anyone starting chemo in Nov 2005

Hi sisters. Hope everyone had a good week and a nice Easter.

Debbie - beautiful family. You look great, very healthy. Daniel has grown so much since last year. He is a cutie. Are you all settled in your new place?

Well, our vacation was wonderful. We had a great time and haven't been this happy since before bc dx. Maryland is so green, with so much open space. It's absolutely beautiful. We liked it so much all three of us want to move there - maybe one day. Here are some pictures I took with a disposable camera.

This is the view from my friends kitchen window...


Here we are in 38 degree, very windy, weather.



Do we look cold? Brrrrrrr....


An here is Steven enjoying the car ride. We drove 1098 miles each way, stopped and rented a room whenever we felt tired. It took us two days to get to our friends house in Frederick. We prefer driving to taking a plane. It's a great adventure.


New job is going great too. I feel so much better now that I am working in somehting I am so passionate about. Also, I'm so active that the SE are almost all gone. I feel like I am back!!!! I'll be back later to chat some more. Have a great Sunday!

Love and hugs,

Hey everyone. Hope you are all having a great weekend. Deb you all look great. Yes, so much healthier this year. Daniel has grown so much.

Odalys, glad you had a great trip. Those Nintendo DS are like saviors, aren't they. Glad you are enjoying your new job.

Anna, no surgery here on my end. Gearing up for end of the month scans. Not sure of the date yet.

Love to all,
Kim

Kim- will be hoping for great scans for both of us- my PET is on May 2nd. Like many have said- it is weird living in 3-6 month increments. I am tempted to forgo scans.........but knowledge is power, even if the truth hurts.

Anyway, my nip surgery is May 7th. I may get more thigh lipo (he offered)- it's just pain and money right?

I have overhauled my diet slowly in this year post chemo. I had a pretty good diet before, but always room for improvement. The last thing to go was my sugar addiction. I have not had dessert in 5 days- a record for me. It is true the longer I go, the less I crave the stuff. It may be a coincidence, or my scale is broken- but I have lost 5.5 pounds in the last 5 days. I also was up in the mountains for spring break- so maybe altitude related. Anyway, I won't be wasting away anytime soon- I could stand to lose 40-45 more.

The other diet changes I have already made: lots of supplements (saw a naturopath and if anyone is interested in what I am taking, just pm me), more omega-3's, whole grains, brown rice pasta instead of reg pasta, no beef or pork, organic dairy and produce, hormone free chicken, lots of fish, flax and dried blueberries, pomegranate juice.

My fatigue is gone and I am able to take melatonin and herbal supplement instead of ativan for my insomnia.

We had a great spring break- the skiing was perfect!

I hope you are all warm and dry kim and Anna. The noreast weather is being harsh!

Odalys, Steven just looks like the sweetest kid on the planet. Such a precious smile. You all look freezing, but the pictures are beautiful! You look great!

Marg-40 more pounds?!?!?! I remember your wedding pictures you posted way back when. You are tiny. You remind me of that commercial where the cartoon-drawn wife is yelling at her hubby, "What, do you want to weigh zero?!"

Not yet moved, but Greg is in week 4 of his new job. I hate being single mommy. I don't know how women do it.

I have to get a pregnancy test done tomorrow. I want a second child more than anything, but I am not physically ready to carry one. The drugs I am taking would be horrible to an unborn child, so I am really fretting.

I love you guys, but I have to get to bed! Just wanted to check in.
Love and prayers, Deb

MaryLou, I am glad your step daughter is fine. What a horrible, horrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers go out to the Virginia Tech families.

This is Lane Stadium at the VT campus.



And here is the field at Lane stadium at sunset.



more


I feel so sad that all this happened here, right in my own back yard.

This is across the fields there.

Mary such beautiful sites inspite of such tragedy. My heart goes out to the victims, their families and all the survivors. Such trauma for those young people to endure. Sad to think maybe it could have been prevented. He certainly sent out many warning signs yet no one picked up on them. I wonder what message God wants us to learn from this experience? Oh no, I hope we don't see a trend.

Good night everyone. Love and prayers!

WooooohOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Deb, that,s kewl

Love to you, too, Odalys, and all my sisters. Debbie, that's wonderful! I wish I got the Times. I will look online. Do you know what day your interview and picture will come out?

Wishing all of you a glorious, springy Sunday!

Love, Anna

Kim, you look fantastic! You look like you are feeling well and living well. I have to tell you, the picture of "your little slugger" shows your window treatments, and we have the same ones! How ironic-it just shows what kindred spirits we all are.

So, basically I answered one of those posts here on bc.org for an interview opp. The reporter calls me one day when I am on the way home from Daniel's therapy, and I am trying to hand back a happy meal to Daniel while driving. She says she will call me back, and I await her call nervously for two more hours.

She and I spoke for about 40 minutes, and when I hung up with her she told me that she had a huge stack of emails regarding this story. I therefore thought that I would be lucky if I got a quote in the story. I was pretty excited about just that.

Well, a few days later when I am in Indiana visiting Greg, I get a call from the photography department of the NY Times. He says, "We want to send a photographer to capture your daily life. Can we send someone by this afternoon?"

Imagine me, sitting in the van with my mouth hanging open!!!

I called back and we arranged for the next day. So when Friday comes, I get up early and drive to the mall to find clothes for Daniel and myself to wear. What do you wear for the NY TIMES???? The photographer said they would just follow my daily tasks and to be comfortable, but I just couldn't imagine wearing my hot pink CANCER SUCKS shirt for such an event.

So I get a makeover. I go to the Mario Tricoci Salon (that is the Chicago Salon that did the makeovers for the Jenny Jones Show). I got a free make-up application for being a first time client. The coolest thing was that the person who did my make-up was the head of the make-up department!! She used to do the Jenny Jones makeovers!


My stylist looked like Laverne DeFazio, and I was scared. I thought I would have sucky hair, but she transformed my crazy locks into a hairdo! I loved it!

What a fun day. I felt weird and awkward, but the photographer was my age and we clicked, so it got a lot easier. Daniel fell in love with her and was holding hands with her within an hour. She followed us around Menards while we shopped for stuff for the new house, and she took pictures of us at the park. Daniel was sound asleep by that time, so the family shot should be very cute.

We even get a disc with all the pictures! Now we don't have to go to Sears Portrait, because we were horribly overdue for one!

I love bc.org!

Gotta go-we got back this evening from our 5 day visit to Greg's temporary home (staying with friends of our realtor). They are very kind people.

I love you guys! I really want us to meet soon. When are we going to do that?!?
Love and prayers, Deb

OM gosh Deb!! Did you ever see the movie Muriel's Wedding? (The shoes)

Anyway, WHEN IS THE ARTICLE COMING OUT???

Congrats- that must be fun!!

Hoping everyone has a great week.

I still have that picture in my mind Odalys (the gals walking) and it makes me smile.

Maybe we can meet in the fall after the kids are back in school. Mucho busy now! I have a cabin in Tahoe- but I wish it was more centrally located!

Best of luck on your scans Kim. A gal on another board calls the time around scans "inscanity"- had to laugh at that one- so true!

Margerie

Kim,
There are several ways you can post a picture.
Here are the instructions for posting pics.

1. If your picture is already on the web,
you can place the pictures' URL in between
this command [image][/image]. You can find
the URL by right clicking on the picture,
then click properties,you will see the URL.
Now cut and paste the url in between the commands.

2. using photobucket.com
www.photobucket.com
It's free to use the site but
you do need to register.
It's an easy site to figure out,
very user friendly.

Once you've registered and
upload a pic use the edit
button above the pic to make
the pic smaller and easier
to view on the board. You'll have a choice
of making the pic 75%, 50% or 25%
smaller than the original size.
I usually make it either 50% or 75%
of the original size. You can check
out some of the pic I've posted
to see their size.
You'll see three codes below
your upload pic. Use the IMG code
highlight, then copy and
paste it on whatever thread on the
board you chose.


Have fun posting.

Thanks Odalys. I have a photbucket account with another group. This picture was there already so I tried it and it works. Yeah!! Let's see if I can do it again. LOL!

Went ok today. I'm not feeling too well today after treatment. Little out of it and nausea. Good news is that tumor markers are down again. They are down to 40. They were 45 3 weeks ago. Scans are going to be May 4 and I will see Dr. Michaelson on the 8th for results.

Kim

Sometimes when I log onto our board the blue breastcancer.org box hides one or two of the most recent entries, so I don't get to see them till way later, once someone has posted, or maybe after I have posted a response. Does that ever happen to any of you?

So I can't read the two posts just before Margerie's.

Anyway, Kim, I love your pictures! What beautiful children! They're so young. You really must have your hands full. Just like Margerie. I do hope you are feeling better, and I am happy to hear your markers are going down. Here's to their going down further each day!

Debbie, what a wonderful story; please let us know when the article comes out. I can't wait to see your pictures. I'm glad you didn't run into any trouble with those shoes. Yikes.

Isn't spring nice? I'm going to a town 30 miles west of here to get blood drawn from my foot tomorrow. I hope I don't run into any problems. I hope they're nice about it. I sure don't want to fight about this any more.

May is going to be pretty hectic for me. A two-week visit from sister-in-law. A trip to WV for stepdaughter's graduation from medical school. Her mother will be there. I haven't really ever met her. Yuk. All the preps for leaving for four months. That's the worst part. I actually don't even want to go. There, I've said it. I don't want to go. I dread being away from my oncologist. I dread the 8-hour overnight flight with me wearing compression sleeves and gloves on both sides and little dog under my seat. I dread trying to pack enough for four months into luggage that is as tiny and light as possible. Obviously, I'll have to do the packing for hubby and doggie as well. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'd just rather not go. I can't tell this to anyone else, esp. not hubs. He would try to fix it. Nobody can fix my newfound home-stickedness.

Love to all,

Anna