Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

Mary, the garden sounds wonderful. I'd love a trike, but even a folding one is too big to put in the garage with two cars. If we tarped & chained it under our deck, it wouldn't last a week before getting stolen here in the city. I know, because I did the same thing with a mountain bike with adult training wheels, and it was stolen. (The U-lock was first super-frozen and then shattered, the way thieves have been doing with the steering wheel "The Club" locks). I have its replacement in my basement, but I would have to move cases of wine, Bob's bike and our golf clubs to get at it--and then try to haul it up a narrow set of basement stairs, the landing of which is occupied by our vacuum cleaner, mop & bucket, and X-C skis & poles. We also had a bike stolen out of our first garage--the thief kicked in the wooden side door. We then built a new garage (30 yrs ago!) and installed a steel door with deep long strike plate for the heavy-duty deadbolt. Last week, we had trouble inserting our keys...someone had tried to pick the lock and gave up after only being able to scratch it. Ah, life in the city. Don't wanna "give it a kinahurra," as my mom used to say, but it could be worse--we could live on a gang-controlled block with shootings.

Safe travels, Cindy & Carole.

I have a canine alarm, and I can always attach an electronic alarm. I will have to check and see if my apparatus for doorbell and phone and alarm clock has an alarm for such things. Yes, they do. If they know it has a motor they will be more dedicated in their search for a way to get past stuff. For now, though, canine is sufficient. My mechanic says I have to ride it for a while without a motor, because adding anything to it will void the warrantee.

What would we do w/o thieves to help make the insurance companies profitable along with those who sell locks, etc. We have been fortunate out here where we live. In fact, the fact that we don't have lake behind our house sometimes is a blessing. That said, there is the house next door which does. When the lake is low ( although its been awhile ) people can walk along the edges of the lake BEHIND everyone's house -- enabling them to either break in then or target the property for some other time. We have kept dogs for a long time now and that certainly helps. We have caught teens wandering around our ravines which start at the lake. We usually invite them to leave and so far, so good. A good/heavy-duty deadbolt is normally pretty much a Godsend. If there is ( so far everywhere there is one ) at any of the houses I have keys for I always use the deadbolt locks. Then I never worry.

I do hope you all have safe, easy travel this yr. As always Carole, the wood bowls sound just extraordinary. Then again, since our little town here so often demand of vendors that they have home-made wares for sale I have come to really appreciate the HAND-MADE, home-made items that people are quite willing and eager to invest their time and talents for presentation to the public at large. I think of people who may be eagerly awaiting, even now, your return to the area so they can partake of your hand-made items.

At out Balloon Fest ( while I was a bit more of a working person ) I eagerly awaited the pottery lady who used to have a booth. I generally bought one piece a yr. My mom got me my first ( a covered casserole dish ) one, when Dh and I still lived in California. She took vacation back here every yr. at Fest time and so I loved the pottery before I ever returned home. The last few yrs. the pottery lady hasn't been there -- but I don't work like I use to so maybe its okay.

It is starting to heat up already today. It will be a good day for capri's or pedal pushers for sure I think. I'm not ready but I never am. It is never quite gentle enough for me, but I will have to put on my big girl pedal pushers and get over it.

Hope you all have a wonderful day. Love hearing about the trykes too.

cardplayer, Welcome. I am from Virginia and moved to Florida as a child. I have been here ever since. I do a visit back to the Blue Ridge once in a while.

DH has an appointment with the Cardiologist, today. His ejection fraction dropped 5 points.

Going to be toasty here today, I think. Not much of a breeze going on. We do have our a/c on. That is a big help.

Petite -- hope your Dh's appt. goes well. Losing 5 pts. is scary.

I got word from my Cardiologist's office. My hematology numbers are up slightly -- so hoping that means that I will be able to get the clearance for having the Bladder lesion out. The more I can do the better.

I hope you all have a really good day.

Gorgeous and count me smiling and happy that the picture/meme/avatars are back cardplayer. That pic above makes me want to go get azaleas for my yard. I won't though since Dh will still be getting on the yard tractors this yr. Once he has totally given up mowing I can trust my SIL to be aware of what NOT to mow down in the yard.

Our hydrangeas haven’t started to bloom yet. My DH planted all of our deck plants today - petunias, marigolds, a hibiscus, and geraniums. It gets quite lush by the end of the summer. He likes to garden and handle yard work. We put the hummingbird feeder out yesterday, but haven’t seen any of the birds yet. Hopefully they’ll return soon.

Azaleas look beautiful! I have 2 small azalea plants at NY house that I can see bloomed on my Ring doorbell. There is a large spreading one in the back yard that my Blink camera hasn’t caught bloomed yet. Front is light pink, back is a dark pink. I’ve never paid much attention about different colors blooming at different times. At FL house we took out 2 dead shrubs and replaced them with azaleas in 2 different purple colors (I think). Theses are good size plants, bigger than front ones in NY. I love seeing them all bloom.

We drove 4.5 hours today and the weather was perfect for a drive. As we pulled out of our development we realized neither of us took the garbage out of the kitchen. So I made a U turn and back in we went. Our neighbors had a laugh seeing us again. They’re putting the bins curbside tonight for us. That was it, the rest uneventful.

I’m showered and ready to look up my soap opera on my laptop to see who did what to who today. The shower here hadgreat pressure and lots of hot water. I did realize once I was in that I have no razor with me. I’m barely hairy so such is life, I’ll say hairy legs are “in.”

My hydrangeas will not bloom for at least another 4-6 weeks. That is one reason I am trying to transplant them now. The walkway contractor has a Bachelors in landscaping so he was the one who told me I could split them so I am giving it a try. Once they bloom they are a lovely shade of blue but I do have one that is more purplish than blue and it has smaller flowers.

Cindyny: wish an uneventful trek to your summer retreat and the same for Carol when she departs. In the south and midwest. Lantana is more of a bush than an annual plant. My SIL has lantana bushes at her Fl home. Here I buy it to entice my hummingbird. I will put nectar out maybe next week for it and hope I get the 2 I had from last summer. One used to rest in the Japanese maple and I had never seen a hummingbird be still for 15 minutes ever.

Have dentist appointment tomorrow for cleaning. Tomorrow evening we are going to see ABBA film with DD and DSIL as our belated wedding anniversary present: 47 years together. It was yesterday so we just had a special meal from one of our favorite Italian restaurants to celebrate and a relaxing day.

In every adversity there lies the seed of an equivalent advantage. In every defeat is a lesson showing you how to win the victory next time.

Robert Collier

We have a rare sight going on this afternoon. SIL noticed an owl on the ground -- a rather nice sized one. Anyway, once it tried climbing the tree it was near, I could see the fuzzy hair on the top of its head. So, I knew it was a baby and its parents are somewhere quite close themselves and they are training their offspring. Apparently, it is flying lessons. The little owl can only go a couple of feet or so -- getting about a foot and a half or maybe two feet off the ground each time. Then after a rest -- he climbs up a tree with nice sturdy branches to stand on until his parents urge him to take off flying again.

We had a "baby" before many yrs. ago and I called a bird specialist from our local university. Told him the baby owl would follow Dh and I from tree to tree when we had our baby puppies outside on leashes. It was amazing to us ( never seeing an owl that close up before ) but after a couple or three nights of the same behavior it was getting a mite spooky to us. That's when I called. The Bird Specialist told me to enjoy because soon the mom and dad would teach their baby to fear people and we would not be " followed " anymore. Turned out to be right on . I was though unaware that so much training would take place during the day ( like high noon ) but did remind the family not to get close. The baby owl probably would only be curious but we'd get the parents edgy for sure.

Before I respond to anyone here and update my own situation, here is an important article I just read in the NorthShore Foundation e-mail newsletter. NorthShore is my main health system, and the lead researcher of the study, Dr. Katharine Yao, was the surgeon who did my lumpectomy & sentinel node biopsy (a procedure she pioneered in lieu of full axial node dissection):

STUDY CHALLENGES NEED FOR SENTINEL NODE BIOPSY IN OLDER LOW-RISK BC PATIENTS:

https://journals.lww.com/oncology-times/Fulltext/2...

Dr. Yao and her team delivered a paper at the latest Society of Breast Surgeons conference which concluded that sentinel node status in patients >65 with ER/PR+/HER2- Stage I & II Grade 2 or lower Luminal A breast cancer is NOT predictive of the need for chemo, with an OncotypeDX score of 26 or higher the determinant of that need.

She and her team found that the factors that did predict an Oncotype DX of 26 or higher were Grade 3 and PR-receptor-negative status (i.e., Luminal B rather than A), being on Medicaid (poverty=longer waits till discovery & diagnosis), and tumor size >"T2." She co-authored an article in 2016 which postulated that SNLB is unnecessary to determine the advisability of chemo in patients over age 70; the study reported in this latest article.

Had we only known that back in 2015 when I had my lumpy and SNLB, I'd never have had that "exploding" axillary seroma...because there would have been only a tumor-cavity seroma that uneventfully disappeared over time. My large breast was what pulled open the SNLB incision (closed only with Steri-Strips over surgical glue) and necessitated her partner suturing it closed.

Forgoing SNLB would shorten surgery duration (and conserve OR time) and prevent lots of pain and grief in older bc patients.

Thought this would be of interest to almost everyone on this thread.

Grrr--kernel panic just ate my post!

Bob is prepping right now for tomorrow's colonoscopy--hoping this time it's uneventful (all his prior polyps were in the 12" removed back in 2015 after the bowel-perf misadventure recounted here too many times).

Meanwhile, his 2011 Fusion Hybrid broke down (stalled out) on the freeway yesterday and we have yet to hear from the dealership (where it was towed) why. Online forums suggest either bad throttle body (cheap), which can also cause the opposite problem--wild spontaneous acceleration that claimed the life of my '02 Taurus in 2011; or (gulp) a dead hybrid battery, which runs $1-2K refurbished or $6K new. The car's pre-pandemic blue book value was $7K, but he's been offered more than twice that lately. Problem is, what would he replace it with? (Not another used car--we don't wan't someone else's headaches). He doesn't like to drive my Outback. New cars are in extremely short supply (as in "get on the waiting list") and as much as $17K over list price. Ideally, he'd want another hybrid, perhaps plug-in. A fully electric car would require us to get a 220V line run out to the garage; and down in the SW Side & "freedom-loving" 'burbs where he works, charging stations are few & far between because it's the land of gas-guzzling SUVs & pickup trucks. (They believe ecology is for snowflakes). Up here, every supermarket & Walgreen's parking lot has at least a charging station or two. He's terrified (and rightly so) of running out of power with all the driving he has to do (2 clinics, 3 hospitals, and an office).

We had an owl try to carry our dog away - fortunately he was too heavy. So enjoy them while they are cute and then beware if you have pets.

Those who are planning on "body parts replacements', i.e., knees, shoulders, etc., make certain your MO and orthopedist both know. I am convinced that my knee continues to bother me 3 years post-op because of the AI's. When I asked my ortho at 6 months, he said probably...Never caught it going in.

Ken saw primary today - just more medication. He sees cardiologist in two weeks. Sadly, I don't share his optimism that if he finds the right meds, he will be fine.

Sorry to be a downer tonight.

This website, still has issues. It takes forever to read everything to catch up, each day. I love the flower pictures.