Starting Chemo March 2015

Mauren- just wanted to say we are in your pocket for your biopsy next week. It must be so scary but will be good to get answers.

Bekah- you and your family are just lovely. I'm so glad you got to have that memory making vacay.

BB- I feel the same way. Glad we seem to be moving on. But I miss everyone.

I ended up going off the Tamoxifen in December. It was due to the liver issues and the mood issues which were devastating. That improved with the AI but other problems replaced them. I did some research when I was experiencing the devastating, nearly suicidal moods. it turns out there was a clinical trial in which they tested the ability of Tamox to treat acute mania in hospital/crisis settings. To me, the fact that they even considered it told me considerable anecdotal evidence existed that Tamox can significantly alter/lower mood. Just sayin

I guess I always hoped that if not returning to normal life, I would adapt to something acceptable. Instead, the life I have returned to so far is a big disappointment. I keep trying different things, trying to reframe. Trying to accept. It's a work in progress. But I never would have gotten even this far without all of you. 💗💗

Hi ladies!

I haven't been on in a while. Mostly following up with y'all on FB. Maureen, I hope you have good news to report. Sending all my good mojo your way. Katy - I wish there was a way to take your pain away. Sucks that you are dealing with so much.

I'm fine. Still trying to build a new boob. Essentially none of the fat from the last grafting took. I'm kind of over it. I thinkI'm going to try one more time and then call it a day & get a big tattoo to cover its ugliness.

hugs & kisses

e

Jumbledbamboo in your pocket, fingers and toes crossed for benign results. When do you get results?

Amber, keep us posted! Are you on fb? If so, pm me so we can add you to the group!

jumbled - don't be too alarmed about your marker number, they can escalate if you have inflammation - and if you are having pain, you most likely have inflammation. I had surgery in May to exchange my expander for an implant and swap my other implant and had been having both hip pain, from an injury, and pain toward the axilla of the cancer breast. My marker went into the 40's, which had never happened before and I had an abnormal chest area on PET. What they saw turned out to be a 3cm ball of suture granulomas and inflammatory tissue right where the cancer had been - and it was removed during the surgery. I had a marker done a couple of weeks ago and it was back into the 20's now that all of that was removed. Hope they can get to the bottom of your pain and worrisome imaging, and that it is something benign, I know this is scary.

It is scary. I am thinking that the AVN I have might raised my numbers. Thing is my numbers are higher than last year. Just going to go day by day. I am worried because I'm having the same symptoms. My schedule is messed up again. I j feel sick all the time. And my heart races when I go outside in the heat for a just a few minutes. Also, I have vitamin D deficiency. I am always anemic. Just kind of working it out. They also have never mentioned my TM numbers. Ever. So, I am glad they are on top of it. If the AVN is the cause, then so be it. I just know that having more spots on x-ray, and possibly cancer or more AVN, hip surgery might be in the cards yet again. The hip surgery was a really hard one. I have so much pain. It just keeps getting worse. Ok, I'm done ! Thanks for listening everyone!

Thank you March sisters for passing the magic bracelet on to us April ladies! Here it is on top of Going to the Sun road in Glacier NP. It got me through my MO check up and i passed it on to our beautiful Positive Spirit. I made a charm out of a twist of Mountain Goat fur so that we can all be as strong and agile as thwm even in rocky situations. Blessings!

Love it!!

terry Marie, pm me and I can get you into Facebook grou

PrincessOfMeh so good to see you!!!! I"m glad to hear you're writing again and maybe you can PM me your latest book...I think I can finally focus on reading

Anxiety is a killer. Sometimes I feel like BC made me a drug addict LoL. I have nausea... "here, take some Ativan". I have anxiety... "here take some Ativan". I have chest wall spasms from recon surgery... "here take some Ativan". Then a single nurse says "you need to try to wean off the Ativan". Really?!?!?! Then why do you give prescribing it!?!

I don't feel back to normal yet at all. I'm trying but it's tough. I have a lot of joint pain and now my CBC is a little wonky showing some mild anemia and elevated AFP tumor marker. The CBC should be great because I had an iron infusion in January...don't know what is causing that! And the AFP has doubled in the past few months. It's still not high enough that most docs would worry but doubling is a little scary (AFP only done because of elevated liver enzymes several months ago that have since resolved).

Fatigue is not so bad but endurance is low.

Chemo brain still rears it's ugly head more frequently than I'd like but I'm coping.

Still working 3 days a week instead of full time but I have a supplemental disability plan that makes it really hard to be motivated to work full time LoL!

Anyway...good to see you back and thanks for checking in

Bekah

The Charm Bracelet Group

Hi, please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Julie Johnston, I am a breast cancer survivor and a doctoral student working on my dissertation. I have received permission from the moderators to recruit participants for my study of breast cancer survivors weight management issues and it is posted under the research, trials, and studies forum. In the course of interviewing a participant, she told me about a group who passed a bracelet around and each person added a charm. I thought that was such a sweet idea and was thinking about that and thought your stories would make an uplifting book for other breast cancer survivors and was wondering if you and the other women would share your stories, and the charm you put on the bracelet, and why you selected that particular charm, and what it meant to you. I write books on the side and would like to write a book about your experiences. I thought of calling the book 'The Hope Bracelet" with a picture of the completed bracelet on the cover and a picture of each charm leading into a chapter of the story behind the charm. What do you think? Could you contact the others and ask them?

Julie K. Johnston

jjohnstonkay@gmail.com

865-274-9519

Hi, everyone. I see it's my two-year anniversary of beginning chemo. Time flies--or not :-)

How are those of you not in our Facebook group doing?

Hi Ksusan,

I'm not in the Facebook group. I was thinking of our chemo group a few days ago too.

I'm still dealing with reconstruction surgeries. Tamoxifen sometimes makes me achy.

I have a mammo on my "healthy" breast coming up in May and I'm terrified, because it has been hurting.

Allison, SpecialK is quite active on these boards. I see her comments often on some threads that I'm following.

Thanks, BB. I am sorry you are having pain. I know how scary that is. Hoping it is nothing and you can move on.

Maryellen, so glad you have the bracelet. Hugs, think about you every day!