of two, this is my neighbours farm. We live out in the sticks, very peaceful and quiet which is good for us. I do get a bit of cabin fever at times. We don't have any horses but alot of our neighbours do

Hope everyone is doing well, we've come a long way!

mel - my hair is thin but looks basically the same as before tx.  It was thin to begin with!  Interestingly, I went to the PCP today for a couple of regular medicine refills and to get a referral for my LE sleeves, and when I remarked on being hot all the time she suggested that we should check my thyroid...

All went well with the fat grafting surgery - he took more fat (or I possibly had more fat, lol!) than he though he would, so yay for me!  I am sore but did not have to take pain meds beyond Sunday.  I am in a compression garment 24/7 - which is weird, but OK. Basically feels like I have been beat upall over - not too much bruising - I thought that would be worse. My post-op is tomorrow so I will be curious to talk to him about his thoughts.  The places he grafted look awesome - just hope it does not reabsorb.

fuzzy - my hair did the opposite - don't have to shave as much, and rarely have to pluck a stray eyebrow.  I did somehow get the menopausal mustache thing back again.  That actually grew back before my hair did - WTF?  So glad you have a NED bone scan - yay!

I'm just going to say it. I'm jealous of the thick hair! I loved playing with and fixing my hair. Now it only looks good one or two ways. I used to curl it, crimp it, braid it, put it in a side bun, fishtail it...and so on and so on...gosh I miss that! And as for hair everywhere else. It's all thin as well. Even my eyebrows are not really there. I have to fill them in every day..which gets redundant. 

Anyways special k-glad your fat grafting went well! How is the LE holding up? I've been dealing with it since last April and have had 3 flairs...boo! It's just so darn inconvienant and time consuming. 

Fuzzy- sorry about the recon struggles! But yay for a clean bone scan! I had my yearly breast MRI yesterday. No report yet, but I'm expecting all clear too! 

Speaking of beards, I had a pt today that had tons of hair under her chin..not really on her chin but the space between her chin and neck. I felt really bad for her.. she was young too...so I don't know. 

So good to catch up with you all. 

mel - my LE is holding stable - although it is slightly worse than it was initially.  At one point the subject of a night sleeve was broached - I thought great - I will have a giant potholder sleeve and DH will have a sleep apnea machine thing - someone will come in to rob us in the middle of the night and just start laughing.....  In any event, I seem to thave more pain in my arm than I used to.  It is right in the spot where I have the most swelling.  All the flying I did up to Washington D.C. for the vaccine trial was a little scary but I was good about my sleeves and didn't have any issues.

I miss my old hair too - I have the hairpiece that was made from it - sometimes I take it out of the box for a visit, lol!

It is raining like crazy right now!

special k- I've noticed a trend with my LE. If my arm starts hurting in a specific area, then in about a week or two I have noticeable swelling. Sometimes I can head it off by wrapping and wearing my sleeve but sometimes not. The last time it was like that, I flew when it was like that, and I think that made it worse, even though I wore my sleeve. Stinks! I was going to get a night garmet a while ago but I wanted to try to lose some weight first so that I wouldn't have to buy a new one if my arm size changed. Well instead of losing, I've gained! ugh! I blamed it on my thyroid but the dr said since my thyroid levels are "normal" then my symptoms are not associated with that...whatever. My level was still pretty high- on the high end of normal. I'm tired of dr.'s not caring or taking me serious. I felt like the only time anyone took me serious was when I had cancer. My issues with thyroid and LE affect me much more so than the cancer ever did.... =( 

Melanie, The high end of normal is 5.0 according to the labs. I've been told the high end should be 2.5 according to the endocrinolgist. I also have problems with my thyroid. My TSH is low and so are the T3 & T4. Mine is because of the goiter I have. If the TSH is high then the T3 & T4 should be in the lower end and vice versa. Chemo really played havoc with me bouncing hypo to hyper and back again.