Starting chemo Sept 05

Hi all

Just a quick one from me-I am waiting to get through to my dr's office re my mammo and u/s. There were a couple of nasty looking nodes on my affected side that couldnt' be biopsied while I was in the chair (I am on warfin) so they are discussing what to do. I missed their call a moment ago and now their line is engaged. Grrr. Something else to worry about. Why can't it ever be simple??

Scott is leaving for his 6 month deployment 4 days. I am more terrified about this beast coming back while he is away than anything else to do with him not here.

I posted on the mets board about my first CT scan since NED coming up on Friday 13th (YIKES!!!). Am so bloody scared already that I can't sleep and have worried myself into a bit of a stomach bug!! Not sure what to do to relax about it. I really really want this to be okay. I am feeling like my energy is returning a little, I am booked in for my first eyebrow wax today (!!), got to go buy some razors to shave my legs for the first time in over a year and am growing HAIR!!! I just want to be normal for a while.

Michelle- I think I saw you on the news last weekend when herceptin went on the pbs? Looking good!

Calico- prayers are going up for you and your daughter.

Janet- I have read a lot that it is so common for bc survivors to get depressed a year or so out from dx- basically because we go into 'fight' mode so quickly and once that subsides we really take on board what has just happened, what it all meant and what 'could' happen again. Combine that with everything else you are going through and I am not surprised you are depressed at the moment. You have a lot on your plate but you sound as though you are doing a fantastic job with it ALL. Enjoy your swing, reflect but remember how far you have come.

Love to you all as always my sisters
oxoxoxo

Hello everyone,

Michelle how is that sister of yours? Keep us posted.

I have a friend Janie just dx with breast cancer too. She was debating about the chemo but decided to do it afterall. She is Her+ and will need all the big gun drugs. I urged her to start up with a group here. So Sad -- so many of us now it seems like. I am glad that I can be here for her.

I am doing great. I am working out everyday. Sticking to eating well and smaller portions most of the time anyway. I have never felt better (expect for the nasty side effects of the aremidex--- you know the achy joints etc..) I will be 40 this December -- someone mentioned all that "over the hill" stuff and I freaked. Well, I will just embarce the new me at 40 I guess.

Leannem -- praying for you for good results on Friday the 13th (thats funny).

Calico -- congrats on the news of your daughter.

Janet -- how cool are you to have that farm?

Peg -- love the pic. I did a 2.5 mile walk here last sunday for breast cancer -- I thought I was going to passout. Your my hero!!!

Hi everyone

I have been on arimidex now since April.

I am now getting a "new" side effect, tingly/numb feeling in the ends of my fingers (left and right hands) when i extend my arms straight.

I have looked on the www.mayoclinic.com site , and it is listed as one of the side effects.

Anyone else getting this?

Take care everyone.

Maxine

ps Sandra, im just about to watch the "what not to wear".. should be interesting.

Nicole,
that sounds interesting. sure could have used something like that when my kid was little....

Maxine,
I get restless legs and wonder if it is my "anxiety" or Femara.
I am out of Turmeric and my joints ache big time, will go to Whole foods today and buy more, I wonder if it is related to not take Turmeric. I also had a 24 hr hotflash yesterday, unusual for me...

Marg,
I just started lifting my "sissy" 5 pound dumbells and I see already an improvement after one week.
Working out makes a difference

God Bless

http://www.komenaustin.org/site/TR?px=12...mp;s_tafId=4650

Here is the link to my page and after the race on Nov 5th I will add photos.

Wooohoooo Tina!!



Hope it goes well for you, without any complications.

When you gonna post some pics on the website you posted?

Take care

Maxine

Hi all

Just a very quick on tonight.

Well Scott left on his deployment this morning so I am pretty upset. 6 months is such a very long time and to me it seems even worse with scans coming up. I hope I get through this time okay, with no reoccurances/spread and with alot of patience with the children!

Am just really sad. Plus he misses my 30th birthday which is next week. Normally would be a very big deal but all birthdays seem important now to me.

Love
Leanne
xo

Hi all...

A quick note..... I have read all the postings and think of you often. I turn 48 this week... I feel so old. Business is booming; and that is all I can manage at the moment.

Kid keeps coming home from college. The husband's business has hit the skids. I worry about money most of the time, and we haven't even turned on the heat yet.

Good news? My violin playing is going well. Getting hired a lot now, and the quality keeps getting better. One sister eloped on a canoe, and the other sister has finally come out. Oh my! This sounds like "One life to live"!!!!

Again, think of all of you all the time. We are strong, we are moving forward, and we are simply human.

take care,

*susan*

Wow Peg, how amazing. I take my hat of to you! You did it! And looked fabulous all the way! Thank you for what you did in our name....

One of my friends just had a bc scare. She had a biopsy yesterday, and it is benign. Thank goodness. I am so tired of this disease. I do not want to play anymore. Can I get off please?

Susan, holding thumbs for DH. We have also been through a very difficult patch, but things are starting to look up now. Good Luck. The stress of it really takes its toll. Keep strong.

Tina, good luck with Herceptin.

Leanne, good luck with your scans and coping with the kiddies while Scott is away. Thinking of you and holding thumbs for continued NED.

Calico, post some pics of Gina's dance. Both of you are in my thoughts.

Any advice for the tiredness? It has been 8 months since end of chemo, and I am still finished at the end of day. Also, any of you still suffer from chemo brain. I read on another thread that they now say it can last for up to 10 Years!! I have to write everything down. Between thinking of writing it down and picking up the pen, I forget what I wanted to write! While cooking, I forget what I was going to cook while I walk to the freezer! I buy all the ingredients for these amazing meals, and they go off because I forget about it and go out to dinner. DH thinks I am just using chemo brain as an excuse!

I hope you are all keeping well. Thinking of all of you often.

Liezel

WOOHOO Peggy

WELL DONE YOU!!!!!

the photos are terrific!

Calico.........hope all goes well for Gina
xxx

Leanne..........good luck with your scans, and I hope you have a lovely birthday.

Hugs to all

Maxine

Hi ladies

Well I had my CT scan today and to be blunt, they have seen (another) mass in my liver but are unsure at this stage what it is. No one will say anything, rather they are waiting to compare it to all my other scans before giving me the final report which could be as late as next Friday. I am more than terrified. i dont know if I can do it all AGAIN. How many times do I have to fight this? Isnt it yet my turn to go forward and enjoy my children and my family? Am I destined to be a 'sad breast cancer story'?

Please please help me gather the strenght to not only get through until I get the final results but to be strong enough to wage another war if I have to. I am scared. Please help me ladies.

love
Leanne

Oh Leanne

I am so sorry you have to go through another worrying time.
Please shout, cry, vent, anything you need to do, and we will listen and support you.

I will be praying its benign..........

Hugs

Maxine

Leanne,
I continue to pray for you!!! I hope this is a benign result of your treatment!!!

Susan,

HappY Birthday!!!!

A quick update on Gina.
First, we appreciate all your prayers.

This was and is so hard.
The surgery went okay but the rest is awful.

She had a morphine pump and got very sick to her stomach, could not keep anything down, used water to maker her "throw up" (sounds like my chemo).
Every vomitting episode hurt her hip. Zofran and Benadryl was given for nausea but did not help. The night nurse thought we "could try" Zofran again, maybe it helps now in the morning...HELLOOOO what about calling the doc and try something else??? I mentioned Phenergan (I got htis for morning sickness) and it helped, they also gave up on the morphine in the morning. She slept some and then got a fever...meanwhile the Physician Assistant (yeah....the doc left town and left us with him...) meant we could go home....Duhhhh...I informed him that she threw up all night, can't eat or drink and is in no shape to even get up....
So another day, thank God I thought, Thursday morning....she got a fever and they gave her Vicodein which includes 500 mg Tylenol. The nurse brought it every 4 hrs two pill....we all know that 4000 mg or 4 Gramms are the max....not the way she was going...I told her she would overdose..."oh we did this all the time, this limit is very recent!!!" B&llsh8t...Am I kidding myself here????
Neither the pain nor the fever went, fever maxing at 102.7....wow...and that was considered normal for after surgery!!!! Wow....
It went down again later in the evening.

Yesterday she was released with the temp still bouncing and in much pain, but first the Physical Therapist had to come to showing how to use crutches....

Then two Physical Therapists came, one very sick with the "flu" or something....they started getting Gina out of bed even though they said they would do so after her next pain meds, which was antoher hour away so her pain was already peaking.
Gina asked them herself to come back later (and the sick one coughed all over my fevering child)..he later went home due to his cold.

The trip home from Denver took almost 2 hrs in our car with much pain to her, obviously.
I thought she should stay in the hospital for 4-5 days originally...but no...

Then last night, her temp shot up again to 102.1 at first (Iwas told to call if it would hit 102 (not the normal 101.5) so the doc returning my call was from the hospital, not one of the doc's at the ortho oncology clinic, which was a bummer (he had no knowledge of what was done, what kind of tumor etc.). He said to go to the ER...(in our car with the pain, she could not even walk and carrying was out of the question, it would have dislocated her hip).
We waited 2 hrs after the last two vicodein and it finally started to go down all night to a near normal in the morning.
She is so out of it, doesn't eat, I make her though a little, she drinks okay
Oh and they told me the spirometer (that thing to blow in for your lungs) would keep the fever down, ha...she wouldn't even have one if I didn't say anything.

Gosh, we need some more prayers please....

God Bless

Calico,

My thoughts turned to you and gina often today. I hope that today was a better one. I find myself angry that the treatment she received seems, well, a little calous. There is no excuse for sneezing all over a young person who has just had surgery!

I hope that you both have a full and restorative sleep tonight, and wake feeling well.

*susan*