CRAZY TOWN WAITING ROOM - TESTS coming up? All Stages Welcome.

Good news, just scarring from radiation. A little worse than before but nothing to write home about.

octogirl- I am so glad everything is coming together with your new house. Good luck with the move

Any time I see a title beginning "The Truth About..." I know it's going to be alterna-woo. And didn't Ty Bollinger go to prison, or at least get fined a whopping amount, for financial shenanigans? One of the reasons our support group fell apart (after our beloved facilitator died soon after being diagnosed with an unrelated cancer) was that it was dominated by two patients who kept railing against the "cancer industry" (mind you, we were meeting in a cancer center); one--a multiple myeloma survivor and Stage IIA patient who had lumpectomy & rads, didn't need chemo, but refused endocrine therapy--kept sneering at "AMA medicine," as if the AMA were the governing body of all physicians & surgeons, a kind of medical Vatican that excommunicates the heretics who dare question conventional medicine. It's a professional affinity and advocacy group, no more, no less--just like the ABA (to which I don't belong) is for lawyers. It publishes a medical journal (with articles that often contradict each other) but mandates or prohibits nothing. It doesn't certify or accredit anybody. Membership is optional and voluntary--in fact, Bob refused to join back when they lobbied against universal health care (and now that they've "done a 180," he says we've still got better and more enjoyable uses for that dues money).

The other patient, diagnosed as Stage IIB triple-positive, spurned not only chemo (after one cycle), targeted, and endocrine therapy--she refused surgery, preferring to use her observations of the behavior of her tumor as a barometer of her health (she claimed it waxes & wanes). She went on a bean-based extremely restrictive vegan diet and was a devotee (and long-distance telemedicine patient) of super-quack Dr. Gonzales, who died of a heart attack (not unusual at his age), but she remained convinced he was murdered by "the cancer industry."

The new facilitator went on maternity leave; the three of us remaining were unable to coordinate travel & performance schedules--and find a sufficiently kosher restaurant at which one very observant member could have anything besides black coffee or tea.

Molly, congrats on the good scan results! Rain, what a joy to find your mom's piano and be able to play it! And eggroll, is the saga of the lakeside neighbor-from-Hell finally behind you?

Octo, we've twice been in the limbo between movers coming and then actually moving to the new location. Quite the challenge, but not so bad in retrospect. When we moved from Seattle to Chicago 41 yrs. ago, we even had the movers drive our little Datsun on to the van--rented a car, slept on a sheet on the bed that came with our student apt., ate cold food or dined out, lived out of a few suitcases and finally--after watching the last game of the NBA finals at our fsvorite pub--drove to the rental return at Sea-Tac, dropped off the car, checked in for our red-eye, and waved goodbye to Seattle. And we discovered after our first intra-Chicago move to a new apt., that it was much easier to get the moving done the day before, spend the night in a nice cat-friendly hotel (with a fine dinner out) and then saunter into our new digs the next morning. Second move, our new friends pitched in with the move and then took us out for pizza. By the time we moved from our last apt. to our house one neighborhood north, we moved our clothes/kitchen stuff/light furniture in dribs & drabs (with our car and assistance of friends & neighbors), had new major furniture delivered to & carpeting installed in the house, broom-cleaned the apt. and on moving day, had friends cat-sit while we supervised the movers.

Looking deeper into the Bollinger's "Christianity", affinity fraud, and other characteristics, I'm willing to speculate some more about them. Saw talk about coffee enemas a number of years ago on boards relating to religious fraud. To be believable, any complex lie has to have some truth about it. On the other hand, sometimes it is not worth the time.

hi all, been missing in action due to the BIG family wedding! I managed to find a pal to drive me up to the wedding, in a small town south of Boston. The bride was lovely and my nephew was tall and handsome.my family was overwelmed by the much larger bridal family . Not sure how many in her family but lots!

Managed to get some good fresh seafood while there

iris- I'm so happy to hear you made it to the wedding and had a wonderful time. I'm sure your nephew looked very handsome. You must have been exhausted. At my niece's wedding last weekend our large Irish American family made up 75% of the guests. Most of the older individuals, including myself, left the reception at 1:30 am. The younger ones stayed until 4 a.m. They had such a great time. It was beautiful . Weddings and funerals are the two things that seems to bring most families together. Oh, what fun when it is a wedding!

Yikes, Sandy, hope your medical mysteries get solved with good news. Could there be any connection to your recent travels?

On my side, I had a three month checkup with my BS today which not at all exciting, just the way I like it.

It seems to be fading about halfway. I'm beginning to think it might be connected to the carrots & red peppers I had at various meals over the past couple of days (caroteinoids?). But it was still sorta scary, as if I'd touched wet deck stain. At any rate, I've been back from Israel now for over 2 weeks, so that can't have been it.

Iris ..so glad you enjoyed the wedding and the seafood !!!

Sandy ..gosh ! Hope it continues to fade , and your back feels better soon .

Jo ..yes ..weddings and funerals are when most extended families tend to get together these days ..and how much happier to be off to a wedding !!!

Beaverntx..great to hear your BS appointment was unexciting !!!

Hugs to all xx

iris- was it a traditional American Wedding or Cambodian ceremony?

My 5 month old great niece, Serenity. She has brought so much joy to our lives.

jo6359 Serenity is beautiful!

I finished chemo on March 27th 2018 I'm now on Femara. I switched to Taxotere for a short while and after a break but went back on Femara. About 2 wks in Femara for the second time, I started having migraines. I have them 5-7 times a wk for the last month. I had chronic daily migraines before my diagnosis but they resolved w chemo. Now almost a year later they have started again. My MO has ordered a MRI for me Saturday. I'm in a total painic. I'm so anxious. Any advice or help

jo....the wedding was traditional american but the dancing during reception had some unusual dances. Really, all of Esthers generation is very american, Esther only speaks a few words of cambodian, just enough to communicate with her parents..

rainny, so sorry about your insurance. Have to say, medicare hax been great, paid everything for my hydrocephelus surgery and has paid all for my cancer treatment. Hang in lady

Hang in there, rain--hope 65 comes soon (or that universal health care comes along before that). My son's ACA-compliant individual plan wasn't very good, but once he stopped freelancing and became a full-time salaried employee he got a much better policy (BCBS PPO) at a lower premium. For us, becoming Medicare-eligible felt like catching the last helicopter out of Saigon in 1975.