anyone starting chemo in Nov 2005

Anna, that is as high as I can be, but have gotten to 119 years ago on WW. I'm 5ft2.... Maybe less now that I'm 50 LOL

The picture I posted with the white shirt was taken at about 145 I think, so I should be able to get there. I want to be a leader later, and share what I know.

Yes, Odalys, I'm in Northern Virginia.

What an absolutely beautiful weekend we are having here! Hubs and I had breakfast on the patio out back and then I sat in the swing and read the paper. I plan on doing that again tomorrow morning. I had forgotten how beautiful it can be here. It feels so cool. Funny how the low 80s can feel like sweater weather when you have a week of jungle climate behind you.

My daughter is packing up her year in France for her return on August 22. Poor thing, she is absolutely freaking out. H. and I have planned a week's visit to see her + son-in-law up in Cambridge in mid-September. I am excited! It'll be my first trip since July of last year.

I hope my sisters are all having a wonderful weekend!

Love,

Anna

Just had a beautiful week-end with the in-laws. Fishing and camping. With all the luxuries. LOL

Also went to A Travis Tritt concert. I was a little wild, dancing and all.... Felt like the true meaning of life all week-end. ALIVE!!!!!

Dancing is so good for the soul...

Michael is making turkey burgers today for lunch. I love to mix Lipton onion soup mix with it. Hmmmmmmm GOOOOOD! And I top mine with Velveeta light cheese and mushrooms.

Debbie, do you want to start our diet club this week? I have to wi (weigh in) tonight at 6:30. Don't think I did to well we'll see. I had a hard time with camping. If there were more people to eat it would have been easy to dodge the food.

But this way you hurt feelings. I did the best I could...

So you had a week where you were traveling and ate what you wanted and thought you wouldn't lose and you still lost almost a pound. Go girl! That's fantastic. You are definitely in control! Doesn't that make you feel great?

Well, the toenail finally fell off and I didn't go into a coma. Whew! I didn't even notice it was gone till I went to put on a sock and it wasn't there anymore! I wonder where it is... hope I don't find it when I change the sheets...

I am officially on chemo nurse #1347 or something. Ah well, she is good, can access my port with no difficulty and gets a believeable blood pressure reading from my ankle, what more could a girl ask for? I hope she stays around for a while.

How is everyone doing? We had two gorgeous days here in Northern Virginia and now it's back to the jungle weather, but I hear we might be returning to cool breezes and low humidity sometime soon.

Love to all,

Anna

Are we
winding

down
?

Oh Odalys, I am so sorry to hear about your week, and especially about the side effects from Femara! As if you didn't have enough on your plate! I really hope everything gets sorted out and that you find yourself getting used to the Femara with diminishing side effects. I want them to go away completely for you!

Why are there so many resignations in your department at work? Sure, it's minor compared to bc struggles, but I am sure it weighs on you all the same.

I am sending lots and lots of healing vibes and thoughts your way. I imagine it must be very hot in Florida. If you feel a cool breeze touching your face it comes from all your friends and all the women you have gone out of your way to help these past months. Yep, I see your posts on some of the newbie threads and I always marvel at how you find the best and most reassuring words to say. You always go back and check up on people, too.

So keep us posted and I really hope things get better, and soon.

Love,

Anna

Here there everyone. Odalys I am sorry the Femara is doing this to you. Hope there is a better hormonal treatment out there for you. You can come here and cool off, now that I have central a/c. We love having house guests here. ))
Anna, wow that is a lot of chemo nurses. When I was having infusions I always had a different nurse. Did you find the toenail? Mine look pretty awful too!!
MaryLou, congrats on your weight loss. Hey a loss is a loss no matter how much it is.
As for me, this has been my roughest week yet on Xeloda. I was coming into my off week, but OMG my hands and feet were killing me. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday I couldn't even walk. Stayed on the couch most of the day, but you know with 3 youngsters it is hard, even with the help I get from family and friends. Today I am finally feeling better. We traveled 2 hours to Williamsport PA to watch a Little League World Series game. Staten Island (my old hometown, sort of) was playing but it rained on us. Team lost too. So we are back home and my feet are up and full of ELTA cream.:)

love you all,
Kim

Hi everyone!

Just back from our vacation. It was wonderful! Great weather, didn't miss the kids too much and lots of great food. But worked out every day: gym, hiking, kayaking, rafting, climbed 30 flights of stairs twice on purpose. I haven't weighed myself- hopefully I broke even. We did win at craps every night. I probably screamed with glee a few times and burned some extra calories.

Odalys- I am on Arimidex and noticed the joint pain getting worse after about 2 months. I was worried! I started taking chondroitin (1,500 mg a day) and also 1,500 mg calcium each day. After a few weeks- noticed a big difference in my joints. Now it is barely there in my feet. I don't know if I am lucky, or if it is a natural progression of lessening of side effects. I heard they simmer down after 6 months, but my onc told me younger women suffer considerably more overall. I hope you are your salsa-dancing self soon. I don't blame you for quitting- there has to be a better way and I hope you find it!

Anna- you crack me up- first nipples, now toenails. The things we learn about. I kinda hope you never find your toenail. The running laughs and mystery...............

Mary Lou- you must be smiling ear to ear in the heart of weight loss. I am trying. If I had ever met a sweet I didn't like, I would probably have a fab bod.

Get together- definite yes. I am willing to travel since most of the gang is midwest/east coast. My best friend lives in Sarasota- so maybe I can tie in a trip to see her also.

I am sorry to hear about the xeloda Kim. You must be so sick of this game. Are you triple neg?
Thank goodness you have your air con. And I hope for better days ahead for you friend!

We have had septic problems- yummy!! New house, leach field not working, pain in arse.................Why are our houses misbehaving? Oh well, it is better than our bodies or our kids.........

And what gives? My kids don't start school until September 11th. I love em' but school is great.

Take care and big squeeze,

Margerie

The sheets are changed.
The toenail is still missing in action.
That's fine with me!
(It wasn't a big one.)

Odalys, I am sorry to hear about all the joint pain and hope you are getting back to normal. I keep reading that different women have different reactions to the different AIs. Maybe you won't have those severe pains with one of the other options? I agree with Margerie, I hope you are back to your salsa-ness real soon!

Margerie, do you take glucosamin with the chondroitin or just the latter alone?

Sorry to hear about the septic situation and I hope all it requires is a visit from the maintenance crew, no digging.

Kim, I am sorry to hear about the Zeloda side effects and hope they are subsiding by now. What is Elta cream? How old are your three children?

Debbie, sometimes I find I have to turn away from certain boards when they get too whipped up. I think people often see only one side of a situation and react to that, not realizing that they say hurtful things. There you are, looking for some compassion and bonk! a slap in the face! I don't know why I am drawn to some boards, like the debate forum, but what I find myself doing is typing out a response in Word and then sitting on it for a day or two before posting it. More often than not I end up not posting. The louder crew is never of my opinion and I don't want to have my head chopped off.

I hope we all have a healing Sunday and that the week brings only improvement. I also hope the week brings my daughter back to the US. She is scheduled to leave Paris on Tuesday.

Praying for all angels,

Anna

Debbie, if you want to come in on your last post. Mark it with the remind me at the bottom of each post you make. It is the one with the string around the finger. Says's Post Extras:

Odalys, thank you for asking about my SIL. He's not doing well at all. He spent 6 days in the hospital on IV antibiotics and has been home for a week but is experiencing increasing pain and it seems the infection is not gone. He is going to call his primary care phys tomorrow because both gastroenterologists are on vacation through the beginning of September.

My daughter will, we pray, be home in Boston Tuesday night and we are hoping things get better with her by his side.

I think he is especially worried because one of the doctors said something about a colostomy as the last resort if the infection doesn't get under control. A colostomy! He is just 29 years old.

His father is chief urologist at the hospital in Toledo and his uncle is a neurosurgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, so I am hoping they get involved soon.

Anyway, that was more information than you expected, I'm sure. I am praying for him.

I love Chicago. I was born there.

Mary Lou, I remember Foreigner. Can't remember any of their titles, though.

Kim, I hope you are feeling better.

Where's our Nancy?

Tomorrow is my Herceptin #31. Theoretically, I will then have 21 to go. More than half way there.... If they weigh me tomorrow I think they'll be in for a surprise. I think I am now down 7 or 8 lbs in all. No more sweets, only cherries, peaches and one banana a day. That and multiple tomatoes from the garden. What will I do when it is no longer cherry season? And how will I ever again eat a store-bought tomato?

Love to all. I wish us a goooooooooooooood week.

Anna

Odlays - Just go to "My Home" , click post reminders. I have mine under favorites. That way it opens to the home page for the message boards.

I don't have to sign in that way... Just try by marking this post in remind me. Remember the title. Post reminders. It is good for other post too. It makes it easy to look back at a topic.

I try to change it when the page turns. It is easier for me to find us again.

Omygosh, I just wrote a detailed response and decided to try the remind me thing before posting and guess what, when I returned to the forum my post was gone! I didn't click it! What a dummy I am!

So, where was I? Here comes some shorthand...

Odalys, 5 is good, cherries are delish and nobody weighed me this a.m. but that's ok cause I know what's up. We're on a roll in the slimming dept...

Mary Lou, I will try your system (yep, did that and won't check till this baby is off...)

Margerie, isn't your surgery in the near future? Tell us when to start sending those good vibes your way. My nips are absolutely gorgeous (IMHO) and I get my tatoos in Sept.

Debbie, I hope you are letting go of those bad vibes you got last week. I don't know why people get huffy sometimes, but remember there are angry people everywhere and misunderstandings, too, so why would it be any different here? I think this particular thread (our Nov group) is such a sanctuary that it's easy to expect that kind of total understanding everywhere. I don't know what I would have done without all of you these past months.

I wonder how our Kaye is.

And Nancy.

Tomorrow I will be sitting by the phone all day, waiting for a call to tell me my girl is on the ground and with her hubs and kitty in Boston. She is now sleeping in her hotel room at the Paris airport and will be getting up in four hours or so to catch her plane. I don't know why I am so nervous this time!

Hugs,

Anna

Debbie - How is Daniel doing? OMG - I was not aware he underwent minor surgery. How scary and stressful for you. I am not surprised you were speeding. You have a lot on your plate. I have no question in my mind that you are a law abiding Christian. Besides, I am not one to cast stones since I've been known to "put pedal to the metal" from time to time.
Love and hugs,
Odalys

Funny how the mommy clock still determines my day even for that 27 year-old! I woke up at 3 and couldn't get back to sleep, came downstairs and realized that it was 9 a.m. in Paris and precisely when my girl was planning to take the shuttle to get to the terminal. I hope by now she is checked in and has gone through security. In Europe your bags go through the xray machines right there at check in before they put them on the plane, no spot checks like here, everyone's luggage is checked, so in some ways it's longer, in some ways it's more streamlined. She was worried about her carryon luggage (a lap harp, a computer, and the three books she treasures most from the 40 or so of those she made this year that she is bringing back). She sent two trunks, but still has lots of stuff. Have I said she's an artist and a sewer of strange things and that she also performs in an "alternative" band?

I think today is going to be a very difficult day for me....
Thank you all for letting me come here. I know I am going on and on and on. It's just that some people have kindly told me the hairbrained story about today, August 22, having a poignant meaning for the terrorist crowd and that we should fear the unimaginable. I am usually fairly balanced about this type of thing, you know, rumors of the end of the world and all, but this time I am freaking out. Of course I haven't shared any of this with my daughter or her husband, but I fear she will hear something at the airport. She already has to take Xanax to get herself onto the plane. Okay, enough of that, Anna.

Debbie, I hope we hear from you soon. I miss you.

Margerie, you bet it will be worth it! You will be out of pocket for a bit, I guess. If you are diligent about doing your range-of-motion exercises starting the day after surgery, you will be up and about really fast, like within five days. When I look back at that day after surgery I have to giggle; my husband insisted I go for a walk in the hospital hallway with him, and I think I may have managed twenty steps or so. I know I was not quite upright, but I did it. Very slowly. We did that every day, and by the fourth day I could make it around the nurses' station. I was winded, but hey, I made it! And my arm exercises! I wish I had a video of me. But each day I got better and those exercises actually started to feel good.

Thank you for your kind words, Odalys.

I suspect I'll be back today.

Hugs to all,

Anna