Is There A September 2011 Chemo Group?

Yah! I am all done. No boobs, no reconstruction and quite frankly not a lot of pain! I got home yesterday with only 2 drains ( 2 were taken out yesterday morning). I am super tired and a bit headachey, but otherwise not to bad.



Hope you all are having a nice weekend. I guess you are enoying your little kids CJRT like I am enjoying mine. Even when you feel like crying they can do something so over the top cute that it makes you so grateful to have them. Take care everyone and thanks for your good wishes.

Karen

CJRT,thinking of you,I pray your surgery goes well today. Also prayers your recovery is swift and easy! You deserve a break,girl! Hey,don't forget to ask when you can start kickboxing,again.LOL (((HUGS)))

Hi Belle

Thanks for your thoughts and prayers. I was doing pretty good up until yesterday. Then I strained and stretched a bit awkwardly on Weds night and that was that. I woke up yesterday morning and I could not get out of bed it hurt on my right side when I breathed.



I phoned my surgeon and she said apply heat but remember to put a towel around the hot water bottle! Anyways I put the hot water bottle on and it felt really hot so I asked my husband to get a tshirt and I wrapped it up in it. I stayed in bed all day with painkillers and a hot water bottle on it. I got up today and felt a lot better. Looked at my shoulder/back and realized I burnt the crap out of it!



Well I guess the good thing is that the burn doesn't hurt (since I have no feeling there anyways!) but I am hoping my blisters pop and clear up before Tuesday ( my next appt. with my BS). I cannot believe that I did that????!!!!!

Anyways today is better than yesterday. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Karen

Karen- glad the surgery went well but sorry for the problems after. Hopefully by now you are feeling better!


Belle- thanks for thinking of me! Surgery went well but I have been running a fever and feeling pretty lousy. I am starting to feel better and think I will be going home today. Thank you for your positive thoughts. Xo

CJRT,hope you got to go home,as Karen said watch that fever! I know you will but once a mother hen  always a mother hen! 

Karen, I will,don't you worry!! LOL

Well,this past weigh-in I lost 2.2 lbs,not bad for no exercise! But i was still disappointed ((( So this week I am trying to watch the calories and the carbs (under 20). We'll see how that goes,plus exercise! Yesterday,I walked a mile outside,it was nice out, in the 50's. But not today,it has been snowing so far 13 inches,I hope it's the last hurrah of the winter-even tho it is spring!!!

Both of you and the rest of the Sept gals are in my thoughts and prayers!!

CJRT and Karen..... Hope April brings swift recovery for you both. CJ, since you had a hip replacement, and are now cancer free... Yea! do you still do any further treatment or monitoring?



Belle, congrats on the weight loss. I am really struggling to lose the chemo weight. Its very frustrating.



Happy spring. Peace and health to all.

Belle- great job! I admire your discipline and perseverance. Are you weight training too? If not, that is often the key. My husband is in the fitness industry, and he says that is often the key component women miss, while tending to overdoing cardio and then becoming frustrating with reaching a plateau. Good luck!!



Ccjj- thank you! Doing PT and getting around pretty good with the walker. Not even having to take anything for the pain now. I am being treated aggressively bc the concern is that though this is the only spot seen on imaging and scans, that there could be other cells floating around. So I am still getting systemic treatment. I will be getting zoladex until getting the ovaries out. I will be switching from tamoxifen to an AI bc of this. I think I will eventually be getting xgeva but they are starting one med at a time bc of not wanting to overload my system and wanting to parcel out any side effects I might develop. I have already started the new drug Kadcyla (TDM1 in trials- nicknamed "Super herceptin"). I had my first infusion two days before my surgery and will be getting it every 3 weeks as long as my counts and ejection fraction are good. I also plan to travel for a second opinion early summer to make sure no stone is left unturned.

Hi everyone, well it is over 3 weeks past surgery and I am doing pretty good! No more burn. Am pretty much back to all of my normal activity (except 1 more week weight restriction) AND my pathology came back on Friday clean for cancer - not even any atypical cells! Yah!!!!!!



Good job in your weight loss Belle. I am with CJRT, if you pick up some resistance traing you will probably really kick up the loss. I will be starting to do some resistance training (just with bands) in a month or so as I really want to improve the strength in my node removed arm.



CJRT - I am glad to here that they are treating this very aggressively. I hope the side effects will not be to difficult to manage. I am hopeful that you will soon be done with treatment and moving forward from this! I am also very glad that you are getting a second opinion. You need to know (and have piece of mind) that everything is being done for your care. I will be getting everything taken out next month, a complete hysterectomy (tubes, ovaries and uterus) so i will let you know how that goes. You are pretty young so maybe you need to hang on to your ovaries for a bit still. I am 48, have 2 kids and I say good riddance (especially if there is a 40% chance they are going to give me more nasty cancer). Take care CJRT my thoughts are with you.



Take care all you ladies and thank you for your thoughts and support so far out from our treatment. I am praying soooo hard that CJRT's issues are resolved and we can all carry on peacefully on our regular day to day new normal lives. Karen

Karen,so happy your path came back clear. Glad you are recovering well. I have heard resistance bands are the way to go,I'm going to pick some up next time I go to Wally World. Hey,Kimberly,thanks for checking in. Hope life is treating you good! My brother tilled my garden today,OMG,no garden last year really did a job on it-some type of crabby grass!! Probably will have to till it again,got my work-out raking the grass out- in clods. Can't wait tho to do some planting,mmmm fresh veggies this spring and summer!!

kimberly,what does your mo say about your liver enzymes? uggghh,i hope it isn't let's wait and see!!! That drives me crazy,do they know how hard it is???

cjrt,how are you doing? i hope the treatments aren't bad,and your hip is healing well,too!!!!

well, the biggest loser contest is over!! I got 2nd,bah humbug,lost 19 lbs! my niece got 1st,she is going thru a divorce. She got $480,I got $60-bah humbug!!! We are doing it again,starting this thurs,so I have a few days off!! LOL I have been a BAAAADDD girl,these past few days!!!

went mushrooming,today. found 1,after i left,my daughter and g-son went again and found a bunch! I hope the nights warm up,so we find a lot or at least I get a good mess! hope everyone has a good week!

Well my scanxiety will be extended I guess. Just found out from the PA that I won't be having my pet on schedule bc of this respiratory virus/laryngitis that I picked up from the kids. Apparently you can get false positives that way. Waiting to hear back from the dr.

belle- hope you are finally over it! that was the worst i have had in years.

an update on me - had my PET a week ago, and the hip area where my original mets was found was perfectly clear! however, the one subpectoral axillary node that lit up in january when my bone met was discovered still lit up. my MO ran it by the tumor board and the unanimous consensus was to rescan in 8 weeks and then move to biopsy and possibly surgical removal pending biopsy results. they gave me a more detailed explanation but basically they said it just doesn't add up that the rest of the scan was clear and my tumor markers fell from 60 in january with the femur met to 14 this week that the lighting of this node would be cancer-related. makes me nervous to wait, but i am encouraged by the rest of the scan and the tumor markers. my son just turned 2, and we are having a big party for him tomorrow at our new house. i've been doing a better job about being more present in these moments rather than concerned how many more of them i will have.

hope all of you are doing well and will be enjoying this long weekend. xo

Hi everyone - had my 2nd procedure last week Tuesday (May 21) and not doing too bad. Don't get me wrong I do not feel "back to new normal" but considering what I had done I feel pretty good!



CJRT - I am glad to hear your markers dropped so much. You will be in my prayers tonight about that node. It does seem very hopeful that it is nothing but I am glad that they are following it so closely.

You are right most people do have just the ovaries and tubes out but I decided to go for the full meal deal. The gyneoncologist was very indifferent about taking the uterus ( on my second visit - first visit he said definitely the uterus also, go figure), until I asked him what he would recommend if I was his wife, sister or daughter. Then it was a definite "take the uterus also". There is an increased risk of peritoneal cancer in BRCA pos that may or may not be related to the little bit of Fallopian tube that is attached to the uterus. So that was the reason for my decision. I wasn't going to go through all the effort just to be kicked in the butt with that one. They do the whole procedure laparoscopically so I had a total of 2 cm of incision for the whole surgery! Hence the quicker recovery.



Belle - congrats on your weight loss! 19 lbs is awesome!



I hope all you other ladies are doing well. Take care

My daughters wedding was beautiful,had a wonderful time! Everything went well, her father and I got along,I think he has mellowed. Actually,enjoyed a couple of conversations with him,who knew! LOL I'm glad,it will hopefully continue in the future! Hope everyone enjoyed Father's Day!

Hello to all my chemo buds! I am sorry I have not checked in with you all sooner...caught up in living and recon (see signature for details)



Cjrt...my heart was sad when I read through all you have endured. You have such a great spirit and strength. Sending you a big hug!



Kayrem...you too get a big hug from me



Coming up on 2 yr mark...see onc end of august....holding breath til then. You have all been such a huge part in getting me through the hardest thing I will ever do and I often think of you all



Xoxo

Maggie