#3 of 4 chemo is in the books! Now just to get through the next two weeks of SE's - maybe I won't have any!

I am being even more pro-active on the constipation issue - started taking Mirralax and colace this morning, and I'm taking it every day while I'm taking Zofran. My MO approves.

My last session, I had two really bad days (days 4 &5) then the week of worrying about low blood counts, but only one day of "flu-like symptoms" - then feeling good right up to today . Good, of course is a relative term, since I still deal with lower GI issues as in "not normal" which my MO says I will probably deal with until I finish chemo. Starting to notice some nail changes, but nothing bad yet. Fatigue is always around. Tonight I have a really bad taste in my mouth, so sucking on lemon drops. "Dex" got me up at 1:30 a.m. today, and I could not go back to sleep, so hoping tonight will be better.

Got my appointment with my RO the day after my last infusion, so I'll find out then how much radiation I'll have to go through. Have to make an appointment with my LE therapist for a check on the arms before radiation starts. All in all, a pretty good day.

A friend sent this to me today... As I believe in Kharma, I'm not into the chain letters but "why not?" After all of this😉

Thought of you and I do believe in Karma. Hope u get something good out of it.

This is for u & Read till the end! I sent an angel to watch over you last night, but it came back and asked "why?" The angel said, "angels don't watch over angels!" twenty angels are in your world. Ten are sleeping, nine of them are playing and one is reading this message. The universe has seen you struggling with some things and says it over. a blessing is coming your way. If you believe in Karma send this message to 14 friends including me, if I don't get it back I guess I'm not one of them. As soon as you get 5 replies, someone you love will quietly surprise you... Not joking. Pass this message on. Please don't ignore it. you are being tested and Karma is going to fix two big things tonight in your favor. If you believe in Karma drop everything and pass it on TOMORROW WILL BE THE BEST DAY OF YOUR LIFE. DON'T BREAK THIS. SEND THIS TO 14 FRIENDS IN 10 MINUTES IT'S NOT THAT HARD. WHOEVER SENT THIS TO YOU MUST CARE ABOUT YOU

Just hold your finger on it n it should say forward

Posting a couple of pics of my hair...finished chemo end of Sept....still doing Herceptin infusions every 3 weeks and started Arimidex 3 days ago. Hair is certainly a bit more coarse and would need coloring but am going au natural....have earned every crazy white/gray hair.

Looking good HH;)

HappyHammer your hair looks right on track. I had so many crazy swirls and cow licks I thought if my hair stays like this it's gonna be crazy! But then they settled down. Also had a bald spot right in front forever. But that went away too

MabelJo, I had pretty much the same reaction to finding out I had BC. I have been surprised at how well I have handled this. At every turn I'm kinda thought, "Well, this is one more obstacle in the road of my life. Let's pick up and walk on, then." I think other people were more upset than I was. My mother was VERY upset (understandably.) My sister who had BC 3 years ago was pretty pragmatic about it--she was reassuring and supportive from the get-go. I shared with my Sunday School class and they have been fantastic. They jumped right in the fray by providing meals 2-3 times a week the entire duration of chemo (4 months.) Other than close family, SS class, and boss, I have been very selective in who I tell. I really don't need people to feel sorry for me or bring up anything pink (I love pink, but I don't love all the Ta-Ta crap.)

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Sooooo, I'm gradually feeling better. This is the first day that I haven't had to take a narcotic all day, just Tylenol. I'll probably need one before bedtime, though. I'm finding that sleeping on my back hasn't been as hard a I thought it was. DH took me out to eat for lunch today and that was just about enough activity for one day. I came home, got a shower (heaven) and jumped into my PJs for the rest of the day.

The only problem I've really had is running a fever 101 every evening/night since surgery 2/2/16. I called the doctor's office today and they had me come in. There is a good bit of redness and inflammation on both sides and a lot of bruising on the right side. This is the side that has been so troublesome from the beginning (huge hematoma after lx, huge infected seroma ,out of work for 3 weeks.) She drew a line around the area of redness with a marker and she's gonna see me again in 3 days. I'm really hoping this won't cause the tissue to die, but that's a distinct possibility.

The Goldilocks recon looks pretty good. The first time I looked at it, I was a leetle bit disappointed that the booblets were rather small. Of course, the big advantage of the Goldilocks recon is it's a one-shot recon, generally, so it all depends on how much left-over skin and fat is left after the MX. Looking at it now, 4 days later, I'm getting used to the new look and I'm feeling better about it. The one great thing about it is that for the first time in 44 years I can go braless! They even ditched the compression bra today, since there's not much to compress and the bra was so uncomfortable.

I found a couple of healthy and detoxifying recipes that would be great during treatments! And the ginger latte is perfect to help with nausea during chemo;)

http://goop.com/recipes/surya-spa-dal/

http://goop.com/recipes/ginger-turmeric-latte/

http://goop.com/recipes/cucumber-basil-lime-juice/

That's Kharma! Great story

Mabeljo- in your pocket til you get your results....waiting stinks! Try to take some really deep breaths- go for a walk, call a friend? Let the stress go through you. Holding on to it makes you sick. Keep us posted.

Tami, welcome. Great news on the clear nodes. Sorry about the sore boob

Tami4965, Welcome to the best place you don't want to be. You've already discovered that we are warm, comforting, informative and a bit crazy, but always ready to help out. Please update your profile with all your diagnoses, treatments and proposed treatments and make them PUBLIC. It helps us immensely when we are answering your questions. Most often people with a similar diagnosis or problem will answer. We'd also like to know where you are. Who knows, one of us might live around the corner from you

I suspect you have an MO for your anti-hormonals and an RO for rads. I had 33 rads over 6-1/2 weeks. Very glad for your clear nodes - that's wonderful! When was your surgery? It's possible you'll feel swollen for quite awhile or not. Everyone seems to be very different about this. Most of us find the SLNB site a royal pain. What's a "coloidal"? That's a new one on me. Sounds like something you'd prefer not to have.

HUGS!

Oh I didn't realize I hadn't changed the settings... lol. OKay so lets see I had some questions to answer. I have this -

Mucinous breast cancer, also called colloid breast cancer, is a rare type of invasive ductal breast cancer that accounts for less than 2% of all breast cancers. Like other types of invasive ductal cancer, mucinous breast cancer begins in the milk duct of the breast before spreading to the tissues around the duct.

I now have three doctors - A RO, A MO, and a SO. My surgery was January 29th. It just happens so fast doesn't it? I was busy being a mom having a routine mammogram and bam, you need to come back, and again.. and then positive. It's a lot to process. So I am so glad to have others who really "get it"!

Ohhh my boob is so friggin engorged feeling. I asked my doc yesterday. (he was super pleased with the healing and my path report) but he said it will get worse before it gets better. It honestly feels like a torpedo about to burst off my chest. Any thing to help that?

PatGreig, welcome! You've found the right place even though you don't want to be here. I'm 70 so not quite up to your age. We have one other 70+ lady here. Why has your SO recommended a mastectomy? On the face of it, a lumpectomy would be the desired choice. I don't know where you live in case that makes a difference. If you continue on with a lumpectomy, there shouldn't be any reason for you not to garden. If you have very many lymph nodes removed that could make a difference. But for most of us with no chemo and just a few nodes removed, there isn't any limitation on gardening. You may find that you should not lift as much with your "bad" arm but that's about it. You DO need to be more careful about cuts and scratches on that side since even a few nodes can make you a bit more vulnerable to infections. Perhaps other ladies have had different experiences.

I think you should recover just fine from your lumpectomy. Usually it is outpatient surgery. Chemo might be an issue at 80 (though I really don't know) but I think surgery shouldn't be an issue. Most of us here also believe that in most circumstances a lumpectomy is the best first choice. Once you've had a mastectomy you can't get that breast back. Less is better, thus a lumpectomy. Even those ladies who wind up needing a mastectomy usually don't regret starting with a lumpectomy.

HUGS!

Welcome Tami. Glad to hear your nodes were negative.