Positive Girls Club

Is there another way than to be positive?   

I'm often told how "Brave" I am to be going through the surgeries and chemo.  I don't feel brave at all, it's something that has to be done to live!  Like I tell them, I have 2 choices - I can crawl in the corner, cover up and stay there and not come out OR I can accept it and go on with my life.  Option one is not really an option in my case! 

I know God is in control and he will not let me down. 

I didn't want cancer, chemo and I don't want radiation, but ...  you have to play with the hand you are dealt!  I chose to deal with it in a positive way.  It could be so much worse, I have a 6% recurrence rate once all the chemo and radiation is done, I want to live to see my grandkids someday!  I will fight for my life, and what a fight it has been.  I call it my "Journey" rather than my battle with cancer.  Sounds more positive. 

yes, I have been asked too if I was in denial, I'm too peppy and can laugh about it.  I have to be, I have a wonderful husband and 2 grown daughters and I have to be strong.  Oh now don't get me wrong, there are times I just break down and cry.  I cried when I went to get my 2nd round of chemo, I saw the building and just lost it.  I knew it was ok to cry.  I didn't get my chemo due to an infection and was a little bummed, but got over it.  Had to be positive, I'm alive! 

Focus on the positive, you have to look for it at times, but it's there, just keep looking 

Fighting Cancer with Dignity and Grace!

<><  Keeping the Faith  <><

www.caringbridge.org/visit/leeaynbyrd

Leann, welcome to the club of positive attitude. I also had the positive attitude April 07 when I got the dreaded news. I just lied about the positive attitude from the start, at first I cried, then I said where do we go from here. I have had very good experiences with my doctors and surgeries. People have also told me that I am brave to face cancer with a smile on my face. My cancer was found early so the surgery took care of everything and no chemo or rads.

Positive for me, Sunday will be my 1st anniversary from my bilat surgery. I have had the tattoos done by my ps in April 08, but looking to going to Asheville to a cosmetic pigmentologist to check out the tatts and see if she can adjust them any to look even better than they do now.

I was on vacation last week and unable to post my positives. Last weekend we went to a Vanity Fair outlet and I actually bought 2 pocket books at the Liz Claiborne store on sale.

Hope all stay positive.

Sheila

My positive for this week is similar to yours, Sheila. My refrigerator went on the fritz. We were able to find a new one on Friday, and it will be delivered on Sunday. Funny the fridges at the 3 stores we looked at were all about the same price, but we picked the one that could be delivered the soonest.

Here in Austin we are getting the heat and very little rain. If it does wet the sidewalk with a bit of rain, it only raises the humidity, and it feels like a sauna outside.

The visit to my primary care doc seemed to go alright on Tuesday, but they haven't called with any of the test results yet. This next week I have my Bone Density done and then I see the onocologist on the 17th.

Take care all of you. See you next week.

I am new here... but I support the positive girls club.  I've had my breakdowns too...  I think though the worst is actually the reactions from others, how different they treat me when I'm the same person!   That makes me more upset than anything else.   I am me, I've always been, and I'm going to keep on going.   

I am an artist, I have been painting since I was little, and so I have begun a painting now that I've had some sufficient time to recover and heal about how whole I feel in myself but how I see myself reflected in other people's faces.   How they expect the worst.   How de-humanizing that reaction is.   People see the cancer, not the person.  I'm not sure if we can post images like this, but I'd be happy to share my color study sketches if it is allowed.

I think fighting this through my artwork has been the best way for me to recover emotionally.   The concept took 245 sketches for it to feel right - now I am ready to paint.   I hope you ladies are finding a good way to release those emotions and feelings to a loved one or by doing something you love.     

Thank you Shiela.    I hope the drought breaks for you soon.

I am still very reluctant to talk about it, but it is easier to say for me in painting.   I only have told a few close friends still...   but this way of expression suits me better.

Sounds wonderful what you do - I did not have chemo either, which was a huge relief.  My hair was mid-back when I was dx on 01.17.2008..   I donated 15 inches before my lumpectomy.   I was glad I did that - made washing and care post op a lot easier.   I think we all find some little ways to give back, I feel very grateful for life and for what I have now, sometimes it takes a big moment to notice the small things.  I am still very young, and sometimes I worry about sexiness and those things, but my boyfriend has been so supportive throughout, I could not ask for a better partner to help me through this.   He makes me feel beautiful every day.

If showing artworks like this is not allowed, I apologize...  but I feel like maybe this forum might understand my sketches better than anyone else.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j203/sillypaintbrush/BC_colorstudy_17.jpg

I am painting this for me, and for any of you who may have felt the same way.   Courage on your journey, all of us are beautiful! 

 Prettyinpink, congratulations!  I really hear you about the choosing part...   I let myself cry and be upset, mad at everything... and then take a big breath and force myself to see the good too.   See all the things that I am not going to miss out on that I now have a sense to be thankful for.

I haven't talked about this online until now, I'm a little shy about it.  I worry a lot about people thinking I'm not capable of painting anymore.   My deviantART site is here..   http://mynti.deviantart.com.

I will post the finished BC painting there when I have completed it   It may take me a month or six but I'm going to finish, I am determined to do this.

 Big hugs,

Gracie 

It actually is the Bermuda high off the coast that is pushing all the rain to the north into Va. We have been in an extreme or exceptional drought for almost a year. In April, we thought that we were going to get a break, we had rain 4 or 5 weekends in a row but May came along with record high temps and no rain. they got some rain yesterday in Charlotte but none here in the Foothills. When we were having all that rain I couldn't get anyone to mow my grass, I finally got somebody to mow 2 weeks ago, now it is dried up and brown.

I do have another sort of positive, my son, who signed up in 2004 for 6 yrs in the Navy will be coming home in the fall for good. He has injured his knee and failed the PRT (Physical required training) and the weigh in, because of that they will be releasing him from his contract 1.5 yrs early with an honorable discharge. Since he has been in 4 yrs he also will get his GI benefits.

Sheila

Hi,

So glad to hear about someone else enjoying their garden -- good luck on those white roses.  Now if I can just keep the gypsy moth infestation at bay this summer - that is, before the Japanese beetles come in.  OK, enough of that.  Yesterday, I picked my first black raspberries from a bed I established last summer.  YUM!  There is such peace in grazing through the berry patch each morning for my breakfast.  Food for my soul.  If anyone is interested in reading a book written by someone who really loved the garden refuge she created around her home, please pick up the following book by Dominique Browning, "Paths of Desire, The Passions of a Suburban Gardener."

Enjoy your day!!

Jan

 Miss S - thank you.   I hope the finished piece will be my best work I've done yet.   I want to show I am still capable of painting and improving my techniques. 

Sheila - I hope your son makes it home safe and recovers well from his injury.

 Jule - make sure not to prune your rose leaves at all during the summer heat.   They use fuel much faster in hotter weather.   To keep from burning on the edges you might try shading them during the hottest part of the day when the sun is glaring down and have someone mist the leaves with some water at late afternoon/evening to give the petals and leaves some humidity.  Humidity around the leaves also deters mites and aphids from arriving on your rose bush when it's dry weather.  Don't mist during the day though.   It can burn the leaves.    My mom is a horticulturalist and I guess I picked up a fair bit from her.   Hehe.    The other trick you can do that is a lot easier than all that is to cut the white roses before they've fully opened up and put them in a vase of water with a bit of plant food.   They'll open up in your house out of direct sun, and probably not get the brown edges. 

How are all the positive girls doing this week? Debbie glad to hear that your bone density is good. They discussed removing my ovaries but because of previous spine surgery, they want to keep my ovaries in as long as possible to prevent bone loss, just frequent tests for oc.

Jule, I know about the weather, we are in another dry summer. Last summer through the winter we were in an exceptional drought, this past spring we got rain every weekend for about 5 weekends in a row that took us out of the exceptional range to the severe range but the rains stopped in May. we are back in exceptional drought again. Have had a few hit/miss showers, mostly missing my area.

I went back to my ps for the followup after my last tattoo session and he said it was time for the 'after picts' then he said that he wants to put my case photos (before and after) in his album that they show new patients going through bc. Of course I said yes to putting them int the case album. If my successful reconstruction helps others decide what to do when going through the same thing, I think that it is great.

Sheila

I hope all of you American girls are having a fun holiday weekend.  We had ours in Canada last weekend and, now that the kids have grown, we didn't  participate in the celebrations like we used to.

My positive for this week is that the weather was perfect and I got to spend time on my beloved front porch. It is so calming for me to sit in my wicker rocker, listening to the birds and watching the wind blowing through the tree tops.  An occasional snort from the grazing horses and the neighbors' kids laughing in the distance and I feel that all is well.

I hope all is well with everyone else. 

Hi All,

Today is my 44th birthday and in two more days it will be 3 years since I beat this beast!!!! I was triple negative. Just wanted to share some good news

Take care!

gorilla - i echo Jule - Happy B-day and Happy Cancerversary!

We like to share good news. My new areolas are healing nicely and look better. she (makeupchicknc)  said that when she is finished they will look 'fabulous'

Sheila

Hi to all of you, sorry it's been a while since I posted. I've had some positives over the past couple of weeks.

July 2 marked one year since I finished chemo, and on July 9 I got my first real hair cut. The stylist basically shaped up the style without taking too much off the top and sides. Today I blowed it dry and styled it myself. It looks really nice.

The Total Bone Scan showed that I have arthritis nearly everywhere but no worries about spreading cancer. The onc gave me a prescription for pain meds when I need them. Already my back seems to be relaxing a bit.

In about a week I'll be meeting some of the ladies from my Chemo thread in person. We have a little schedule of who is meeting who and the hugs we'll be giving and receiving. I can hardly wait to see all of them.

Take care and I check back.