Summer Rads 2014

I am DONE!!!!  Woohoo!  Very happy to get this behind me.  Have a hair appoitnment at 4 pm.....and then stopping to pick up some wine to celebrate.  Congrats to everyone finishing today!  What a ride!!

Way to go, Vette!!!!

Yey vette girl! Such a good feeling!!

I am enjoying my super short , soft easy to care for hair!!  I am off to work in no time with no bad hair days and lots of stylish scarves and dangly earrings!  My kindergarteners tell me everyday how beautiful I am!! Lol....after one little guy blurts out " you look like a boy"!  Haha! But I am going to keep a short pixie...like Emma Watson ....I have already trimmed a bit over my ears too!  

Forgot to check out my legs until I crossed them while assessing kids and had my specs on to see a lot of stubble! Yeeks!! Funny....have a great weekend! Rosie

Fatigue can last a year?  I think everyone is different.  My RO said if you were high energy before, it shouldn't take that long to get back to normal. Hoping that is true.  I have noticed some fatigue, but I still do my strenuous work out every morning.

Congrats to all that have finished this week!!!

Happy Friday to those that are not yet done. 

Rosie - my "warm flashes" have definitely improved. I never had a real hot flash, I just get warm, but they are not as frequent as they were in the beginning. I started taking Tamoxifen the last week of July. 

vettegirl. Glad hubby was able to take you out!! Sounds like you had a great time. Mmm, got me longing for some shrimp or lobster now!!

 I have often wondered about hair systems for women,  I can get away with my thin hair when its well cut for the time being but have an area down the side that will never grow any hair due to surgery after an accident (.I survived a high speed rollover many years ago with only bad cuts to the head - saved by my seatbelt). Anyway It only shows if the wind blows but the front is so thin and my forehead ended up so high with the surgery that I often fiddle with it.  When the MO comments on it and I have not even had chemo or started the hormones then there is a problem Lol. I have a couple of wigs that I do not often wear but get nice compliments when I do but they are hot, uncomfy and difficult to look after as they are synthetic. Is the hair system heavy or do you get used to it and can you swim in it? It sounds like a great idea.

vettegirl, Congrats!! sorry for the delay!! 

I need a little whine here. Just to add another nail.....

 Friday we found out that as of the end of October my dh will be out of a job. And insurance. Great!! I have surgery scheduled for November. Yes we can do Cobra, but holy cow I don't know how we would pay for it. And it just keeps getting better. They let everyone go, on Friday, in the repair station side (they work on helicopters) except for about 8 of them. Luckily my dh was one of them. They need a few good ones to help wrap up. Ah this just keeps getting better and better.

sunshine, did you have your consultation on Friday?

yes,I've had some breakdown in the armpit...red,raw with some open areas. Very uncomfortable. Radl tech advised saline soaks four times a day and aguafor cream. Helping some. Have done 25/30 treatments,so hopefully I won't be uncomfortable for long.

lyzzysmom ...I need to get into an exercise routine...I had thought about getting a trainer but I hate the gym,  and with work schedule and fatigue in the afternoons...don't know when I would go!  But I need to start something,  I keep saying when it cools down...hopefully in a couple,of weeks....good luck! Rosie

MJ, are you already on your boosts then since you are on 25? I think my last 8 are boosts. I can't remember back to my first appointment when the RO told me where and how many. I know one of the targeted areas is the breast where the tumor was and the other is where the nodes where but I am not sure where exactly that was...I guess where the incision under my armpit is? If thats the case then my skin is surely going to get blasted wide open.....and I don't know why that is freaking my out so badly. I had a huge tumor under my arm pit but PET scan post chemo showed no cancer anywhere...there was however a micro bit in the breast tissue that was removed during surgery but all my nodes were negative and I had clear margins so I really don't understand why I have to do so many rads except perhaps that I am/was triple negative? I am trying to get in the habit of talking in the past tense when it comes to my cancer....I had cancer...I had tumers...

Yep, still itching here too. Also still experiencing some heat. Not really "hot" but can defiantly feel it. Still get some pain too.

charusa, don't over due, they will push you to finish now. But if it is getting that bad, and as much as you want to be done, don't do more damage than you need. Especially if your boosts will be in the same area. Take a break and let it heal.

sunshine, I'm am going to talk with them and see if I can get it pushed up. I was really hoping for Nov. as I still have swelling on on one side. Also, he said he was booked up in Oct. So at first I thought it was going to work out perfect, not so much now. I was asking about your surgery as I was also thinking of maybe doing this. For the same reason. Get rid of the fat!! Now I don't know what the h*ll to do. 

We are really hoping dh can get another job. Only problem, we don't know what the insurance, if any, will be. Sounds picky but I sure hope it's not an HMO. Never had good luck with those. We are secretly hoping they will keep him until just into Nov. so we can get another month of ins. But not counting on it. I've been so depressed.

MJ and Charusa, I feel your pain! I didn't get the red open weepy skin until about #25-28. Then RO put me on a 5 day break and it helped alot. After using the Silvadene + Aquafor, it is about 1/2 beginning to heal and patchy healing on the lower part. I was amazed what that little break did! RO resumed my last 3 tx yesterday, so I finish tomorrow!! DH said let's go out after and celebrate!

vettegirl, BIG Congrats!!

We actually were discussing that yesterday. LOL I think he will ask, but wants to wait a week or 2 and see how everything is going. I know, I know I need to be grateful that we had ins while I had the majority of everything done. I keep telling myself that......but you all know sometimes it's just hard to stay positive.

Hard to believe, going through what we go through, and in my case for an issue less than 2cm big. Crazy.

saline soaks and aquaphor are helping a lot. Start five boosts to lumpectomy site on Monday and then I'm done with this phase!  Just herceptin every three weeks until April.

Have finally felt well enough and hopeful enough to start travel planning again(had to cancel trips river cruising down the Danube and to Greece when diagnosed). Looking at a cruise to eastern Caribbean in December. Thinking it might be best choice as I can do as much or as little as I feel like. Have never done an ocean cruise before,but hear they really spoil you. Feel like I deserve a little spoiling after all this.

Rhett it really sucks about the insurance.  However, if this is any hope at all a lady I knew ended up with coverage through the affordable healthcare act.  Her husband had lost his job and she barely made above minimum wage.  Her out of pocket was zero.  My out of pocket was 3,000.  We got the exact same care from the same group.  She was devastated that morning I met her because she had just found out and had no insurance coverage at all.  I was really glad she (and her family) got coverage!!! Her husband has since found a job that has coverage.