Stage 2 Sisters Club

TabzIsMyAngel - I love your story of Tabitha! She's beautiful and I can totally see why she'd be your guardian angel.

My former boyfriend & I adopted an absolutely adorable 12-wk old brother & sister duo who were also part Maine Coon last October. But when we split up in July (a week before my diagnosis) I had to move back home to northern NY to be near family (and a local cancer treatment center only 5 minutes away) since I had no support system in Michigan. We didn't want to split them up because they were SO closely bonded & in addition to not having room in my vehicle for them & all their stuff, I didn't want to subject them to a 12 hour drive. So unfortunately, I had to leave them behind.I miss them terribly and do want to get another at some point, but right now with no income I can't take on that financial responsibility at this time. But I *WILL* have another cat (or two!) again as soon as I can.

I actually just threw some cookies & donuts in the trash (now I need to get the bag out of the house before I dig them out again ).

Many time I think about the effectiveness of chemotherapy before surgery. I read a lot of books agree with that but I feel not good about it, especially when I remember the cancerous mass inside my breast all these time during chemo, around 4.5 months, 6 weeks gone.

STAGE 2 with nodes involved make me worry all the time, if cancer break my breast tissue and goes out. can chemo guarantee to find out and kill each single cells after nodes? really I'm worry about that. in addition, how can I know if the chemo works well in my body? maybe I will waste more time with chemo and cancer spread more and more. I don't know anything except crying all days.

Hope - I had surgery before chemo. My MO told me that the chemo was to destroy any wandering cells that might be in my body. It was a long course of chemo lasting 6 months followed by 29 radiation treatments. I cried a lot during that time. Now, I am 6 months post treatment and crying much less. Reading on other threads here that people with a lot more node involvement than I had are doing great years later is always encouraging.Try to keep busy as much as you can. It helps take your mind off things.....

well ladies here goes nothing walking into the MO office #Cancersuck

am having a ct scan , and a scan of my heart on Jan 11th. Jan 15th will be having surgery to put my port in and on Jan 18th will start 6 months to 1 years of chemo followed by 6 weeks rads followed by hormonal therapy. They want me to have my ovaries taken out 😫😳 MO said I'm high risk for tecur

Legally, they have to tell you all the 'worst case scenarios'. Usually people don't find chemo as horrible as they expect going in. It is not fun, that is for sure, but doable for most. Hang in there. It will get better once you get started, waiting is the worst!

Worriedme, as Ruth said they have to inform you all the SE they aware of. You won't get all of them but there might be some hidden ones also. Everyone are different, also it really matters on what kind of actions are you going to take. For me I pretty much stay away from crowds and I picked weekday as my shopping days so I don't have to deal with crowds. That help me to stay away from bugs. When I heard coughing I usually put my face mask on. During chemo, I tried to get more rest and do more walking. The daily walking really helped my joints pain, fatigues, SOB and emotionally also.

I agreed with you Cancer sucks!

Thanks Runor. I pretty much stay up every night. I wonder if there is a thread for insomniacs.

I woke up today and I’m so depressed. People that I really thought would be here for me aren’t I’m worried I’m not gonna be strong enough physically or emotionally for this shit!!!! Mannnnnn I guess today’s gonna suck for me. Idk why I’m n this mood I’m usually a pretty positive person with a optimistic outlook on things.

WorriedMe77- you got a Lot of stuff tossed at you yesterday! Give yourself a few days to process it all and come to terms. You don’t have to make a decision on the ovaries right away, so just deal with first things first. We’re here for you, especially on those bad days!

PingPong: I asked the same question once I was done with chemo. There's really no test to say it's gone. There's always a chance that cancer cells could be in us whether it's breast or other kinds. They could decide to activate tomorrow, next year, twenty years down the road or never. I was told that if I think something is wrong then I need to get it checked out. My radiation oncologist will see me every six months for a mammogram for the next three years then once a year after that for the rest of my life. I'm also on the Letrozole.

Jaymeb: I think the thought of recurrence will always be in the back of my mind. It's scary to think that it might come back. But as my friend recently said to me: "Just don't go there." If the thought starts to creep in I tell myself I'm going to be one of the 80% who doesn't recur. When I drive by the Cancer Clinic I tell myself, I'm never going back there again.

Worried Me: It's going to be okay, really. It's all so overwhelming in the beginning. Too much to take in but as your treatments progress and you learn more you'll find the sadness, the depression and anxiety will start to fade. I still have my odd days where I can't believe this has happened. I find when I'm tired or stressed out it's the worst. Take a break from it if you need one.