Anyone starting Chemo in August 07?

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  • DGHoff
    DGHoff Member Posts: 624
    edited April 2008

    Happy Birthday, Harley! Hope you had a good one.

    We actually had two warm days in a row here in Minnesota. Whoo hoo. We are having a thunderstorm right now. I love thunderstorms. Laughing

    I am actually contemplating my first haircut! Gonna go in next weekend I think. I am excited that I have enough hair that it is starting to become unruly!  Probably I'll keep the white for awhile. It's novel, anyway, and that way I won't have to be all worried about putting toxins on my head. I may not be able to take it forever, but I'll give the white a chance. 

    Hugs all around,

    DeAnn 

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  • Harley44
    Harley44 Member Posts: 5,446
    edited April 2008

    Thanks, DeAnn!! 


    My hair is unruly, too, and I look like BOZO the clown!!  During chemo, I looked like SLUGGO!!!   I guess Bozo is still better than Sluggo!!

    Have a great week, everyone!
    Harley

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  • lilith
    lilith Member Posts: 543
    edited April 2008

    Hi all.. just checking in to see how everybody is doing.

    Nash, does your DD still like Karate? mine has been in it for 3 years, and now it is a fight to get her going... but I hate the idea of her dropping off, I think it is a good activity. Oh well. I guess it is the last year of karate for us. Congrats on the 3rd place.

    I also notice more chemo ladies around - or rather, some very very short haircuts. I think it is simply that before I wouldn't recognize them, or notice them. Cancer is everywhere sadly... but one notice only when starting to look for it. People are very discreet about it, almost if it was a shame to show a weakness!

    Anyway. Here, lots of rain, really a wet spring. Lets hope for lots of flowers... :)

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    Hey, Lilith. Yes, my dd is really into karate. She's 9 1/2 and has been doing it for 4 years. I think it will be an activity that she'll pursue into adulthood. She'll be testing for brown belt this year. My ds goes to karate too, but more out of default, since we're always at the dojo. He enjoys it too, but he's only 6, so we'll see how long it lasts with him. How old is your dd?

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  • wackyjackie
    wackyjackie Member Posts: 669
    edited April 2008

    Girlfriends,

    I'm having my latissimus dorsi flap surgery tomm.  April 24th.  I will be in the hospital until Monday.  I will miss you all, but hopefully my wonderful pain meds will give me good dreams of all of youWink

    Talk to you soon.   Hope you are all doing okay.  Oh...don't go on any trips without me....pleaseUndecided!!!  BehaveCool.

    Lots and lots of hugs, Jackie

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    Good luck, Jackie! Hope all goes well--I'll be praying for a smooth surgery and recovery for you.

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  • Harley44
    Harley44 Member Posts: 5,446
    edited April 2008

    Jackie,

    Good Luck with your surgery!  I'll be thinking of you and praying that all goes well.  Don't worry, I am not going anywhere until May 1st.  Hubby and I are going back to visit some friends in the DC area.  It should be fun!

    Hugs,

    Harley

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  • lilith
    lilith Member Posts: 543
    edited April 2008

    Jackie, wow it is today!!! big day for you.

    I hope you will feel good, and am sure you will look fabulous! all the best for you.

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  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 645
    edited April 2008

    Hi Ladies,

    How'd the surgery go Jackie? Remind me again what they do during that procedure? I think the flaps are to preserve the amount of skin they need for the implants? or something like that?

    Kimmie, I spoke to my friend regarding the left-over Tarceva that her mom wasn't able to tolerate and she said because it's chemo in pill form, the restrictions are very tight on it. (No duh. I don't know what i was thinking.) But it WOULD have been a good idea. If it had been legal. (sigh.) She did say the paperwork was VERY easy, and they (the manufacturer) was very accomodating. I hope you can get help quickly.

    Well, I've been waking up achey and stiff for about an hour every morning, and I finally decided to listen to the advice on this board (and Dh) and thought that maybe some exercise might help. So I started walking/jogging and i've gone every day this week, about 30 minutes and the difference it makes is amazing. I'm not sure why that is, but it helps HUGELY during the day and I don't wake up as stiff as I did before. Very cool. I'm still eating everything that doesn't run away from me, and my weight is the same but at least I feel better.

    Hugs to all you guys, and I hope you all have a good,healthy weekend.

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  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 645
    edited April 2008

    PS.("Partially Schitzoid")

    I'd really like to get together with you guys - for real-zies...

    You guys want to consider that? 

    If we plan it far enough in advance it could be relatively inexpensive and it doesn't have to be any longer than a weekend.

     I'll go anywhere, or host whoever I can here - I'd just like to get together.

    The only time restraint I have is mid August when dd is getting married, and I need to be in Oregon for that. 

    Thumbs up? Thumbs down?

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  • DGHoff
    DGHoff Member Posts: 624
    edited April 2008

    Hi All,

    Kaye, I think that would be fabulous to get together. I'm guessing it will be a trick to negotiate sometime that everyone would be able to manage, but Fall is usually a good time for me. 

    In other news, I got my first haircut yesterday! Woo hoo! It was very exciting, and I am actually loving the short hair. My stylist told me that maybe the universe has been trying to tell me that I should have had short hair all along. I replied that the universe could have chosen a less dramatic way to share that news with me - maybe a nicely worded card instead of cancer?  I'll try to get a picture and figure out how to post it. Don't hold your breath waiting for it though!

    DeAnn 

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  • lilith
    lilith Member Posts: 543
    edited April 2008

    DeAnn, would love to see your pic! you are so cute anyway, and I am sure that the short-cut is gorgeous. Actually, I am surprised at seeing how fetching really short hair is on so many of us!!! :)

    Kaye. I like the idea of getting together, I am not sure how realistic it is... but we can try. I will be in NY the first week of July, then out in northern california up to the 20th of july. Possibly, we may take the kids down to disney... in that case, we could meet up, as for sure I would let my darling take the kids to see mickey, and go shopping (eating, drinking, walking, galavanting, or whatever else one does) on my own... I am not a big fan of those parks. But all this is still in planning, it takes so much coordination to align 2 school systems, 2 jobs, 2 ex-spouses between continents, and plan a vacation - not to mention airlines prices. Exhausting!

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    I'm with lilith--I love the idea of getting together, but just judging on how hard it is to coordinate the San Diego monthly lunches (and the fact that I've made exactly one of them in almost a year), I think it's going to be tough. I'm constrained by the kids' school schedules, also.

    That being said, perhaps enough of us would be in the CA area at one time to be able to put something together (lilith--we were just at Disneyland/California Adventure this weekend--kids had a blast. I almost had heat stroke, but that's another story). So...lilith will be up north in July, possibly down south, Kaye and I are down south--who else will be where in the forseeable future? Smile

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    Also can't wait to see the hair pics, DeAnn!

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    Just saw on the news about the tornadoes in Virginia--Kimmie, hope that they weren't anywhere near where you live. Check in when you can, 'k?

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  • Harley44
    Harley44 Member Posts: 5,446
    edited April 2008

    Kimmie,

    Just checking in, to see how you're doing...  please post, so we know you are ok...

    Harley

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  • Harley44
    Harley44 Member Posts: 5,446
    edited April 2008

    Kaye,


    I'd LOVE to meet ya'll for lunch sometime, but I live on the East coast, so it might be a bit of a drive!....  I'll see if we can make it, once you have decided on a date & time....

    sounds fun!

    Harley

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    Well, being compulsive, I checked where Kim lives in relation to the tornadoes, and it appears that she's in a different part of the state (right, Kim?). So, hopefully everything is fine.

    LOL, Harley, yes, it'd be a bit of a drive for lunch!  

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  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 645
    edited April 2008

    Welllllllllllllllll...it was a very fun thought.

    (the lets-get-together-on-a-coast-just-pick-one thought.) 

    Let's just keep it in mind. Something will turn up. 

    DeAnn, is your hair a different texture? Mine is kinky-curly and feels alot like a number 5 grade steel wool. I wonder how long the curls are going to last. I can't keep up with that picture I posted here of the "hair growth by weeks" because her hair is STRAIGHT. Mine, as previously mentioned, is NOT. So instead of every week, checking the photos and saying Ah, yes. There I am. It's more Hmmn why is it spiraling out of control into a point in the center of my head? (It's actually not too bad, but I can't grow it at all, because it more "explodes" than actually "grows".

    Dh is being very patient over here.

    Hey Kim, ...how's the Tarceva situation coming? How are things going? Have you been able to apply for help? 

    Lilith, you're right. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. Btw - you must work in the entertainment industry or political arena or computer tech to do that type of traveling...good grief. Do you ALWAYS travel trans-continentally? And do your kids get to go with you? My mom sang with a group in the 50's and early 60's and used to tour, and I could go with her in the summers. It was great! But during the school year I had to stay with the neighbors. Not so good.

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  • wackyjackie
    wackyjackie Member Posts: 669
    edited April 2008

    Hi Girls,

    I'm back!!! I'm not supposed to be typing but I wanted to check in with all of you.  Surgery went well, but I am definitely not bouncing back like I did after my bilateral mastectomy last July.  I guess all the chemo and radiation knocks your body down.  It was a 5 hour surgery and I have an eight inch scar on my back and flap on my right breast.  It's not prettyYell But I needed flap for implant because of radiation.  I should be getting my foobs in July.  Now.... I would love to get plastic surgery on the rest of my body!!!!! But,Sealed plastic surgeon asked me to try to get to my "happy" weight.  I guess I really need to lose weight!!!! Oh well.   You would think having cancer, chemo, radiation I would stop eating for even 5 minutes, but no.  I woke up from my five hour surgery asking for food!!!!!!

    Oh well, enough about me.  I hope you are all well and I would definitely love to get together.  Seriously.  Talk to you soon.

    Lots and lots of hugs, Jackie

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited April 2008

    So glad you're out of the hospital, Jackie!!! That was a hard core surgery--glad you came through it OK. Hope you continue to recover well--it's not a surprise that it's harder to bounce back this time. Plus they cut muscle this time--that's gotta hurt! Gentle hugs coming your way.

    On an unrelated but exciting note, I was so inspired by all this hair trimming that I scheduled my first trim for May 10th. Woo hoo! 

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  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 645
    edited May 2008

    Good Grief, Jackie - FIVE hours? wow. I bet you're glad THAT'S over... And btw, you need to tell the surgeon that it can be HIS job to get you to your "happy" weight. HELLO..... WHO HAS THE SCALPEL????????

    And Nash - May 10th is the big trim-day? WooHoo! I want to see!! Please report back as soon as your can. I think i go in for #3 around then. I'm losing hope that it will ever look like "hair". 

    And I've been running every morning for a week and a half and i haven't lost ONE POUND. It's ok. I feel better, and I know it's good for me, it's just stinkin' discouraging. It's the Arimidex. Or my body has been invaded by aliens from the planet ROTUND.

    hugs. (between gritted teeth) 

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited May 2008

    Running? I'm impressed! I like to walk every morning, and was recently inspired to run b/c the kids did a one mile race in April in conjunction with a 5K here. That inspiration lasted exactly two days, and now I'm back to walking. So there.

    Well, I'm off to have a port removal suture removed. I had my port out a month ago, but the dissolvable sutures didn't all dissolve. I went in last week, and the doc tried to get the last suture out w/o cutting me open again, and it didn't work. And the incision is starting to get infected. So I was on Keflex all week, and now am going in again to have him dig the stupid thing out. The kicker is that he says he's been having a lot of trouble with sutures dissolving in scar tissue, and that since he took my port out a month ago, he's since changed his wound closure technique. Well, lot of good that does me now. I'm going to have such a narly scar that my topless dancing career is going to be over for sure.  Anyhow, did anyone else have this problem with the port removal?

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited May 2008

    OK, I'm back and sutureless. The doc said he'd never had anyone have an entire suture not dissolve before. He said eventually it would have eroded through the surface of the skin and made a big mess. How nice. Anyhow, he got the stupid thing out and super glued me back together.

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  • katoMato
    katoMato Member Posts: 645
    edited May 2008
    Nash, those dissolvable stitches NEVER dissolve on me.

    (Topless dancing career, eh? Dh THOUGHT you looked familiar.)

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited May 2008
    Laughing
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  • DGHoff
    DGHoff Member Posts: 624
    edited May 2008

    Jackie - Congrats on getting done with surgery. Do take it easy as the muscle cutting definitely makes a difference.

    I have an opposite problem with weight. My DH and onc ganged up on me yesterday about having lost weight and they don't think I'm eating enough and need protein, blah, blah, blah.  I have actually lost about four or five pounds overall. I realized last night, however, that I now exercise about twice as much as I used to, thus burn about 3,000 calories more a month now, but haven't added in extra food to compensate. 3,000 calories a month x 4 months of exercise = 12,000 calories, or about four pounds. Mystery solved on the weight loss, but now I need to figure out how to get more calories back in even though I don't eat sugar anymore and I don't eat much dairy or meat. Tricky indeed. 

    Kaye, my hair is definitely curly which it wasn't before, but is pretty soft and fine in texture. However, it does like to do very unruly things. I just am keeping it cut in such a way that the sticking up is part of the style!

    Bummer on the stitches, Nash. I am going in on the 30th to have my implant redone and then probably in July I'll have the nipple surgery done. I'm thinking I will have the port out at the same time and just live with my arm veins being poked for the remainder of my Herceptin treatments. I am so done with this port poking out of my chest, but it sure was easier to get my Herceptin treatment yesterday. Something I'll have to work out, I guess. 

    DeAnn  

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  • kimmie39
    kimmie39 Member Posts: 319
    edited May 2008

    You guys are sooooooo sweet and special!! Im sorry if I made you worry but Im having some trouble over hear. I dont like telling you guys my bad news. You seem mto be doing so well ajusting to your new AFTER cancer lives and here I am STILL in treatment and now a new development 'PAIN'

    So Im going back to Texas on 5/12. Please pray for me. This IBC is really kick ass stuff. Im scared and Ive been getting sick with my weekly chemo.

    Been dreaming of the Bahamas!! (so Im not dead inside). This is hard for me to adjust to.

    Ah yea I also lost my two biggest accounts here with my trash business. A net lose of about 260000.00 yearly. I found this out while in the docs office. The appiontment where she told me Im in a fight for my life and not to come alone anymore if I can help it.

    Soooooooooooooooooooooo

    No good news, But Im still here.

    Hugs in Va,

    Kim 

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  • nash
    nash Member Posts: 2,600
    edited May 2008

    Well, shit, Kimmie. What can I say. But I do want to say that we love you, and we want to hear all the news, good or bad. It doesn't matter where the rest of us are on this journey--we're all in this together. I wish we were geographically closer so one of us could go to the onc appointments with you.

    I will be praying that the docs get the pain under control for you--I know my dad had good luck with fetynl patches.

    Maybe we need to figure out how to caravan to VA. Girls? 

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  • DGHoff
    DGHoff Member Posts: 624
    edited May 2008


    Kimmie, We are all still in this with you, regardless of where we are in treatment. We started this journey together and we may be at different points in our journey, but we are all still on the same road. I really wish as well that some of us lived closer together so that we could help. I guess all we can do is offer our support from afar and send you much love and many good vibrations. And although I'm not a very religious person, you have got my prayers, honey. Big prayers going out for you today.

    DeAnn  

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