April 2015 Chemo Crew... Starting in April? Please join us!

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  • KBeee
    KBeee Member Posts: 5,109
    edited December 2015

    I have done well this week at keeping busy and distracted. It has been off my mind for much of the time...... Thankfully! My friend/neighbor/running partner goes in for diagnostic mammo tomorrow. Hoping she gets the big all clear!!!!!

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  • Positive_spirit
    Positive_spirit Member Posts: 218
    edited December 2015

    Kbeee ... Praying for you. Cancer needs to leave your body forever. I hope biopsy is clear for you. Any I can do for you, let me know! Just a stone's throw away in Massachusetts.

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  • GingerChi
    GingerChi Member Posts: 252
    edited December 2015

    kbee, you're in my thoughts and prayers daily. Glad you got some sleep!! I'm going with your intuition on this one!

    Dizz: sending your hair some growth vibes......I'm sending the same to mine on top. lol I started using a biotin shampoo and I think its helping! The scalp doesn't show through quite as much.

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  • lovlilynne
    lovlilynne Member Posts: 405
    edited December 2015

    Hiya, all. I visited my midwife yesterday and got the ladyparts checked out. Somehow I refrained from making a joke about cobwebs or Jimmy Hoffa. She said that I looked good down there - eh, er, meaning that my "tissue" doesn't look atrophied or whatever. Jeeze, what does it say about me that my midwife is the first person to be checking out my lady parts in 7 months??? I told her that I guess I have to put my big girl pants (or, in this case, take them off?) and schedule a date to play the piano with DH. It's just that if feels so perfunctory. I mean, he hasn't been asking, and I haven't been offering, and I'm just fine with that.

    She gave the ovaries and uterus the ok via exam, I'll have to wait to get the results of the pap, but if it's ok, I don't have to have another one for 5 years..

    Anyone else have excessive dry mouth on the Tamoxifen? I'm trying to determine if it's that or the gabapentin. The other med I take - oxybutynin - causes dry mouth, but I've been taking it for a while and didn't have the dry mouth before taking the other two.

    Karen, glad you've been able to keep yourself busy. Hope you'll get all positive answers next Wednesday. Sending you hugs.

    Lynne

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    I don't have dry mouth on tamoxifen.

    My lady parts seem reasonably moist, not unlike a cake nobody is eating.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    You guys, I just had a heavy thought. So, my family is ethnically Jewish, but we have been raised to never tell anyone because we had relatives murdered in Aushchwitz and my Mom has always been afraid. Today I read somewhere that Cytoxan was developed from ricin (sp) which was tested by Nazis in the death camps, potentially on my relatives. So, were we saved due to the murder of concentration camp victims? I'm not sure how to process this. Is it proof that evil can never triumph? Wow. I'm crying now. Had to put this out there.

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  • KBeee
    KBeee Member Posts: 5,109
    edited December 2015

    Jen, That is a lot to process. I would like to think that evil can never triumph. All of these terrorist steaks just make me so sad. We value life and fight so hard to live. I cannot fathom not valuing life.

    Lynn, Glad your appointment went well.

    Well I made it through one week. I just need to make it through another. Even though I go Wednesdsy, they will need to do a biopsy because of my history of my last lump. That means longer for answers. Hoping they can needle it so I can have answers sooner.

    My mom let me know that her doc heard from the company that did the genetic testing. They are doing a family study on us. Her doc is sending her the info to send me (quite the process). I asked her to scan and email when she gets them so I can get them turned in to my docs while I am there this week. I want those answers soon too. This year began with a lot of bad news. Hoping it ends with better news

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    Most Nazi concentration camp "science" was junk science. If anything good has been developed as a consequence of it, that is a testament to the human capacity to innovate good from the dregs of evil. A lot of what we know about radiation began with the aftermath of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We do not benefit because of those deaths, but because of questions such as "What good can be wrested from this horrific experience?"

    Cytoxan is in the nitrogen mustard group, which is medicinal but can be used for harm. Ricin is a plant-derived poison from castor. I don't think it's related to cytoxan.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Ksusan, thanks for that. After I had my thought I started researching, but haven't gotten far with it. Contemplating it made me want to throw up. "What good can be wrested from this horrific experience?" That's a powerful question. :)

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  • Italychick
    Italychick Member Posts: 2,343
    edited December 2015

    littleblue, stop researching that stuff, no sense making yourself crazy. You can't change anything in the past, all you can do is go forward. Instead, research........whiskey!

    Love you, sister.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Or this?You mean like this?


    Theresa, you mean like this?? There are actually two songs there..stupid tablet is being pissy with the formating lol


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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    Yeah, let's discuss whiskey/whisky.

    1. Whisky, bourbon, Scotch, or rye?
    2. Domestic? Imported?
    3. If Scotch: Blend or single malt?
    4. If single malt, Highland or Islay?

    These are important matters.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Like this???

    I walked on you, ksusan! This one's your whiskey song lol

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Or this?

    OK pulling my head out, These are for Theresa lol. Musical equivalent of whiskey.

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    This.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    This?

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  • Jackbirdie
    Jackbirdie Member Posts: 4,693
    edited December 2015

    This:

    image

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  • Italychick
    Italychick Member Posts: 2,343
    edited December 2015

    Awesome! Love country or blues and whiskey songs. I just got some fancy rye whiskey, drank some when I had a meltdown earlier in the week. It went down smooooooth! It's called Willett straight rye whiskey, small batch brewed in Bardstown, Kentucky. My son is totally into the whiskeys, scotches and bourbons, has a bunch of snobby ones. I'll still drink Jack Daniels if I have nothing else.

    So many beverages, so much choice, not enough time to sample all the great ones out there.


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  • AndreaC
    AndreaC Member Posts: 220
    edited December 2015

    Littleblue, I agree with some of the others...don't make yourself crazy. Sometimes it's better not to overthink things.

    Having said that, my mind has gone to a rather dark place today. I was reading the story on a breast cancer site of a woman who had just lost her mom to breast cancer. She'd had stage one, treated with surgery and chemo...then a couple of years later was diagnosed with stage 4. She fought valiantly...more chemo and some radiation...died anyway. Then a bunch of people posted similar stories. So now I'm sitting here, having battled stage two with lymph node involvement...surgery, chemo and rads...will my cancer return? I guess that's what we all fear. As a nurse I have had many cancer patients...ones who are dying. A lot of them had a recurrence...it seems that if a cancer returns it is often more aggressive and difficult to treat.

    Okay, enough darkness. I need to take my own advice and stop reading stuff like that.

    I will not join you in the whiskey discussion - yuck! - but I do love me a good lime margarita.

    Andrea



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  • AndreaC
    AndreaC Member Posts: 220
    edited December 2015

    Oh, and re tamoxifen...no dry mouth but since I resumed it after my recent surgery my joint pain has returned. Bloody hell.

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  • lovlilynne
    lovlilynne Member Posts: 405
    edited December 2015

    Ugh. Need more data, but I'm wondering if it's the other meds making my pee pill (as my daughter calls it) worse. I actually have to get up in the middle of the night and sip some ice tea because I'm so dry/thirsty. This waking usually means I have to go to the bathroom, which means then I am more awake=sleep disruption. For the most part, I fall back to sleep quickly, but there's always those nights . . .

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  • lovlilynne
    lovlilynne Member Posts: 405
    edited December 2015

    Could be the gabapentin too I guess.

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    Remember that people without recurrences are less likely to be showing up for as many medical services!

    My favorite single malt Scotch is Talisker. It's between a Highland and Islay in taste--somewhat warm and malty but with distinct salt an iodine notes. The worst single malt I've tried is Isle of Jura. I try it every now and then, but every time I find it disgusting.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Have you ever tried Dry Fly whiskey? It's made in Spokane from localish ingredients...

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    I haven't, though I've had McCarthy's from Portland.

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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    Hmm..how is it? I don't love hard alchohol, but I'm a total locavore nerd and we will be in Portland soon...is it worth seeking out?

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  • ksusan
    ksusan Member Posts: 4,505
    edited December 2015

    It tastes like Ardbeg used to, which is a useless description for most purposes. McCarthy's is made from Scottish grain fermented in Portland. It's pretty rough compared to most Highlands. Clear Creek claims it's like Lagavulin, but I disagree. Maybe worth a tasting at Clear Creek Distillery (in Northwest). I don't much like soft alcohol, and I drink very little at all (and even less since the medical Unpleasantness of 2015*), but when I do, I like spirits.

    *Specifically, I have had 1 oz of bourbon, 1.5 beers, and a piece of rum-soaked fruitcake this year.

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  • Jackbirdie
    Jackbirdie Member Posts: 4,693
    edited December 2015

    Jen- "Locavore" love that! Never heard it before. Me too. And I love learning new words!

    When are you going to Portland? Any chance you'll get to the coastal area at all?


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  • littleblueflowers
    littleblueflowers Member Posts: 2,000
    edited December 2015

    We are thinking a trip in January or Feb. DH is an avid steelhead fisherman. I think we will be near the coast for sure!

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  • Positive_spirit
    Positive_spirit Member Posts: 218
    edited December 2015

    oh littleblue, the whiskey convo solved that mind tangent. There is a lot of good and bad in medicine. Think of this...maternal mortality and child mortality have been reduced by large margins in the past 3 decades. Historically, so many awful things happened in the name of science, religion, etc. they still do...may we advocate better for ourselves and others.

    Lynne! Hugs. Yes, your lady parts are beeeaauuutiful! If DH hasn't seen them lately, he is missing some valuable time!

    So....I went to a hip hop class last night. Trying to push myself to do different things. It was ok .. Ended up feeling like aerobics...but next week I will try another class in another town. And I applied for a fellowship that will train me in a medical center and GOT it. It buys me some time to think about career and life post cancer. What do I really want to do?

    Ok y'all... Take good care, lady parts and all. Exercise!!! Eat healthy!!! Breathe!! We came through one hell of year, and we're going to really make the most of the coming year.


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