My (perhaps controversial) thoughts as a "newbie" to CA.

DRUM ROLL PLEASE!!!

Mama and Papa Goose #3 are the proud parents of 2 new adorable goslings! So gosh darn cute!! They are off to the right.

NCBeachGirl: I'm surprised your port is in your arm. I thought they were put in the same location as mine -- above the breast just under the collar bone.

Good luck on Monday. Your first chemo treatment may take longer than the subsequent ones. Mine took almost 7 hours (subsequent ones only took 3 1/2 hours). One reason for my longer treatment was they gave me double doses of Perjeta & Herceptin and a slower IV drip in case I had a bad reaction. Everything went smoothly for me so subsequent treatments were faster.

It is an emotional experience. I cried for weeks after my dx.

In your pocket as well NCBeachGirl! I noticed a few ladies having chemo when I had chemo had ports on the inside of their upper arms and also some on their forearms. Mine is right on top of my right TE and it's still a pain in the butt even after 10 months. I have to have mine flushed every 4 weeks now that I'm done with chemo. I went out and bought all kinds of stuff for my chemo bag for treatments and I never used any of it. It all sits under my bathroom sink. Hopefully you won't need it either but I was glad I had it if I did need it. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. I had a horrible metal taste in my mouth when they'd flush with saline so I made sure I had lifesavers to suck on or dill pickles to snack on while they did the saline flushes. Best of luck! You can do this!

WenchLori, the BS put my port in my upper arm because I'd already had two hospital surgeries in the past month (a real nuisance) and she could install an arm port in her office with local anesthesia and I wouldn't need someone to drive me. She said lots of women prefer to have the port scar hidden, rather than prominent. It sounded logical at the time, and I really didn't feel like the hassle of another hospital surgery, and I figured it would be nice that a port wouldn't be bothered by my seat belt, so I said OK, put it in my arm. Well, immediately I regretted it!!! It's in a fat part of my inner upper arm that rubs against my "side-boob" all the time, and it totally gets in the way all the time, like when I'm at the drive-up teller and have my arm resting on the car door. Ugh, I totally hate the thing! I don't know how long it will be before I rip it out on my own (just kidding) and insist on a chest port. But i'll do my best to give it a chance.

As for a chemo bag, I haven't put one together, partly (okay, mainly) because of money issues. And of course, I have no idea what I'll need. I live with my mom, who was a nurse by profession, and we live a stone's throw from several drug stores and grocery stores, so we're just gonna wait and see what I need. Fortunately, mom is still active and capable at 80, and is ready to do those middle-of-the-night runs for immodium and crackers.

And are you serious? Dill pickles during saline (heparin?) flushes? EWWW. And my cocktail has several chemicals with high probability of mouth sores...UGH... probably won't be eating many pickles in my future!

Molly50 thanks for having my back. And I lived in southern CA for 20 years...miss the hell out of it! I'd say where, but I moved around a lot. Last 2 yrs were in Running Springs, 6,300 ft elevation between Lake Arrowhead and Big Bear. THE perfect climate for me! I just loved the forest and mountains. And yes I was there in 2003 for the horrible wildfires. Had to evacuate with my two great danes and a very pissed-off cat and spent two weeks with two other adult (people) and their two great danes in a small, two-bedroom, un-air-conditioned apartment. OMG, what a terrible experience it was to live thru those fires! They came within a mile of my house. Talk about HUGE stress, watching the 24/7 news coverage, helplessly sitting in my friends' apartment, watching my mountain burn. Thankfully, I had left CA before the next fires hit that area. I don't think i could have taken the stress a second time. But, haha (to anyone else reading this) I really do miss CA!

And hi again, Trill...thanks for your support. Will keep you all posted. and hopefully I'll get to go through the older messages and look at the pix of the wildlife that visits folks here. We don't have much wildlife to speak of here-- two rabid dogs (well, they THINK they're ferocious) and an outdoor cat keep pretty much everything at bay.

TTY'all later (that's my tongue-in-cheek pseudo-southern signature line, as I'm not a NC native, but can claim to be a southerner by birth).

A friendly hello from the San Bernardino Mountains, NCBeachGirl! Sorry about your port problems but isn't this site great for support?

My DH and I spent the 2003 evacuation on cots in the gym of Sultana HS in Hesperia. We had just moved to Lake Arrowhead from NJ and knew no one to take us in!

Best of luck to you in this unasked-for adventure!

MJ

NCBeachGirl - the 2007 fire came closer to us than the one in 2003. But I had friends who lost homes in both - devastating! I talked a bit ago on one of the threads here about the guilt I felt after we got home in 2003; we were so grateful to have escaped but felt terrible about those who did not.

In 2003 we had to drop our two cats off at the shelter set up at the county fairgrounds (no pets allowed at the shelter where we stayed). They were pretty angry with us when we picked them up as they had to spend the week in the carriers we took them in.

I go for my radiation mapping tomorrow. Excited would be the wrong way to describe my feelings but I will be glad to get this part of the unasked-for adventure on its way. The sooner I start, the sooner it will be over!

MJ

Lori, great news about your raccoons!! I can't wait to see pictures. Woo hoo on getting your port out too!

Beer? I don't even like beer. Some of the stupid things auto correct says without permission is hilarious 😂

Trill, the s'mores wouldn't make it out the door before I've eaten it myself.

I saw mama doe yesterday at the salt block. Her belly just keeps getting bigger and bigger, poor mama had to stand splay footed just to be able to stand!

Hi Trill,

Oh, it's just getting better and better around here! (NOT!!!) To make the long story as short as I can... I'm having off and on mild sore throat and moderately sore ear on my right side, but OMG two days ago MAJOR tooth pain on the same side! I'm popping Tylenol like they're M&Ms and it's barely touching the pain, so I dug out the big guns and hit it with the oxycodone...finally got a little relief. Then about 4 pm today I had to pee, and OMG, PAIN!!! So it's looking like a UTI on top of whatever is wrong in my head. And oddly enough, NO FEVER. I've been calling the dentist, cancer center, and primary care physician all afternoon...very confusing trying to decide who to see... ended up with an appointment with PCP Wednesday afternoon. Been online all night trying to find some answers. Am officially giving up now! Hoping the docs won't be asses and will actually communicate with each other tomorrow so I'll get the proper tests and prescriptions.

And LOL, I bought some cranberry extract caps for the UTI pain, and happy to say no pain when I just peed, but the LOL part is that my pee is bright neon orange!! Wait till they get a cup of THAT at the lab tomorrow!

I am sooooooo tired! Cancer is hard work! And my poor mom just had eye surgery this morning and is in a lot of pain, and she is totally freaking out about that and all my strange symptoms, and she sent me out on a massive Ben and Jerry's reconoissance run (and the whole time I'm feeling that awful "gotta pee, gotta pee, gotta pee" feeling), with a stop to pick up pizza on the way home! Poor woman. She had no idea there could be so many side effects from chemo.

Ugh, what a day!

I used to get lots of UTIs until I started taking a daily cranberry pill. It's cheap and easy, and I haven't had a UTI since!