2005 ROCK-TOBER CHEMO GIRLS

Oooh, that seafood spread looks yummy Paula!!

I think I'm going back to work tomorrow. I must have put in about 4 hours from home today so what the heck! Why waste my sick days if I'm going to be working even if it is in my sleepwear?!

Debbie, are you rubbing off on people? A lot of folks are getting accident prone! Hope your legs heals soon Amy.

Thanks for the gift from North Dakota, Cathy. I'll make the soup when the weather turns.

I need that list of questions PM'd again Tracey. I deleted it accidentally. I will purchase my ticket to Chicago any minute. The fares are creeping up from $184 when I first looked to a current $204.

Laura: Wazzup?!

Hello My Sisters,

Today was a fantastic day, I signed up for the CIBC Run for The Cure on September 30th and emailed a number of friends, family members and coworkers at work today to solicit donations. One coworker donated $100…so far 3 donations totaling $175.00! I am so excited to see what my final # is!!! I went over and personally thanked the one lady, was so blown away by her generosity, it humbled me. I gave her a big hug and a kiss in front of two contractors at work, they didn’t know what it was about, it was pretty funny to see the reactions on their faces but I just laughed and smiled inside.

The coworker said to me that I was her role model and showed such courage through my treatment, WOW it made my day!!

We followed up with our agent today on the prospective buyers and he said they were first time home buyers and were going to the bank now that we had dropped our price to get preapproval for a mortgage. He said he would follow up with their agent tomorrow to give them a few days to get things organized, gosh I hate waiting and am beyond patient.LOL.

Tracyseattle – sorry does not seem quite enough to convey the sadness you must feel loosing your young friend Emily. Sometimes this disease is just not fair…so young and two little children and a husband left behind.

Your new avtar is great! Denali is a sweet looking dog.

It is always tough when you are the new person on the block. Everyone is so intune to their daily work duties that they tend to forget that you are new and were hired to do a job but they are too busy to take time out to give your direction, it will come…take advantage of the quietness while it lasts!

I love oatmeal and with raisins and brown sugar, yummy in my tummy.

Deb – you are so funny, we will have to bring a pin up of Jill to our Friday night get together too!

Yes, it does sound really promising, trying not to get our hopes to high as they have been crushed a few times before BUT this does sound the closer yet to getting our offer.

Here’s to good health and healing thoughts for your son.

Cindy – awe food poisoning again sucks! So glad that you are going to Chicago, cant wait to meet you and we can share country girl stories, hee heeJ Not really I do live out in the country but my dh definitely says I am a city girl.

Amy – How big will Kelby get weight wise? My BIL’s black lab is about 65 pounds and so muscular, loves to run and he takes the dog out for a long walk twice a day!
Hope you are getting along okay with your hurt leg, a walking cast will probably be more comfortable for you. Have you decided on whether or not you will be in Chicago next month?

Too bad you didn’t have your camera to take a picture of Kevin Bacon. I loved him in the movie flatliners, actually he was also great in Footloose!

Rosemarie – I heard from some ladies in my bc support group that rowing is good for lympodema, don’t know how true that is? Maryanne any thoughts?

Thanks you better cross your eyes too, we need all the luck we can get as it is now summer and the market has slowed down as a lot of people are on holidays.

Debbie444 – it sounds like your poor car is on its last legs. Cars take such a huge chunk out of the pocketbook, gas, maintenance, wear and tear….they should make rubber cars, hee heeJ

Laura – your menu sounds delicious. I would like to give you something to contribute towards all the money that you are spending on making this meal for us, it is so generous of you! No diet restrictions here…

Victoria – not yet, patience is a virtue.LOL. We should come up with a way to communicate with one another. This board is great but a lot of people can read your thoughts and sometimes that is a little creepy…

Paula – love the pictures, you look great! Love, love your hair!!! It is a lot more relaxed than mine but is longer so maybe there is hope for me.

Sunshine pic is gorgeous.

Tahdah – you sure do bounce back quickly from surgery. Glad to hear that you are securing your ticket so we can get to meet this wonderful funny lady that you are!

Mary – another sister that has their plans finalized yah! I don’t have any cheetah pj’s unless they come in hotflash material I wont have any, I now have to sleep without my pj top on as I get too hot.

Don’t worry Deb, Brenda, Paula I will find some appropriate attire for our trip, wouldn’t want to scare you!

Have a super evening ladies and hi to all my sisters that are out enjoying the nicer weather.

Love Michele

Hi Everyone,

Tracy I hope you are enjoying your new job. I am so sorry for your friend....
Rosemarie, If I didn't say it before I love the picture's of Disney. I would have had a heart attack if I lost my kid's. Glad they were found save and sound. I didn't know you had LE. Glad they can help you with therapy.
Maryanne. How was your dragon boat race? Did you win?
Cindy, I can't believe you are half way already......yipee!...Before you know it you will be done.
Brenda, My nephew was at the New York ,New York in Vegas about an hour before the shooter started firing shots. My son also lives in Vegas so when I heard it on the new's I immediately called him.....Very scary. Glad you were OK. Sorry your family saw a few things they didn't need to see...lol.....And as far as your mammogram, nothing like scaring the pant's off of you. Aren't you supposed to go every 6 months anyway for a mammo instead of once a year? I have been going every six months.
Paula, I hope you can make it and Kelly, sorry you won't be joining us. We will miss you.
Amy, You poor thing. I am hoping for you to have a speedy recovery. I bet you are getting excited for this weekend.when you get to bring Kelby home.
Cathy, How nice that they picked you for the article. I can't wait to hear all about it. My sister just told me she is sending my picture and a paragraph she is writing about me to one of our local newspaper's for a section they are doing on Breast Cancer for BC awareness month in Oct.
Mary, How was your trip to Niagara Fall's?
Tadah, Glad everything went well with your surgery. I am still not sure what dog ear's are. Are they flaps of skin left over from surgery? I know I am a dummy........
Michele, I bet your hair looks nice.......
Debbie, Is tomorrow the big day that you get to meet Jill? Don't forget your camera.
Ravdeb, Hi, I hope your son is better.
Laura, The menu sound's great. Go very simple and don't knock yourself out. I'm with Paula on the less food I have the better. Everything turns into fat in this body. I have a story kind of like your's only a little boy lost his mom. He thought I was her and hugged me and then looked up at me and you should have seen the look of horror on his face when he realized I wasn't her.....she was right next to me and she was laughing that he got us mixed up.

Speaking of getting lost, Here's a story for you girls, I'll never forget the time my son was lost in the store and they made an announcement that they had a little lost boy. I never realized he was missing because he asked if he could go with his sister to look at a toy and it never dawned on me it was him since he gave a fake name. They finally brought him to me and when I asked him why he gave the wrong name his answer was "because I like that name." Those were the day's we didn't worry about them being kidnapped and here's another one for you. My in law's were on vacation when the kids were little and they stopped to pick up a few groceries at the store. When they were ready to leave they thought all three kids got in the car. Well, they drove away and about a half hour later they realized one was missing. Talk about panic.............they drove back and there was my dh's little brother standing there, probably scared to death saying "Where did you go? Who in their right mind would drive away without their kid? Boy, they were lucky he was still there since he was only about 3.

OK, I am ending this now. It is getting too long. I am going to watch a movie. If I'm not to tired I will try to catch up later. One more page of post's to read and I will be all caught up.

Paula..I love, love, love your pictures and your "feeble" attempt at an artistic shot was so good..how gorgeous! But YOU, my dear..you are so very pretty! And so very happy! I love it!

Laura...painting on the ceiling is a good idea! I am still thinking swimmning pool cuz my dh is into that. He also wants the jacuzzi but we are thinking...we need the money first if we want any of these things! LOL Oh..don't worry about food for me. I am not a very big eater..I think you may recall that from our lunch outing!

No cheetah jammies here but I do have cheetah socks.

My son is better. He had time off from the army but decided to go back today. He felt responsible. He'll be home tomorrow anyway so only about 24 hours on the base.

Hey Mary..glad you had fun with the nieces.

V...how did the painting go? Sounds like a fantastic place for inspiration...

TracyNY..you go girl! going back to work so quickly. May you always heal so well. Can't wait to meet you.

My bc side arm is tingly. What does this mean? I should probably have it wrapped for my flight. I will talk to my family doctor about getting me a physical therapist...

Must move on..
Hope you all have a good day.

Ladies, I’m back home and working hard again at catch up, both here and at work. The experience in NY was really wonderful. Four of the five women who are being featured were at the photo shoot. One is currently doing chemo and was too sick to travel so they are flying to Florida to photograph her. Debbie, they did have two racks full of various white tops but we all wore our own pants. They let us keep the tops we wore.

I started to tell you about the women I met but realized that their information probably doesn’t belong on this public forum. Just let me say that they were wonderful and inspiring woman and I’ll share pictures and stories with you when I see you. If Tracy gets us all on an e-mail list I’d be more that happy to share with any of my Rocktober sisters now.

Their studio was in a big loft space that included lots of windows with natural light. I will post a picture of the “set” and the “make up area.” We had lots of laughs and a few tears. It seems everyone who was there working had a bc story of a friend or reletive. I also got to meet the writer and what a sweet person is she. Expect to hear more about her from me later. The session took most of Friday and we were fed breakfast and lunch—lots of light salads, fruit and vegetables.

I spent the rest of the weekend up-state NY with the family for a very relaxing time and returned to NYC late Sunday night. Got up at the crack of dawn without waking anyone and caught my cab to the airport.

Had an interesting experience flying out. I sat between a Franciscan Brother and Sister. They had been to a conference in Minneapolis and had heard Sr. Helen Prejean of “Dead Man Walking” fame as their keynote speaker. Sr. Francis, my seatmate, gave me a pre-conference bulletin to read. What a fascinating woman this Sr. Helen is.

Gail–you must be just as busy as I am—it is hard to keep up. Hope your story gets published in your paper. I think a lot is being done for “awareness” now if only something we do could make a real difference for a cure.
Amy–hope you’re on the mend. When my Amy lived in a 5th floor walkup I could hardly make it up walking-can’t imagine doing it on crutches.
TracyNY-glad to hear you’re itching to get back to work-I too am one of those who can’t picture the “dog ears.” Tried googling them, with no success as far as pictures go.
TracyS–I can just picture Dave encouraging you to show us all that Seattle has to offer. I’m working on my ND list of show and tell stuff–happy I’m driving.
Laura–no food allergies here–other than the one mentioned already–I eat food and break out in fat.
Mary–I’m sure your nieces sweetness is just a reflection of their aunt’s.
Michelle–congrats on signing up for a run. I can believe you are an inspiration to all who know you.
Debbie-–Although I've been to China, I haven't really been to China. Just Hong Kong and into the mainland manufacturing area just north of HK so it’s still on my list. I think I would really like to visit India. And Israel in on my very short list.
So glad to hear you and Jill are getting together. There’s nothing like face to face meetings.
V. Happy to hear you are going to gain some studio space and with company too. Also I can’t imagine how wonderful it must be to paint with friends in the outdoors on your weekends. Just being in the outdoors this past weekend with family and beautiful weather and mountain scenery restored me.

Guess what, I spent most of the morning writing this and now it’s time to go make my lunch. Did I really say I was “working hard”?

Will post pictures later.

Cathy -
What a great experience! I can visualize the photo shoot because for many years I was an Art Director...and I Art Directed hundreds if not thousands of photo shoots! I worked directly with the photogs determining how the shots/models would be posed, propped, etc.

Graycie -
Can't wait for the details of your fame too!

hi ladies,

i'm exhausted and stressed. the puppy is coming on sunday, so we have spent all week dogifying the house and buying the crate, the food, etc. Money has completely disappeared, which is stressing my husband out.

I saw the orthopedist today and I have definitely torn the 2 ligaments across my foot. So, I'm out of the splint and now I'm in a full plaster cast to my knee with a boot to make it a "walking cast". I have to wear this for 3 weeks. No showers, NO GYM! I'm freaking out about the gym because honestly, I go 4-5 times a week and it's my stress relief. I'm going to try to go to weight lifting classes and just do arms. I refuse to gain weight and get out of shaped after working so hard. I can walk pretty fast and I'm holding my breath when I drive (it's my right foot), so so far so good. I'm just annoyed altogether, but I guess I should be grateful because the orthopedist said if I had ripped the 3rd ligament (there are 3 major ligaments across your foot) then I would have had to have surgery. I can't move my last 3 toes because of the tear. SUCKS!

So, I will send lots of pics when the puppy comes

(taken on Rogs new phone so perspective a bit out - and no Jill and i are roughly the same height - I am not really that big!! Plus - we are not that fat - its a two seater settee - why we squashed on that when the others a 3 seater i dont know!

Well Jill braved the Chesterfield version of the Bermuda triangle and a manic welcome from sam, and came over with her daughter to see us. It was nice to meet her - you all would have loved her accent!! She was very polite in showing an interest about feigning an interest (or actually having!)in Dr Who for Mark and Catherine was most impressed that she seemed to have an impressive knowledge of teenage pop bands!
Amy - what a pain (literally) Will you be insured to drive? My BIL wasnt when he was in plaster from a snapped hamstring. When i had both legs in plaster i used to shower by sitting in the tray or the bath with my legs outside and took the shower attatchment down and did it that way!
Good News - had my 6 month check up today and all was well.Hospital again tomorrow for my Thyroid consultation. More good news - my car is fixed !!!! Woohoo - the Yellow Peril lives another day!!
More more good news - last day of work tomorrow - school FINALLY breaks up.

Rosemarie - that got there fast , especially as we had a postal strike!
Laura - Mark is now more excited about hunting for twigs in your forest with John Michael than he is about his birthday next week!!

Debbie

Debbie–absolutely love the picture. I'm with Deb, Jill. Pop in more often. Love to hear from you.

It takes me so long to do pics that I decided to share this one sent to me this morning by my dd instead of my lame ones of the photo shoot. Today is Hedda's two year birthday and this picture was taken of her with me just after I had the news that I indeed had bc. Do you see why my survival date is special to me?



Love you all

My 2 year cancer-versary was July 12th. Truthfully I have so put all that out of my mind that when I went to the hospital last week and they were asking those million pre-surgical questions, I could only give the year some of the time!!

Let me try again to give you the visual about dog ears. If you are a little less than slender, there is a roll of skin/fat that goes around your back and under your armpit generally called bra fat. When your breast is removed the tissue comes from the front leaving the bra fat hanging under your armpit. It makes your side profile a little lumpy and that's what I had taken off. He just cut the skin and fat out and stitched me back up.

My ticket is purchased. I'll be seeing you all next month. Don't forget my birthday is on the 23rd and I don't like chocolate cake!

Hi everybody,
Firstly, I LOVE everyone's pictures - they put a huge smile on my face.

My sister has made progress cognitively - she tries to speak and sometimes can say a full sentence, her understand has improved greatly and she interacts with us. However, her physical state is not improving more than a tiny bit. She cannot walk, although the physiotherapist walks a few meters with her with the walker. She cannot even turn over in bed because of the weakness on the right side. I dont think it will get better, the medical staff has sort of indicated that. Now that she understands what is going on, she is extremely distressed sometimes, and I find it totally heartbreaking. Last week she said to me two times "when I can walk again" - but when the physio told her that they were ordering a wheelchair (now she uses the rehab one, the new one will be hers, and goes with her when she leaves) she was distraught. She will have to leave the rehab in August and the only option is a nursing home - she needs full time care, and one person would not always be enough. It makes me sick to think of it!

I can't explain how upsetting these last few months have been since this happened. She has not had an easy life - divorced, struggling financially (we found out there is a lot of debt on the house) but she rarely complained and now she will never be independent again.

Isaac continues to make excellent progress, we are very grateful. My daughter will come with her family for three weeks in August. My other daughter is coming home on Sunday from three week holiday - 5 days in Europe, then Israel. She took a scuba diving course in Eilat, which was a long time dream, and said it was fabulous. She said its been a fabulous vacation, I am so glad for her.

I am looking forward to vicariously enjoying your get together by seeing pictures. We were in Chicago in June for a close friend's daughter's wedding, and will be going to Montreal in August for another friend's son's wedding.

Linda

I am not a fan of cake , but i would say that chocolate is my favourite. Tarts and flans , however are a different matter - how i love Summer when the apples and rhubarb are ready! YUMMY!!
Linny - how sad about your sister , but how good about Isaac. A sugar coated pill really.

I was diagnosed 4th May , surgery on 26May - i count the 26th as that was when i was cancer free.

Going to panic now - i am going out with work tomorrow as so many are leaving. The younger ones are going on a pub crawl and POLE DANCING , my friend and i have added ourselves to the 'oldies 'list - we are going for a meal.
AND I HAVE NOTHING TO WEAR!!!!! Aarghhh

Hey friends,
Today a co-worker gave me some leopard fabric. Actually, it's a pair of lounging pants, small girl's size, that were given to her daughter in a hand-me-down box. Her daughter can't wear them and she thought of me after I told her about out shared leopard fetish. So, I'm thinking I'll cut up the pants for the fabric. I could make headbands, pony-tail holders, little make-up bags, or something. I'm not sure how I'll use it exactly. If we lived closer to each other I'd get TracyNY to come over with her sewing machine and we would get creative! The fabric is a brushed polyester. Feels a little velvety. Now I can't wait for my lounging pajamas to arrive.

Hope everyone is doing well today. I'm going to visit a friend this evening who is battling stomach cancer. She was diagnosed about a month before me in 2005, but has had a really tough time. They had to remove almost all her digestive tract. She is having surgery soon for an intestinal blockage so who knows what will happen next. She has had to have liquid protien feeding by tubes for a while now. I hope we can have a good visit tonight.

Well, take care. I'll be back soon.
Mary

I dont have anything cheetah print (bikini too big) apart from a cheetah scarf that was in a bag of hats/scarves that me aunt sent me from the Us before i lost my hair - i must find more than ascarf to hide my modesty!!
Laura - tell us more about that job you had - sounds interesting!!
Dream job everyone - whats yours??

Oh V..I love the mosaic. That is so neat that you did that! Love it.

My AB?..still only the first page done

My dream job...to be a professional musician and travel the world performing, playing all kinds of instruments. This will not happen but google my favorite Israeli muscian who is living my dream...Achinoam Nini who is known as Noa in the States.