Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

Chevy - I had a friend who drives a Kia and she loves it. Great that you get to try it out.

Hi Chloesmom. I'm one of the newer members here, just joined last summer. Some have been keeping this thread going for years and years. We have a wide range of experiences here that you will take delight in learning. We're from all over the country, city girls, country girls, some with exciting "former lives" or careers, some very athletic, a couple of excellent cooks, some talented gardeners, a few are still employed and still others are dedicated volunteers. Quite a few of us are travelers. Sometimes we even have had the opportunity to meet in person! As far as breast cancer goes, we represent all diagnoses. There are stage 0 women, stage 4, and everything in between here. Some have already finished treatment but others are smack dab in the middle of it. A few of us are in the reconstruction phase, a few more decided against it. Sounds like we are a pretty diverse group and we are in many ways, but we have all met the breast cancer monster and are here to help, listen, and sometimes offer advice or commiseration. We enjoy sharing memories and have lived long enough to have lots of them.

I don't often comment on the old stuff, but love the paper dolls.  Used to race to the back of my Mom's McCall magazine for the Betsy ones:-).

Welcome Chloesmom!  Best to you with your upcoming surgery and prayers for a good node report. 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We had our kids and 7 grandkids here for a delightfully chaotic dinner and celebration.  Loved every minute of it!

I remember those paper dolls.  I never got any "notables" in the ones I had, but I loved them anyway.  They were fun and we made up stories ( who knows after all this time ) but it kept us 'girls' doing girly things and out of tom-boy land a whole lot of the time. 

Carole, somehow I thought you'd be home by now.  It was 66 here today so not surprised about your La weather.  

Chevy -- yay and make that a double for getting your new car.  I think it is perfect.  Also, that you had it coming --- especially after breaking that hip.  I am really glad for you.

Anne -- too funny about the demotion. 

Going to go make myself a small dish of some yummy left-overs.  Talk to you all again soon.

Jackie

Sandra, I had the Lennon Sisters too. My favorite was HawaiiAnnette (Annette Funicello with a grass hut). My sister and I would set up a whole village of paper dolls on the bedroom floor. Thanks, I hadn't thought about those in years.

I'm afraid I never had any paper dolls Sandra. But I sure would like to have a Chicago Hot dog or maybe try the garlic burger at Steak and Shake. We had a good Thanksgiving - three little boys ages 7,3,2 are just as much fun as can be. Their laughing makes us laugh which makes them laugh….. They spent time on my tiny trampoline teaching the two year old how to just. Eventually he did get his one foot off the ground, but his knees were sure working hard.

Welcome Chloesmom. Keep coming back here if you want people who care and know just how to combine sympathy and laughter.

I'm departing for San Antonio Tuesday morning and have packing to do tomorrow. And of course, the contractor called to ask if they can start the basement remodel tomorrow. Good. I'll be gone. Planning to meet Sandra while on my journey. We can post a picture of the two of us together. That will be fun. Night all.

Morning Blondie! Here's hoping your health issues get a little better today... You should have Called me... I was up about that time too... Just thinking about my car, and like WHERE is the fuel cap release, and what was that again, about doing 2 beeps to get ALL doors unlocked, and how do I replace the battery in the ignition key thing? And blah-blah...!

I'll write all these things down if I can't figure it myself, and Jimmie can show me Wednesday when they come over with the papers...

Meemers! Have you been behaving? And you KNOW what I mean...Ha! I don't have a car at this moment... well I DO, but it only has a dealers tag in the window, and I should probably have some proof that I OWN this car before I do... So don't go fooling around in the sticks, with that escaped felon, cause I can't come get you!

Cammi is SOMEwhere, and not behaving.... likely.... so I'm doin' this all on my own.

Hi Magical! So am I not supposed to be noticing that there is a "bean" listed there too? You mean like Jack and his bean-stalk? I'm pretty sharp you know, so it takes a lot to fool Me...

Good morning, all!  It was nice waking up in my own bed this morning.  No appointments and no must-do's except Return the Rental Car.  Guess I'll put on the maid uniform today.

Hope everyone has a good day.

Thought for awhile about this quote, but continued to go back to it for the simplicity. 

Tomorrow doesn’t matter for I have lived today.
 
Horace

We survived the weekend, kids got here at 2:00 AM on Thursday morning. Left at 3:00 AM on Sat. Morning. Was a short visit but glad to see them. Shop did fairly well over the week, now maybe we can

keep the wolves off the door. Picked up DGD in Fort Hancock, TX yesterday afternoon, got back home around 7:00 PM. Today I am cleaning up the rest of the mess and doing laundry. DH is weed eating.

The adoption worker from Florida called last Wed. things are being to be put in motion. We will have

another home study, it seems silly as they just did one 7 months ago. Oh well.

Hope all are well or as well as can be

I was thinking today that holidays make me feel blessed because I'm always glad when they're over and I can get back to my happy ordinary life.  I'm lucky not to feel the blues when holidays have passed.  I'm glad to get through them!  

Today was one of those nice ordinary days.  I got the laundry done.  Did some house cleaning.  And did some "puttering," like going through my spices and bottled herbs and throwing old stuff away.

Dinner is a skillet dish one of our "friends" posted on Facebook.  It has the ingredients in stuffed cabbage but is easier.  Ground meat, onions, garlic, cabbage, canned tomatoes.  I'm also making  baked sweet potatoes.  I'm splurging and having some wine tonight!

Wow -- listening to all everyone got done is making me feel really lazy. Do good intentions count???? Anyway, it was an ok day -- even though I did not get done very much.

Cammie, I hope you get to feeling better pretty soon.

Teka -- your graphics are always so great. Dearly love the storekeeper's look, as well as Frosty being a tad mortified too.

I'm leaving tomorrow's quote in tonight since I won't be posting in the morning. Have to be out early to drive south the 75 miles to Carbondale, Ill where I have my mammograms done. Only once a yr. and we are hoping the weather cooperates with us really well. Seems no matter when I set the appt. we seem to struggle to get there on time so I gave up and just made it for early this year. Maybe we will do well if we don't have "leisure time" to fill before we take off.

Anyway, I will be back and on my computer later. Wednesday is my GYN check up at the Marion V.A. and then we have another appt. the minute we are back from that so Wednesday will be a full day too. Well, once those things are done we can relax a bit.

See you all again some time tomorrow.

Blessings,

Jackie

Got a message from my good friend tonight that her biopsy came back positive, her breast cancer is back after over 25 years. It's early stage, she'll need surgery and radiation.

I went to my Survivorship Clinic this afternoon, and the appointment really did last 3 hours. They had about 4 of us each in our own private exam room, and they had a rotation schedule all written up so that by the end we had all seen who we needed to see. We had filled out a 4 page questionnaire last week so they knew our individual concerns and who we'd need to see. I visited with the dietician, a social worker, the physical therapist who specializes in lymphedema, and a nurse practitioner.

Dietician had good things to say about what I'm eating, need to work on getting more veggies otherwise diet looks good.

Social worker told me what was available if I had financial problems in the future, or if I get depressed or whatever

The physical therapist measured the circumference of each of my arms every 10 cm and recorded them, told me I look good now, gave me handouts of what to watch for, said it would be a good idea to wrap my arm with an ace wrap when we fly to Seattle just to be on the safe side. She also told me about a free exercise program available at the Y just for cancer patients, Mondays and Wednesday from 5:30-7. She thought they also offered a 75% membership discount if you completed the 3 month course. Certainly something I'll at least look into.

then the nurse practitioner did a physical and answered my questions. I asked about telling the difference in joint pain, whether it was a side effect of Arimidex or from aging or the weather, or when it could be a sign of metastasis. She said Arimidex pain would be more sporadic, vary in intensity, not always in same place - sometimes knee, sometimes ankle, etc. Mets would be same area, would get worse, would cause a change in how I lived my life, like it would affect my sleep, or I'd be doing things a certain way to avoid the pain, would start needing pain meds when didn't need them before. I need to call if I develop any skin changes, like redness or a rash on my chest, or unintentional weight loss, or shortness of breath with activities that I'd previously been able to do.

There was some waiting and delay between them, but not too bad. Definitely time well spent.I have a whole packet of material to read through, and they'll also be sending me a summary of what we discussed.

Sorry  puffin 4 u r friend. She is lucky to have u

Jackie good luck with the mammogram 

Morning gals... Yes Puffin.... so sorry about your friend.... How does that work? I mean we feel sort of "safe" after 5 years, but then we hear of someone getting it again after 15 years? Is it a new spot, or it couldn't be from her "last" cancer surgery, could it?

I know we have no guarantees, and that we can always get it again.... somewhere else, but I guess it just makes us appreciate every day given to us a little bit more....

I know Jackie has taken Arimidex, and seemed to tolerate it okay.... and then OTHERS have really severe joint pain... and can hardly walk. We are all so different... I took Tamoxifen for 1 1/2 years... then quit, because of losing my hearing.... but it would only happen in maybe one out of 20 women.

I didn't want to try Femara... after THAT I didn't want to try ANYthing...

Yes Jackie... I'll be thinking of you.... as always.... let us know... or do they make you wait a few days for results?