Starting Chemo, November 2013 Group

OK, I am in for a little hobby chat..

My passion has always been music. I have been involved with different choirs either as a singer or a director. I used to sing with a semi professional choir here in the city that regularly performed with the symphonic orchestra. I am a vocal music teacher and have been leading a children's choir participating in various concerts and festivals. I love playing the piano. I play every day as it gives me a chance to be creative, keeps me intelectually sharp and allows me to wind down any anxiety.

I love gardening. I grow flowers, but also like growing tomatoes and grape vines. I am the handy woman around the house as I love fixing things and working on various house projects. 

I love to take care of the aquarium fish and have spent some time in the past trying to breed them as well. 

I love walking. I do that a lot, weather permitted, with my 8 year old son who loves it as well. We usually walk around the neighbourhood, but on the weekends we sometimes go for a walk in the city's ravine parks.

I like to try different recipes or make my own. Over the holidays I baked some cakes and cupcakes with my son who seems to love it. Today, for instance, I made some homemade hummus and roasted salmon brazed with olive oil, garlic and oregano with mushroom and red wine sauce. Hmmmm. Yummyyyyyy. Anybody wants to try some? 

jab: Have you and your PS discussed the impact of radiation on choice of reconstruction? 

Pat - I watched the slide show - Finally I can say with athority that I am stupid, and I have a good reason for being stupid! My new motto is "No thoughts are better than bad thoughts!".

jab- can they put expanders in post mastectomy.  My chest is so flat now, it seems it is going to be really painful.  I did not have skin sparing, so I don't know what options are there for me.

Amazon, your salmon sounds delicious.

BigT, my daughter will graduate with a degree in exercise physiology and kinesiology.  Not too sure what she can do with that outside of PT which is why she Is going the cardio route.  She says she likes the heart.

Changed my profile pic to show new wig...I've only wore it out once but liked it..

Will try it again tomorrow when I go for appts.

Here's my hobbies:  I was R.N. in Dr's clinic for 8 years...quit in 2006 to be stay at home mom with our 3 daughters.... Oldest is 23 and pregnant now and lives about 15 minutes away...21 year old is the middle child and acts as such, we see her infrequently but nice when we do. She hasn't found her way yet and we are hoping she will soon.  Our youngest is at home still and 15, Sophomore in High School.  She is our overachiever and in very hard classes and doing well, also cheerleader at school and in every club there is and very busy.  She has had a hard time with this as we are very close and I think it worries her to see me not up to par.

I owned a boutique in town that had women's clothing and shoes and home décor and jewelry.  It was super fun.  But interestingly I was losing interest with it when this came about.  So instead of renewing my lease I closed.  Wasn't sure if I'd need chemotherapy and just the thought of making schedules for employees and ordering and all overwhelmed me after this diagnosis. I still have the website and some items and might get back into just selling things off of that....if you are curious it is www.wild-bliss.com

So now I am back at home and not sure what my next venture will be.  I am an avid exercise girl and worked out 3-4times/week religiously for years.  I also love to golf and play tennis and walk with my husband and talk.  We have a large yard and I have tons of roses and flowers and pots and I love gardening as well...seems we all have that in common! 

I'm 46 and was NOT in menopause yet so this has thrown me for a loop with the hot flashes and all...LOVING the no periods though...

I am hoping to gradually get back in shape, play with my new grandchild and babysit when needed, I love cooking and baking, we have a trip planned in March when our goes on a mission trip during spring break with school and we have another in April to Malta!  I'm also going to plan to volunteer more at church and hopefully be a light to others....So that will take me to summer...then we will see!

jab- I have the gummy bears and they are great...sortof heavy...but I'm probably just not used to them...they look normal and great 'says my husband '....the expanders are uncomfortable and go way into your armpits almost....so these are def. better

smrlv- I started out wanting physical therapy in school, but I too enjoyed the cardiovascular system.  I received my masters degree for Northeastern (Boston).  I have a friend who teaches exercise phys at Columbia.

Other avenues with exercise phys degree: I know several people have gone into echosonograpy,, stress testing or nursing. 

Can't sleep from back spasms, so I'm up in the middle of the night, so I'll play the introduction game.

I'm 59, and will have been married for 30 years in May. I've lived my entire life in the San Francisco Bay Area, which I find embarrassingly boring. I realize that right now this will sound perverse to many of you, but I've always wanted to spend at least one winter where it snows. We do live close enough to the mountains to drive up, ski, and drive home in one day, but it's not the same thing.

I'm a CPA but gave up my practice not too long after starting my family. My husband has a business so I am the office manager for the business. I can do most of my work from home (paychecks, etc) and only have to go in infrequently, and what I can't get to, I'm just letting slide.

We have 3 sons. Of the reasons I stopped full time work way up there is #1 had severe club feet which required weekly Dr visits and several surgeries until he was 5, and #3 was born with a cleft palate and required speech therapy for years and years and surgeries; he also is "high-functioning" on the autism spectrum and has severe developmental dyspraxia. 

The boys are grown-ups now. #1 is in grad school in New Jersey. When he finishes in June he'll move back to DC where he'd been living before. He's got an interview this week with a think tank, his dream job! He's got a serious girlfriend who graduated from his program last year with whom he will live when he graduates. They've been seeing each other for a year as of October. I've never met her. My trip east to see the fall colors and coincidentally meet her got derailed...

#2 finally graduated from college a year ago December. His major, Humanities with an emphasis in Art History did not exactly prepare him for the employment market. He finally got a real job this October, he's sales manager (uh, the only salesperson) at a robotics startup in San Francisco. He's got a girlfriend he's living with near us. She's very sweet and very good for him. 

#3 is a senior in college in Santa Cruz which is only 1-1/2 hours away. His college career has been a little rocky, but he has a tutor/support person this year and actually passed all of his classes for the fall quarter! 

So yay for all three boys right now!

Hobbies: cross country skiing, kayaking, hiking, contra dancing. None of which I've been able to do in forever. Reading, knitting, sewing. I'm a docent at a museum in the science gallery: I love exciting children about nature and inquiry. I volunteer with one of my Newfie dogs who is a certified therapy animal at the library weekly where children practice reading to him (that's out for now, as is the museum, no little disease vectors around me, thank you!). I'm thinking of busying myself this winter/spring with sewing a couture quality Chanel-type jacket and separates to wear on our trip to the graduation in June. We will first go to New York to see my bestest oldest friend, then to New Jersey, then down to DC and over to Virginia where my brother in law lives. Planning a trip wardrobe and tailoring it seems like something I can enjoy in the anticipation and execution, and can probably manage while recovering from chemo and undergoing/recovering from rads. I'm an extremely goal-oriented type and I've felt the lack of a goal other than surviving, to be while not depressing, disheartening. An ambitious sewing project fits the bill.

Love reading about peoples hobbies and families.

I'm 37, married, we live in upstate NY near Rochester. We have a 13 yo son and a daughter who just turned 2 before Christmas. I have stayed home raising our son most of the time but when he started school I worked a little in fabric/furniture store, temp jobs through medical office staffing company. My husband is a former teacher turned landlord and over the years we have flipped 5 houses. I have to say flipping houses is very exiting if you find the right one for the right price. My college education is in IT but I never really put it to full use. Since Dx we've had to put our daughter in daycare 2 days a week, it's sad but necessary. She loves daycare and playing with other kids. My main hobbie would be sewing, I even sewed for a home decorator for a while. Since we finally had a daughter I have picked up sewing again. I bought bunch of vintage patterns for her that I plan to sew up.

I had my first Taxol yesterday. The main bummer was that it took 4 and a half hours. I hated the premeds, mainly Benadryl. They might switch that to hydrocodone next time. And that way I can drive myself too. The only SE so far is the red hot face just like with AC. Heading for my Neulasta shot today.

yahooooooooo pat! who else grads chemo next week!!?

is anyone having unexpected positive SE from chemo?  It appears to be killing the "barnacle of life" age spot on my face and also seems to have zapped my chronically inflamed tonsil.  It's better looking now than anytime in the past 15 years.  So awesome!

I love getting to know each other better!

Tonilee and Virginia, hope you're both doing well with SEs after your infusions.

Audra, I like your wig!

Amazon, that salmon sounds delicious!

Lissy, I hope today is going well for you.

Paulette, so happy to hear from you and that you're feeling better...missed you!

Inks and Smrlvr, welcome to the Taxol club!  How are you both doing?  I had #2 yesterday which took almost as long as #1 because my nurse was so busy.  I'd forgotten about the Benedryl part from the first one.  This time they pushed it faster (probably because because they were so busy), and it really hit me.  I was rambling incoherently for a good 1/2 hour like I'd just had an Ativan!  The rest was uneventful, just long (didn't get home until 7:45) then a short night's sleep from the Decadron.  They said that since I did well this time and with #1, I won't need the premeds for the next ones.  I forgot to ask if that meant ALL the premeds (Decadron, Benedryl, Pepcid).  SOOOOOO glad to not need Neulasta this time as I have convinced myself that that was was the source of 6 days of crappiness with #1.  When I saw the NP this week, he said they'd been seeing some really uncommon SEs the past year with AC and Taxol -- the hand/foot thing (AC) and excessive body aches (Taxol).  Of course, I got both. 

Gayle, so glad you're feeling better.

Lisa, you out there lurking?  I hope you're doing okay.

I am inspired to bake a cake today.  It's been so long since I've made one, I have to go out in the garage looking though boxes for the pans.  (I'm doing this even though the scale yesterday was 5 lbs. higher than a month ago! Funny aside -- those extra lbs. got me one more mg of Taxol yesterday.)

I hope everyone has a good day!

Gayle: I'm glad you are back and feeling better! It's so nice to have you back! ))

Wally: I too grew up in a house full of women and my husband is an academic, so chances were he was not going to be the handy type. I had to learn to do it myself if I wanted the stuff around the house to be done.Your husband sounds like a quite a versatile musician! Would be fun to hear him play! What style/s does he like to play?

Paulette: I am glad that you got the blood transfusion and are feeling better! 

Bec: What kind of cake are you going to make? 

Pat: Sounds like you faced some challenges bringing up those boys. I hope that one day you will be able to sew and have fun with your granddaughter/s! I would trade the bay anytime, however boring, for this frozen land!

Inks: It must be really tough to face this and have a little one to take care of! Do you get any help?

Audra: The wig looks good!

Lissy: You are almost done! Yay!

Quirky: I too found that chemo has also effected me in a good way. I told my husband the other day that when I'm feeling better, I am actually feeling BETTER than before chemo. I feel that my usual aches and pains associated with a mild arthritis have gotten better.  My facial skin has cleared up as well. 

Audra, I love that wig. Wish mine looked that good. I haven't even worn it, although I did get sister #4 to trim it a bit just in case. I am a middle child (sort of, the oldest is 12 years older than me and was married and gone by the time I was 7), it's hard to be in the middle. maybe that's why they all call me the blacksheep of the bunch. I had a few wilder times too, but I straightened out eventually. Hopefully your daughter will get together someday also. And congrats on the upcoming baby. Grandchildren are our reward for not killing our kids when they were teenagers. And I certainly hope your trips turn out just like you want.

Jab, I sounds like you really lucked into a great medical team. Too bad they don't all take make such an effort.

Amazon, hubby plays a great variety of music. Beethoven, Bach, Chopin, Kiss, Elton John. He thinks that the Hallelujah Chorus is the greatest song even written, and Born To Be Wild the greatest rock song ever done. Although he prefers hard rock, he's not the snob he likes to think he is. I wish the chemo was helping my arthritis. My knees are killing me.

Lissy, hope your last infusion is the easiest yet. I had my third one Monday and actually felt good enough to run errands today. I was hoping to hold on to my eyelashes and brows also, but they are starting to thin quite a bit. Just in time to go back to work next week. Oh, well, it is what it is.

Pat, if you ever get that granddaughter, they love to wear things that grandma makes. You sound like an amazing woman who has done a great job raising those boys. Hopefully they realize just how lucky they are to have you. And I love snow, not that we really get a lot around here. I just wish it didn't have to get so cold to have the snow.

Inks, when you get around to making those vintage clothes for your girl, try shopping at some second hand stores for vintage dresses. A woman's size should have enough material to make a dress for a three year old. One of the prettiest things I made for my youngest was a pinafore from some old lace curtains that I found at a Goodwill. The texture and pattern was so much better than the newer material. It just needed a little bleach to brighten it up.

Ellis, my mother lived with me for the last three years of her life. She had had a very serious stroke and needed a lot of care, but I was glad that I could do it. The oldest sister had lost her job shortly before the stroke so she stayed here during the day while I worked. Then when the cancer spread I took FMLA to stay home all the time. I spent her last night on the floor by her bed and was holding her hand when she passed. It's nice to know that you never have to regret not doing enough. Sorry you've had such a rough time with the hospital and all. Hopefully you've turned the corner and are on to brighter days.

We haven't heard anything from Lisa lately. Sure hope she's ok. 

Oh and with all that typing I forgot to mention:

Today was my last A/C treatment! Yay!

Now I move onto something kind of odd: My onc is giving me this:

Two treatments (three weeks apart) of Taxotere plus more Cytoxan, followed by

Two treatments (three weeks apart) of just Taxotere.

Anyone ever heard of that before? He said this is contingent on how well I continue to handle it but so far "You've done GREAT." His comment about why he wanted to go this route is "You had a high risk cancer, and we need to acknowledge that." 

I do love that he's really tailoring my treatment to what he thinks is best for my particular case, and not just following the norm.

I'm also extraordinarily glad to be done with the adriamycin---or at least, I will be done with it when I'm done dealing with its side effects this time.