Calling all TNs

Angstapp, are you using Biotene toothpaste and mouthwash.  It really helps with the metallic taste and any dry mouth issues.  At Walgreens right now in our area they have buy one regular price and second one half off, take advantage of this great deal if there is a Walgreen near you, I totally stocked up.  If you ask the manager nicely he/she may let you take the whole inventory at the same rate.  I didn't even have to show some leg or anything, hee hee.  I told him I was gonna share some with other patients in treatment, so he let me have all on sale, so sweet.

Did you guys notice my new pic, meet Magic Kim, a new addition to our family.  I went to Petco Sunday after church to buy some fish for our fishtank, since my mom won't let us have a dog, puppy, cat, kitten, rabbit, you get the picture, she doesn't like animals.  They didn't have any fish, but they were having adoption day with 3 adorable dogs and 1 sweet kitten.  I knew the dogs were too much, so I decided to adopt the kitten.  He is a 5 month old Tabby named, "Magic,"  he was so lonely looking and my girls fell in love and I never knew I was a cat person, but here he is, my magical kitty.  Isn't he so cute!  I promised I would keep him away from my mom, so she caved, hahahaha!  I am the ruler of the universe!  My sister-in-law was upset cause she thinks he might get me sick.  I'm going to insist to my Drs that I need him to fight this difficult fight, so everyone at home will be ok with me keeping him.  I hope all works out.  All you cat people out there, its ok to have a cat dring treatment, right?

 Hi Lurker here, just to say find you all wonderful
You have helped lift my terror at TN DX and I have now changed my mind set.
Started to excercise, eating more healthily and planning a future. I am 65 years old and like you younger ladies on here still have a lot of living to do.
Even enjoying green tea !!

Naan, you are an inspiration, if a sense of humour will work on this awful illness you will live until 100.

Blessings and minimal se's to you all. Edi

Scouser 47, awwwwwwwwww thanks, I try.  I love humor, and they say laughter is the best medicine!

Naan (and other cat owners) - you do need to take some precautions while you are doing chemo, if your cat uses a litter box. 

"Most oncologists allow patients to change litter boxes during chemotherapy, but with caution. When changing your cat's litter box, you must be take extra care to avoid being exposed to any parasites, bacteria, etc. When changing the litter box, always wear latex or rubber gloves, a mask, and be sure to wash your hands with soap and warm water afterward. If your white blood cell levels drop to a certain level after chemotherapy, your doctor may advise you to avoid cleaning your cat's litter box until your levels increase."

ALHusband – Congratulations to your wife!  She sounds incredibly strong and she must value her job (work family) dearly to be so motivated to work.

 Laney64 – Have you reviewed your pathology report from your biopsy?  It may have clues to tell you how aggressive your cancer is.  I would start at www.breastcancer.org/symptoms/diagnosis.  There is a lot of good information that is sectioned to help you better understant what your report really means.  I hope this helps.

 Naan – YAY for the burger!!!!  I have 2 cats and they were with me during my last treatment and they will be with me this time too.  My MO said I should let someone else handle the litter box but as long as they are clean, healty animals and they ltter box stays clean, they should not be a problem.  I can’t imagine going through this without my kids!  I’ve had them for 13 and 11 years.  To go witout would be torture!  Congrats on your new kid!

I was supposed to start my chemo today but apparently my insurance has not yet approved it.  Needless to say I'm in a rather pissy mood.  Hopefully, they will figure this out soon and I can start tomorrow.

Becky, this is awesome news! Oh I'm so happy to hear it!

Hi nann, I live in the South Bay and while generally cooler can empathize with you on the temps last week. oy!

Go commando!  I do it all the time now. I bought a wig and wore it twice and then the hats were too warm so I even go bald at work. I simply don't care what others think And, I guess one of the "perks" is people tend to be a lot nicer when they see your chemo head!  I do wear sunblock if I go out without a ballcap but wear one if I'm in the sun for any amount of time.

Not sure if I have chemopause but I certainly get the hot flashes. I bought a cool towel this weekend - you can get them at CVS and probably most drugstores. Basically, it's a chamois that you soak in water, wring out and it stays cool so you can wrap around your neck. I wrapped it around my head and it worked great - may have to try it at night with the hot flashes are the worst.

I need to vent, I completely lost my rag last night.

Feeling crap but hey you gotta still get dinner ready, what vege's did hubby buy at the supermarket - just carrots, no other vege's. He saunters in and asks "what's for dinner", I say "carrots 5 ways dumb ass", well I just lost it and started breaking raw carrots up onto plates, swearing and cursing etc, so I set the table for the 3 of them, so off he goes up the road to buy some hot chips - calls into the supermarket and comes home with a box of radishes - What the hell man!!!!  Carrots and radishes, jeeeeez, now I'm typing this it's funny but I just completely lost it, never done that before.  Cancer sucks, and only cause I can say it on here I'm so bloody constipated it just took me 2 hours to go to the toilet - and it felt like childbirth my 4 year old will have graphic images for the rest of his life, because of course there's no bloody privacy around children, I hate today!  arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Deep breath!

Erin, you made some valid points.  I like to suggest to others when they are newly dx'd that don't try to change everything at once.  Change what is easiest, and then add on to that from there.  Get rid of the things that you stress out the most about regarding diet, and then slowly start replacing a bad item with a good item.  If you can't change everything you want, change those things that are attainable.  Also, on a related note, if you are exercising, and I do know, it's hard to find time.  But if you are used to your workouts, and you can't get in a full workout, try to get in half.  Every little bit helps, and it all adds up at the end of the week.  With each meal, and 1 cancer fighting item.  If you do that, this means at the end of the year you added 1,000 nutritional items to your diet.  That's a great amount.  So if you must have that hamburger, opt out of fries and get a sweet potato plain.  If you must have a waffle, opt out of the potatoes and get half blueberry/half strawberry in its place.  If you must have an omelete, trade out the muffin for fruit. 

So I am sitting here reading posts, feeling out of sorts...having terrible hot flashes, headache. Hormones are playing havoc on me....and then I read the post from Angstapp. I know you were venting and I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I laughed after reading  your note.....I mean the consitpation, goodness could I relate.  And then to bring home radishes after bringing home carrots? What the heck, men are boneheads sometimes...Hope your days go better.....

Hi ladies and gent. I was wondering if anyone knows anything about copper depletion therapy. I had read on a website about what cancer survivors should and shouldn't eat that tnbc survivors should avoid copper supplements. I freaked out when I noticed the calcium supplement I had been taking for a month had copper. Anyhow, I read on another thread about copper depletion therapy and I'm thinking about asking my MO about it. Also, do any of you take fish oil supplements? I don't but thought about starting once done with treatment and my RO said she's telling her patients to stop due to a study released a few months ago about fish oil and prostate cancer. Oh, and one more thing, was going to start taking effexor for hotflashes and the big D but read that it increases cholesterol and mine is already high. Ugh, I'm so frustrated...damned if you do and damned if you don't.



Julie- always thinking of you and hoping you're doing well.



Debra-thank you for your practical tips on good nutrition...baby steps for me. I always enjoy reading your posts.



Titan-I'm going to try to trade potato chips for the bag of spinach. Maybe carrots or cherry tomatoes. I really need to make some positive changes.

I hear that you can get 50% off on the price of radishes and carrots from New Zealand right now.  ) BTW, for constipation try the all natural Smooth Move Tea.  It's amazing, someone told me about it when I encountered this issue after surgery.  One cup at night and you've got mail in the morning!

Grace, I know the feeling!  There is always a plus and a minus for anything I google.  I've tricked myself into finding the good stuff.  Now when I research something, I google the way I want it to go.  i.e:  Curcumin excellent anti-cancer benefits .... and it pops up.  LOL  I have heard about copper depletion therapy, and have known people to even find filters that remove copper from their tap water and shower water. Since I've got enough vices and systems and protocols going on right now, I didn't think I could swing another one ... but I'll see what you find out and maybe I'll jump on that as well. 

So Titan, I like the spinach idea, but don't you have to keep the spinach at a certain temperature?  How fast do you eat the bag?  I might have to try this.

BTW when I was at my u/s appointment last month, the lady next to me pulled out sliced cucumbers. 

Here are some tips for easy go-to snacks during the day. 

Red bell peppers!  Slice them into strips like french fries - they have a sweet flavor to them and excellent benefits.

Cherry tomatoes  - excellent source of nutrients, like Grace mentioned.

Zucchini or cucumber - slice up and eat

One or two tablespoons of organic peanut butter (from WalMart) spread on 2 Wasa Crisp Breads.  Yum-o especially with hot green tea!

2 hard boiled eggs, with turmeric, black pepper and cayenne pepper topped onto 2 Wasa Crisp Breads.  Why them?  Because they are whole grain, low in carbs and virtually no sugar! These obviously take a little more work to prepare.  So not a quick snack, but good for protein or a tie-me-over to dinner.

Bowl of cherries - but hard to find right now

I've just started with popcorn.  Not sure if I should research this more.  I got the kind that was popped at Target.  They use only one little dime size drop of coconut oil for the entire big cage of popcorn, and there is no butter on it - just a seasoned salt.  I should probably get an air popper and do it at home. The lady who started the PositivesaboutNegatives Blog, Pat, puts popcorn down as one of her go-to snacks.

1 or 2 slices of Ezekel raisin bread.  Received an A rating on Fooducate and has a very very low sugar number, and I think it's only from the natural raisin. It's made with sprouted grain and is delicious and extremely high rating due to the sprouted grain. Also low in carbs. Not many breads received an A rating.

Other assorted mixed fruits, as long as it fits the low glycemic list of fruits, which almost everything is except bananas and a few stray fruits. 

Inspired-I looked at that link and saw the Avastin article. My doc had insisted on adding Avastin and I had a coplete response, I wonder if that is why I did?! Most of the news out was not very good for the results of using Avastin!

Guess what I had for a snack? Radishes and carrots! Funny thing is I never have radishes and rarely have carrots, then I come on here and read about hubby bringing home radishes and carrots! Too funny!

Today thank God I finished radiation....:)  I was not sure I could do it but with a lot of prayer and I mean a lot I made it.  I got a nice certificate stating that I finished the required amount.  A pin (breast cancer ribbon with a R in the middle of it.   Then someone made a quilt and when you are finished you get to sign the quilt.   I sure hope and pray that cancer leaves me alone forever but at least for a long, long time.   I say that because the doctor told me with my kind of cancer I will unfortunately probably battle it again.   I think we all do in one way or another once you have been diagnosed.   Physically it is hard and mentally it is torture.   Thank you for all the support and prayers you have sent out for me.    Forgive me if I missed birthdays and anniversaries.   I don't type to much because my fingers are still hurting and numb.