Starting Chemo May 2008

Thanks, Eddie.  I'm trying...my consolation is that no one is home but me and I can hang out all day with you guys, er, gals, if I want to.  And I think I wanna!

Hey Sable - the eye watering stopped for me a couple of weeks after I finished A/C.  Thankfully I've had no sign of it with the Taxol treatment which I am halfway through.

Cheers, Lisa

hmm, my turn. I feel barfy and gross still, but am trying to stay distracted. Day 5 is usually better than this, but I can barely stand up without feeling crappy.

 I grew up 2 blocks from here (about an hour from Toronto) 

1985 College- Middlebury College, Vermont-Theatre, Dance Film Major with a concentration in Hebrew Literature and Language. ( yes, I was a little confused) Dropped out in Sophomore year. Returned to college town yearly to visit friends and little perfume/ bath product store on the main street.

 1987 to 1993 - had various jobs in various countries and cities, mostly waitressing. Hated everything, bounced from relationship to relationship. My motto then? " I'd probably be famous now if I wasn't such a good waitress!" 

1993 - was told by a friend to stop whining about my life and to start this perfume business that I apparently never  stopped talking about.

1994- opened part time perfume/ bath product business in my living room and continued to waitress and have bad relationships

1996 to 1999 had my child, left jackass boyfriend

2000 to Present- took business courses while raising child alone, opened the first perfume/ bath product store in '02 and have been doing it full time ever since. My specialty is custom making natural fragrances, and custom scenting/ creating the recipes for the bath products that we hand make.

 I hope to go back to school someday, but this is the career I have now!

Cheers, Noelle  

 

Ooo, Randie, that's right up my alley today (but definitely no vino).  That's kinda sad...

Can I just say, I have been eating/craving the oddest things?  Things that make absolutely no sense at all, yet I must have them.  Back to the Taco Bell (like last time), and anything, tangy/salty/crispy - yes, like chips.  I tried to eat an apricot (a homegrown one, even) and had to spit it out.  Just weird...

Oh randie if I only could! even yogurt is giving me heartburn... this is killing me!

Gee I need to add to my list of jobs now LOL.

Did your waitress, conv stores, fast food junk, photographer, then walmart till my late 20's. Then got a bright idea I wanted to DJ on the radio. I did that at 2 different radio stations, one country, one top 40. Then decided I needed to go back to college and actually do something that pays. And here I am Cad-person extrodinare. How's that for jumping all over the scope LOL.

Lisa~ YAY! there is hope my eyes will return to normal soon! Oh I can't wait!!! I'm gonna ask onc if this pesky heartburn will disappear soon as well. I really want food with some flavor.

 Eddie~you and I are taxol #1 on the same day. I'll send you good vibes from my end! And I've always wanted to learn how to play mahjong in RL. I love playing on the computer.

Sable- ask your Doc for Nexium for the heartburn. It saved my live during A/C. I tried over $200 in OTC meds for heartburn and Zantac and Nexium is the only thing that helped.

Kristy! that SE sounds nuts! I hope you work out what it is....

   N

Cris -- I love your photo.  And I can relate to not knowing where the phone number is. I have my onco nurse's phone number scrawled on a ripped-off scrap of paper that I've been moving around since early May -- it's not even a post-it!!!!!  I swear, when they told me I shouldn't write on the back of my hand anymore (the anti-Palm Pilot), I lost my major means of keeping track of things!

Into Thin Air and the other steroid-breast cancer-climber movie -- both fantastic! I am a sucker for documentaries.  And who knew we had so much in common with people who climbs mounts besides our love of yodeling.

All I can say is what an amazing group of women we have here. You are all so awesome!

k I feel a tad better about the taxol this week....... well sorta. I can't help but still feel nervous about it.

We sure have a big variety of smart women in this group. Bravo ladies!

Thanks, Rock for picking up on the photo change.  It's my way of posting pics (until I can have enough of an attention span to figure out the other way) even though they are very, very tiny.  That is my little dd.  They are both spending the night with Grandma 'cause dh is at work and I can barely take care of myself today.  Although the older one tried to talk me into letting her come home with "but I'm the easy, helpful one!"

It's a little funny about the phone number - I was actually looking for the business card and I had copied the number into my little bc organizational book - which I got before I started chemo or it would have never happened!!

Otter - my nephew has just moved up to Seattle, WA (hi Eddie!) to get his PhD in biochemistry.  He got a full scholarship for the next 4 years plus a stipend to live on!   But...he really wanted to go to vet school and has worked for a vet since he started high school.  I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up in vet school, which, I hear, is harder than medical school. 

Sue - I did find it and he told me to take Benedryl (basically, to knock myself out) and then come in first thing in the morning if it's not better.  WTH?  I live across from Walgreens - call it in, man!!  I guess I shouldn't complain too much - at least he returned my phone call on a Sunday night.  Now for the drugs...

Re:  contact numbers and life choices....

I am so bad about scribbling something on an odd scrap of paper, or carrying a critical document into another room, and having it vanish.  I never did use my hands as notepads, and I have to tell you:  when I see a nurse do that, it makes me really nervous.  What if that's my BP on her hand, and later she thinks it's my blood glucose level?  But, I'm not nearly as organized as everyone (except my dh) thinks I am.

What I do when I don't want to lose something is make a zillion copies of it, and leave one in every place I might possibly look.  So, I keep a list of my BC contact numbers and docs' names in the "chemo portfolio" I was given at the infusion center, on the desk by the telephone in our kitchen, in my overnight suitcase, in a pocket of the computer case I use with my laptop, and in a "folder" on the desktop of this computer.  No point taking any chances.

I did want to comment again on the "job" issue.  Choosing the path I chose did take a lot of time and patience, and even a lot of money.  But, one reason why I chose an academic career, instead of any of the myriad of other choices, was job security.  I wanted to know that, after a certain number of years and amount of effort, there would be some assurance of stability in my job and my paycheck.  I also checked out the benefits package, which turned out to be better than I realized (especially for retirees).

I can't begin to tell you how much respect and admiration I have for people who have carved out their own career paths, or who go through life without any of the stability and job security that was so important to me.  Some people thrive on risk-taking.  I can't make a $2.00 bet at the dog track, and I've never bought a lottery ticket.

Being a parent is one of the riskiest, least predictable, "jobs" I can imagine.  I never took that risk, either, although I do have a wonderful step-son who I like to think of as the best wedding gift I received.

otter 

Happy Monday Ladies,

Wow after reading everyone elses career and life choices mine is quite boring in comparison.

Moved to Nelson when I was 4, Age 15 got a job in a local drugstore as reciever, kept working after graduating high school. Didn't know what i wanted to be when i grew up (still don't!) so didn't ever make it to college. Did make enough money to buy my childhood dream of owning a horse, moved out at 17, not because i didn't like it at home, but was independent and needed to try it. Started seeing my husband in the Nov. of '83 age 19 and we got married the following Sept., (no point in waisting time when you know it's right!)  So I guess after 3 kids 21,19 & 12 and 24 years of marriage (I"m 44) my career could be summed up as domestic engineer.  Sometimes i wonder where i would be if i had gone to school and where that would of taken me, then i think  if i had done that the husband and the 3 kids in that picture next to me wouldn't be there and I know then i have made the right decision with my life and it has been all worth it!   This year i did go back into the work force and was helping out at our family business and thoroughly enjoying it until......well you all know the story from here.

I do admire all you women who did take the career path as it too takes alot of courage to juggle relationships, homelife and work all together.

Sorry for the ramble, feeling a little emotinal today ....sigh

Have a great day

What an interesting (and amazing) group of women.  No Angels, your path is not boring.  A path that involved 3 kids could never be boring . . .

I graduated from college (mktg & finance, minor in IT) into a job market that was difficult to find work.  I feel backward into programming position for a few years then moved into a job as a technical instructor (teaching others how to program).  My biggest fear was speaking in front of folks, so I thought the best way to get over the fear was to take a job doing exactly that.  I spent the next 5 years traveling 90% of the time teaching courses and seeing the country.  I grew tired of coming home to an empty house, so I took a job in network design (no travel) and bought a dog (my chemo companion shown).    I picked up my Masters in Communications in my late twenties and have spent the last ten years designing local area networks and wide area networks for large customers.  It involves routing, switching, wireless network, IP Telephony . .  . this is where family and friends generally roll their eyes with boredom.  I am thankful that I love what I do for a living. 

Gracie:  I keep looking at your photo wondering how you could possibly have 11 grandchildren - you look so young! 

Happy Monday to all!  Jean

I'm loving this exchange of bio's.  Here's mine:

Started college thinking I wanted to be a journalist (of the muckraking/hellraising type).  But, instead of majoring in journalism, I decided (smartly, I think) that my major should help me understand the things I wanted to write about.  So, I focused on economics (actually, it was an interdisciplinary social science program, but my particular course of study was heavy on economics). 

Was politically active in college, did an internship in the legislative office of a union, loved it, and hung around for a few years after graduation before heading off to graduate school in New England.  Loved teaching, but didn't care for the rest of academia, and didn't finish my PhD.  (That makes it sound like a conscious choice: "Dang it, academic life isn't for me!  I'm going to stop working on this half-written dissertation right now!"  In fact, it was much slower and more agonizing.)

After coming back to Michigan and working in a regional think tank-type place for a couple of years, I wound up back at the same union where I'd started, this time in the research department.  And that's where I still am, 17 years later.  I love the work I do, which involves a mixture of number-crunching (industry trends, costing out contract proposals) and writing and speaking and, these days, supervising other staff. 

Along the way, I was married (briefly), had my daugher, divorced (still friendly with my ex, though I could never, ever live with him again), and floundered emotionally for a long time.  Not quite two years ago a college friend fixed me up with someone I'd admired from afar - even had a crush on - during our college days.  (This person had actually graduated before I got there, but we had a lot of friends in common and his reputation as the nicest guy ever lived on.)  It was maybe not the most promising set-up, seeing as how we live in different cities, but something clicked and we've been together ever since.  It's hard to imagine going through this whole bc ordeal without him.

. . .

In other news: I do believe that the hair on my scalp is now longer than the hair on my legs, which I count as a milestone.  And for once, I was happy when the (mild) neupogen pain started to kick in around Day 10.  I need those neutrophils!

Linda

Edited to add: Of all the surprising things I learned from the life stories here, one of the most surprising, to me, was the fact that you can buy delicious raisin bread at the Pentagon.  Who'da thunk it??