The Beast & Me: Round Two

Gina, sooo very glad that you have found someone you like - has a way/plan to give you treatments that will lessen the side effects but be just as effective. A sunshine day in some recent gray ones.

gina
thats fantastic sounds like a great plan! my friend is not happy with her doc and shopping around- who are you using?
xoxoxo
j

Gina: Wow! What a great forum. Thanks to Melissa and Tami.

So your knew onc sounds like my kind of doctor. I sure do like how he explained things to you. Its a plan and you sure sound ready to go with it.

Nicki

Gina:
I too just found this new forum and I am so very happy that you found this new onc!!!! You really do sound so much more at ease with everything. Confidence in one's doctor is such a huge thing!!!
God bless always,
Pat

Now that's the Gina we all know and love!!!! The new onc sounds like a winner! You WILL beat this!

gina
thats great to read yes my friend is from around here
actually 2 friends who arent happy with their docs

j

That sounds strange to me. I have a friend who has stage 4 ovarian cancer who has had the same port in for (I kid you not) over six years. She's an avid gardener (she calls her garden her "fuck cancer" garden) and her port certainly hasn't stopped her (she's been stage 4 all this time and is still going strong).

I'm not encouraging you to go against your doc's advice, but just surprised that you would need to be that careful. And I'm especially sorry to hear it's hurting. That's not fair!

Hugs,
Barbara

Gina, where is your port? Mine is in my chest under the skin. I don't even know it's there. It was terribly painful going in but then after it was there I've had no problems at all. You must have some sort of different kind that I've never heard of. The only time I even think of my port being in is when I have to go have it flushed every few weeks. I'm curious to know about yours.

pals
cheri

Hi Gina -
So sorry you're having probs w/the frickin' port! I had a horrible time w/mine! But, I did everything with it in... Moderation is everything...hang in there!

G.,
I had my port for 1 year and a half.
What I was told by my surgeon that put it in,
was that I should be careful as to weight and moves
the next first week or so, so that could heal.
Then could do things normally just as I did always.

If your port was very recently inserted, well ...
Still is fresh and that thing is sew in the muscle, so ...
At any move the muscle can hurt
but not pain or terrible limitations;
after some couple of weeks of having it
at least I didn't even feel it.
I for one did everything with that stuff in
and never had limitations.
My only problem was that I sleep for that side and
yes, then with my strange ways of sleeping,
I would smash that stuff
between my collar bone and shoulder during the night
and of course would wake up a bit sore in there,
but apart from that never hurt me on any situation,
neither I had a problem with stuff
like moving the furniture, shopping, pruning,
take out the windows and put them in again,
and things of the kind.

Did you had an XR after inserting your Port?
I do not know in there but once one has one of those things in,
in here right after they take an XR, then later
when taking out the port they ask and XR too
and some weeks later an heart ultrasound
to check if everything is ok.
Would be good to have that for future reference and just in case,
some move after, nothing out of normal, can happen to some people,
and in some cases to others sometimes is too much,
and since you talked about heart problems and such,
at least I think you should have that XR.
Ports, those that usually are inserted bellow the
collar bone near the shoulder
are plugged to a main vein that goes to the heart
(would be good if I could remember what's the name of that ...)
and nothing clearer then an XR to see if that thing
is well done, in the right place or if something is going on with it.

Check this, kids that have to use ports to when on treatment,
ok, they put them in them some place else, such as arm for instance,
but I do not believe that a kid can stay still for months
because the port. My chemo room was close to a kid's chemo room
and most were just as jumpy when for each treatment as any other kid.

And since we are on this, just in case,
when you start chemo get those stamps ... "anesthetic stamps"
Sorry this is bad today, can not remember the name of the thing...
well anesthetic stamps to use on the port,
put it when you are to go for your treatment.
And if you do blood work or have to do things like
"cleaning" of the port, or anything that they may do on it,
don't let no one use any other needdle then specific needles for ports,
NEVER, that can ruin it VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY easily.
If they invented specific needles for this,
that's because they are needed.

G., you probably will need help in some situations,
and at times even put aside that thing we all have of
being wander woman and do it all at the same time,
can even take a while to learn how to accept help,
but that does not mean total dependence and not moving
and so many don't's such as that with the port, geez ...
A bit more and you can not even sneeze.
Have you check the moves we do and
the strength we make on and around our chest,
when we sneeze or even laugh?
Well ... in my humble opinion, considering the line of thought,
I think you should ask this to your surgeon too.

Hugs.

__________

"... I am not known for my spelling abilities ..."
Carrie don't worry ...
there's no HOLEY MOLEY in Portuguese,
I mean ... no translation that I know of, so ...
no one will ever notice it.... at least in here.
The worst it can happen is someone asking things like, who's MOLEY?

.

No, that doesn't sound right. Mine did limit me a little, but it didn't hurt at all. Even right after the surgery to put it in. Now coming out was another story, very sore and was a like a bad bruise that took a long time to get well. I'm not sure what to say....

SHannon

Well I wrote you Gina and it didnt' go thru but I wanted to send my prayers for your mother and hope she is doing ok today.
I'm so glad you are going in to get your port checked, let us know what you find out. You have so much to worry about right now, I hope it isn't anything major.
I just had one put in last week during my mastectomy and I wasn't told to not do anything.
I would talk to my Onc about the A but bet you have already done that, did he feel it was safe for you?

Hi,

I have a question regarding heart disease and radiation. Maybe I did not give it much thought while I was having it since I was so happy to be done with chemo, anyway, is there a difference in right and left side when it comes to heart disease? I ask because you specifically mention left breast radiation.

Thanks,
Newter