Mary,  I hope you feel better.  I had my gallbladder out in 94.  They did the laproscopy (sp) and made 4 small slits, one was for the camera.  I recovered very quickly.  So if you should have to have surgery, I would highly recommend that new procedure rather than the old fashioned surgery.

Yeah, in some ways, it seems like yesterday and yet sometimes it seems like a very long time ago.

PJ, are you all packed?

Mary, does mud become a problem when it rains like that, or is it mostly grass?  Enjoy the lake.

Later Taters,

Janie

Mary,  I do wish you could get to feeling better.  You have never really been well for a significant length of time since BC struck.  I will be thinking of you and praying it is nothing bad. Keep us posted.

Love Janie

Hey Thanks girls. We are wondering if we should even go now because it is to start storming this afternoon all the way till Sat. I hate to pay all that money to sit and watch it rain. We will see. Yea Janie, it seems I have had problems ever since chemo ended and it is kinda crappy. Oh well, I keep thinking it will stop someday, or not. Hugs and have a safe great trip P.J. hugs, Mary

Good morning everyone, I had my first consult with my medical oncologist yesterday. She spent 2.5 hours with us, and the Oncology Nurse Practioner spent at least another 1 hour with us. Exhausting to say the least, very educational, so much information to digest. I think I counted six prescriptions to be taken at certain times during the chemo cycle. My ingredients will be the TAC regimen. Today I am to have an Echocardiogram. Next Thursday I'll have a port inserted in my R upper arm. On Wednesday June 25th I'll have my first infusion. Is anyone else doing the TAC regimen? and what has been your experience.

It's so nice to be able to check in to see how everyone else is doing, and to know there is support out there.

Thank you and I hope today is wonderful for you.

Jo-Anne

Good luck Jo-Anne. How was everyones wk. end? Great I hope. We took 3 grandkids camping in the camper lastnight at the nearby lake. It is a big one and pretty nice. The grandkids had fun. They swam and fished and I am pooped! Hubby says we need a bigger camper. I am shocked at myself and frankly my sister is baffled too that I am actually enjoying this camper thing. I just never was a camper.  Yea, we took the kids out in a tent twice but I curtailed that after the second time. I just really don't mind this a bit and I  am in awe of myself for enjoying this. I bought the camper for a place to stay at the craft shows and to take to Az. for the winter until we decide if we are going to get a place there or just stay through the winter. I wonder if chemo messed up my brain? We ate fathers day fixins at my daughters. I am off to bed to work crosswords and relax and watch some t.v. Hugs, Mary

Janie - Thanks for the tips - I spent most of the afternoon creating a spread sheet for the meds I must take - I will have to double check it tomorrow to make sure I put everything in with dates and whether or not it's to be taken in the a.m. or the p.m.

Mary1220 - thank you - I use to love camping - even primitive camping - but now that I'm getting older my idea of roughing it is b&w TV

Have a nice evening

Jo-Anne

Mary,   I like your kind of roughing it!  I could handle that!

Anything out of the ordinary happen at the onky apt?  Did you get to change to the one year deal?  My onky said that normally I would already be on that schedule, but my original scheduling came from Mayo and they decided to make the counting start at the end of tx instead of the beginning.  So, I am still on the 6 month, but I forgot when that changes.  Maybe next time?!?!  Chemo brain sets in again.

Janie

Mary,  sounds like you are being told the same thing as me.  Actually, I do not mind going every six months as things/questions tend to pop up that I want to know about.  My apts often end in scans or referrals elsewhere and it gives me peace of mind to know the lumps are calcifications etc.  I just don't like for all the apts to get out of hand like around Jan of this year when I was seeing so many docs I could not keep up with them all.  Of couse, they all had the intiial visits, the treatment or test, and then the follow-up visit at the very least, some had even more apts.  My time and co-pays and deductibles were being used up fast.  Did you make some beautiful jewelry?  Of course you did!  Good luck.  Hugs.  Janie

Glad you had a good trip P.J. I bet you saw some beautiful country. We take our dog a lot and it does seem like we have to cater to it some times. Hey, our camper isn't new and it isn't very big and it is a light one so the gas isn't too bad. We got it cheap or we wouldn't have gotten one. We are checking into a little bigger one but not for a couple months. We pay $20.00 a night for an R.V. space and thats cheaper than gas(to drive back and forth 100 miles or more) or a hotel or cheesy motel when we are too far from home for a show. We are not by any means capable of anything fancy. I didn't mean to make it sound like a $100,000 motor home but wow, wouldn't that be nice. I have seen some reeeealy nice ones but we will never sleep in one. Hubby kept bugging me about one and I thought it would be cheap to live in out west in the winter so here we are. I never would have thought I would actually enjoy it because I never have. Must be old age. I am not too good to tent camp, its fun once in a while but I just never cared to that much(arth. in hips and neck make it painful). Probably because I grew up  camping in tents all over the south. Then when I had kids and we camped in tents, I had all the cooking on the grill and walk to the showers which was always a mile away and the kids bored and fighting, I just didn't feel like reffing the fights after the first day of fun wore off and I was too tired to drown them and when they hiked they always found their way back. Now, it is quiet and less stressful. Gotta get, Mare

Mare - I love your camper sounds just about perfect. I do post on the June, 2008 chemo site.

Janie - good to read your posts.

PJB - glad you had a nice trip.

Tomorrow is the port insertion day. Will take one of the anti-anxiety meds tonight. Also am getting a cold, scratchy throat, feel really run down all that good stuff.

I had to talk to my mum's lawyer today, she's dying, and it sounds like it's imminent. My 'sissies' flew in to care for her, and have been doing the day in and day out interventions. I did fly there a week and a half ago to say goodbye, very hard on all of us. I have Power of Attorney, Health Care Proxy and am Trustee and I have no idea what needs to be done. I called her attorney and left a voice mail this morning. He called me late this afternoon, his day secretary is on vacation, his night secretary is coming in later, and he will have her find the file. Sounds like he doesn't know where anything is in his office and I have a feeling day secretary may have a mess to clean up when she returns to work! Oh, did I mention he was my date to the Junior Prom back in 1958 OMG that's 50 years ago! I couldn't possibly this old. Giggles...

Will let you know how the port insertion goes tomorrow.

Jo-Anne

Jo-Anne,  I am sure you have your port by now.   I had one for about a year and a half.  It was in the chest.  I have difficult veins and I loved it.  There are times I wished I still had it but it would probably do me no good since only those technicians/nurses specificially trained for ports can access them.  I am sorry about your mother and wish you well with all the legal and health issues.  It is hard having ailing parents while going through this.

Mary, it sounds like your Dad's fears are endangering his health.  Maybe if he had the surgery, he would not remember it?!  You have gone through so much in the last few years. I have said it before and will again.  You really deserve a break.

Hugs.  Janie

I just stumbled back into this thread - they changed the look of the web-site and I'm lost! I had the port put into my arm on Thursday, they gave me an IV antibiotic, felt better. They numbed me with Lidocaine, could still feel the pressure but they kept giving me more Lidocaine! One of the nurses had been a student in the High School I had been assigned to, she said, 'You look familiar.' I said 'Her name, and said you were one of the kids who wanted to major in Health Room!' We had quite a laugh. She's well liked by the staff, and I got great care.

On Friday my mother died, my youngest sister was with her, she said her death was peaceful. So arrangements made. Yesterday and today I felt awful, feverish, but no fever hoarse, coughing, just awful. On of my supervisors called me to see how I'm doing, her husband happens to be a research (breast cancer) oncologist at NIH. She said 'have you talked to your onco?' 'No.' 'I think you should call the office and let hem know what's going on with your health and tell them about your mom.' Okay, I called the office, explained the situation, onco got on the phone and said she didn't want to start chemo if I was ill so push chemo back a week start next week, and you can travel to go to your mom's funeral. So arrangements undone - redone and I'm going. Wearing a mask/gloves I now have a port and have to present a card at security 'cause there's metal in it! So I'm happy/sad. All the anxiety has to be put on a back burner for about a week. Then it's a go!

I'm glad I re-fouond this thread!

Jo-Anne

Wow, it took me awhile to find you guys. I always looked for shelliks...

Jo-Anne, let me add my condolences to you and your family. I'm glad you'll be able to go to your mom's funeral.  

 Hot today. Gee, you'd think it was summer in Texas. My sister had her first day of work in  San Antonio today, and all was well. We're busy trying to trap a rat at my mom's house while she's off helping my sister get settled in. So far, the little sucker's been elusive. 

 Hope you all have a good rest of the week. Jo-Anne, our thoughts are with you. 

Paula 

Mary, I wish I could flatten MY belly like the rat you spoke about.  Maybe I should find one and watch to see how they do it.  Bet there may be some in the forest behind my house.  Hard telling what creatures lurk out there.

Mary I bet on Big Brown at the Preakness and won, but the odds were the worse they had even been and he only paid 20 cents on the dollar (1-5 odds).  I had never even seen odds like that before.  They are usually something like 5-2, but NOT that time.  So anyway, I also bet a few dollars earlier on horses I had never heard of and didn't count it up, but probably broke even or maybe even lost a little.  I was not a big gambler so it didn't matter a whole lot.  Would love to have had money on the one that won the Belmont.  It paid really big.  

I was at a drawing for a Cadillac once and it came down to two people and one was holding the winning ticket.  Both rich as sin.  Another rich dude paid one of the ticket holders big bucks to sell him his ticket.  He lost, but I'm sure he did not miss the money.  Didn't need the car either. The haves and have nots ........................

I love riding 4 wheelers.  It has been a while but I would give it another whirl.... lymphedema, old age,  and all .  

Good luck Mary.  Hey PJ.  J-A, hope you are feeling better.

 Janie 

Hey N.L. great to have you back! Sorry you have been ill. Glad your o.k. We have missed you. I posted a whole epic lastnight but the board went blank and said the host had erred and is was gone. Gosh I hate that. Well we are off today at another show. It is a little festival about 15 miles away. We had a deer right in front of our bay window this a.m. just taking in the view. He stayed a while. Very pretty but they are known to break through glass doors and go right on in a house or business. Janie I saw a rat run up between our cabinets in the corner and thats a tight space   (30 years ago). Hubby thought I was nuts and even made fun of my rat story. Our washing machine went on the fritz a few days later and hubby was on the floor with his head under the back of it when something kept rubbing on his cheek. When he was able to shine the flashlight on it, it was the rat sitting on the motor and it didn't move but hubby moved real fast. I was quite surprised at his speed. Toolman/ratman got the pliers and got the rat by the tail and asked me or may I say demanded me to get the bb gun and shoot it. I got the gun and tried to aim at the squirmming thing and it was a good size rat(small dag) but it would look at me with sad eyes and I could not shoot it so toolman/ratman  had to go outside and throw it into the field. Toolman/ratman should have not have made fun of me huh? When he was histarickly asking me to shoot the d#%n thing I kept saying, but its not real its all in my head so why shoot at nothing? Yea, we/I pretty much get a good laugh at that one when I bring it up now. Well I better get. We have to pack. Hi all. Hugs, Mary