Starting Chemo May 2008

Sable - LOVE THAT!!  And your beautiful face, too!

Eddie- There is no rambling here - only thoughts and all are okay.  What a sweetie you are to invite my nephew for dinner!  He is also very sweet and rather shy.  I will pass it on to him through his dad.  And I was swollen like the Goodyear Blimp this weekend, but I did have chemo.  I know I still have ankle swelling in the summer when it's hot - I had very bad edema with second pregnancy and it's just stayed.

Sue - Yeah, I get that surreal thing, too.  And I was totally overwhelmed today at work.  Now, I am dog ass tired (I just like writing that!). 

It's a short list this week, ladies.  Somehow, I don't think everyone is checking in...Here's what I've got so far...

Wednesday - Rock (T#3?) and Roxi (T#2?) (sounds like a band!)  Good thoughts coming your ways!!

Thursday - Sable & Eddie (T#1); Kristy (Her)

Friday - Anyone?

I'll be around tomorrow and then off on a short business trip Thursday and Friday. 

Sable,

I'm with all the other gals...LOVE IT! Thanks to all the best wishes, I think Rock and I are off to some retro concert by the sounds of all the 80's music we've been referring to lately. Yes, sometimes rock music is soothing to the soul. Gotta get dressed and out the door. Noelle, I love the theatre. Hope the show was grand.

P.S. Love the new avatars ladies. 

Sable and Eddie:  Love the new avs!

Eddie:  Taxol - I had the same conversation with my nurse that Rock had with her nurse . . . 600 + patients and only 2 reactions.  I have had ankle swelling and bone pain after Taxol, not sure why you have it now, but you have had a lot going on with SEs.  Utterly smooth (extra care has the urea that has been recommended by Rock & others), it is at drugstore.com.

Sue:  I am glad that you posted your thoughts about all of this being surreal.  There are moments that I sit in disbelief that I have been diagnosed, etc.  I just had that conversation yesterday with a friend and after having expressed my disbelief out loud, assumed that I was still in denial.  It is reassuring to know that I am not the only one with these thoughts.

Otter:  I am an "almost A" . . . flat as a pancake.  My PS is doing reconstruction for an "A".  Both saline and silicone implants come as small as 100cc.  The challenge is that gravity has created a "slope" with my existing, so the reconstruct side will be a bit more full on top.  If the PS were to try to "match" the two - adding implant to the non-bc breast, it would push me up to a small B (100cc + existing tissue). 

Roxi, Rock, Eddie & Sable - wishing you well as you head to treatment this week.  Hoping that I did not miss anyone.  Jean

Randie~ ROFLMAO! nude therapist ONLY if david beckham does it. But I'd want him in his armani undies ... so I guess that doesn't qualify as nude does it? I wonder if Johnny Depp is available????? "Oh no the lymphdema massage is on  the side WITH the boob... not the side without"

eyes,

great to see you again! Where have you been?

glad your pet scans are okay...sorry for the dog. ass. tiredness.

you most assuredly are not the only weepy one.  I think that's all that makes it bearable, is knowing we are not alone.

I love you too.

Sue 

Ugh! Ok I officially HATE steroids!!!!!!!!!! I felt awesome this morning, maybe just a tad jittery. ( I am taking 2 in the morning with breakfast and 2 with dinner) I got up and cleaned the bathroom and did a load of laundry and it hit me....... All over weakness and dizzy kinda spell and I don't like it. It's let up a tad but I still feel weak. I wonder if I just overdid cleaning a bit and sucking up fumes.

Are we there yet?

Eddie.... they changed my time to 1030 am et... when is yours?

Hand gesture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kristy I can't wait to toss out ALL these flippin pills!

Noelle,

I am a huge Dr. Sears fan. I won't tell you how long I nursed my boys but most people would flip out. We did family bed and we wore our children and we still believe it worked best for our family. I did cut back on pills along the way and hope to continue. I have a fridge full of viacon (one bottle...never touched) and oxycodin (one bottle, never touched), xanex (took one before the biopsy and one before the mastectomy) and a 15 year old so I really need to clear all that out until a high school friend comes over and tells my kid how much money he could make on the street if he sold it all (or, they just might pop them themselves although I can't imagine that.) 

Sable, 10 AM for me. I will be thinking about you I promise...and playing mah jong...we're bringing a card table to chemo. I am supposed to take my steroids all at once tonight and all at once tomorrow morning. Ay carramba. Maybe having that week off fr shingles will help.

I better go check those steroids right now.  

Penny Simkin lives in Seattle. I got to play the role of a doula once (not a real one, but I had the best time...go for it. 

Eddie, I nursed Luke until he quit at 4 1/2 , and I have many friends that went longer.

I am single parent, so having a kid in my bed is no big deal. But, let me tell you dating with an extended nurser and a family bed is a curious thing. No, my kid did not sleep in my bed if I had a man over. There is nothing like being on a second date with a man who has no kids and thinks they should lecture you on how you are making bad parenting choices. NEXT!

 Rock,glad tx was ok today. Cannot recall who else went today... Chemooooo!

I am off to an early bed to try and get ahead of the exhaustion from the cannot fall asleep until 3am/night sweats ordeal.

  Chemooo! everyone.

 Noelle  

Okay ladies, took 20 grams of dexa whatever they are called. Sable scared me as she tok steroids all day, but I checked the lable and...no, it's five tonigh and five before chemo tomorrow. I am currently flying high and will share two experiences because I can. It's up to you if you read. Number 1: My ears are burning in the best way. The back of my head ... kind of between my ears is partying. Which leads me to number 2.

When I was 19 (there is really a much better and deeper story here but I will NOT go into it now but suffice it to say that I was a virgin but thought I had herpes and, yes, when I am not steroided I will share the story either on this thread or on a private one if you wish cause it is funny but back tot he main story). I was 19 and had gotten myself into poison ivy. I was allergic to it and the inside of my body was suffering as well as the out. I was placed on a major regiment or is that regimen of 12 steroids a day for 10 days (and don't stop even if it goes away). I spaced out my six in the morning one day (hey, I was 19. I forgot) so at night I took 12. (Did I mention I was 19 and stupid?). Immediately, I felt odd. I begged out of the program (I was at a college camp) and went to my cottage where I rested. Jerry Garcia came in t my cottage and sat at the foot of my bed. I must be hallucinating, I thought. I had never done any drugs heavier than once in a while pot. I liked what I saw. He was playing Terrapan Station (sp? don't blame me...I just took five steroids) on the electric guitar and he sounded goooooooood. Then I thought, I must be hallucinating, but he seems so real. Then, I came up with a plan. If his amp is plugged in, I thought, this is real. Why? Because who would hallucinate in such detail that an amp would be plugged in, right? So I checked. And, guess what? It was plugged in. I KNEW I was no hallucinating. The next three nights, I took 12 steroids, but guess what? It never happened again. Go figure. So, tonight, when my ears started tingling, I thought, just go with it. Maybe Jerry will come back from the dead. Do you think? Herceptin tomorrow for me too...you too Sable? Then on to herceptin only? Rock does have pretty eyes.

I hope, ROck, that your bams, dots and cracks bring you luck at the mah jong table. Good night dear women. May all of your rock stars visit you in your dreams tonight. 

I think the hives is a "me-specific" thang. I've always been "hive-y."  The inside of my elbow has always had some hives on the infusion arm ever since I started chemo. And I've got these not itchy isolated hives/bumps on my legs.  Nope, not bed bugs. I've been checking and checking and checking my mattress.  And there aren't any on other exposed surfaces.   Any thoughts, sisters?

Oh, and did I mention I'm now anemic!  Yep, a blood transfusion may be in my not-so-distant future. Do any of you have experience with this?

I gotta say, though, I feel really really good. I'm happy, my energy is good and I don't think it's just the steroids (I type this at 2 am, admittedly).   Eddie -- I read your whole post and was certain the whole time that you DID meet Jerry Garcia.  I hung out with Perry Henzell ("The Harder They Come") in Jamaica; he was a friend of Bob Marley). My friends toked with him, but not me. (I really hate cottonmouth and okay, I was a bit uptight.)

Sable and Eddie--  My eyes are largely courtesy of Stila eyeshadow and some GOOD 20-somethings who showed me how to wear eye makeup for the first time in my life.  I even bought their eyebrow stuff.  Did YOU know that you can put the lighter shade on the space that used to be eyebrows  nearest your nose (where mine are MIA) and the darker stuff everywhere else and it looks pretty darned convincing?  Yeah, the lighter shade makes it look a lot less fake on me. 

Meanwhile, I was over her thinking, "Boy, I wish I had Sable's teeth." (I love your expression, btw.  I just do.)

Just caught up with yesterday's posts. Anemia huh? My counts have been borderline but always have been. Is this new for you since treatment? My mom was slightly anemic and had B12 shots regularly to help maintain her red (?) count. Treatment was long but uneventful. My appointment on the other hand was filled quite a different story. My Onc has decided I need genetic testing. They wrote a referral and I'm calling today. It sounds like if I'm positive, they would recommend the whole shabang-  left mast and ovaries out. Christ, another surgery....so much for looking into the swap. Sounds like that would be put on the burner. Rads, well he said since I only had 2 positive nodes and a tumor that was only 1.7cm, I'm not a typically candidate but the rad onc will talk to me about that. He said basically if 40 women had rads, only 1 would benfit. Would that 1 be me? I can't absorb all this right now. Last night after treatment my daughter tryed out for the Milwaukee Bucks dance team. We were there all night. She had a great time but didn't make the cut, needless to say, I had major diarehha (TMI) and only 3 hours of sleep. Awaiting the bone pain. What's this gluata stuff at GNC for bone pain? Anybody know?  Looks like a pretty crappy day ahead of me. Oh well, life goes on.

Linda, how many more treatments, maybe the brows will hang on a little longer. 

Good luck to all our friends with tx today. Here's to minimal se's. 

*I've got nerves that jiggle hangle jiggle,

as I go not so merrily along"

~valium~check

~numby stuff that doesn't work real well~check

~breakfast~ in the works

~hair.... oh ya what hair?

I am working on good vibes today for the treatment... I can feel eddie with me and I hope she can feel the ones I am sending her way. I keep telling myself it's only gonna be one jab this time. I;m considering iceing my shoulder as well on the way.

rock~ um thanks for the teeth comment, I'm always wishing I had somebody else's myself LOL... grass is always greener I guess. Was gonna do another white strip treatment not too long ago and glad I didn't.... gums and teeth are sensitive now and they hate my sonic tooth brush most days.

Rock star to visit me.... um have to be the lead singer from nickle back. Saw them in concert last summer and it rocked! Had 3rd row seats woohoo! "I don't know why I like him, I just do" <--- from an old 80's song. Never dated the badboy type growing up maybe that's part of the attraction..... dated a-holes a plenty though.

I thought it was weird that I was having go take the steroids the day before and you all took them at nite.... I'm going DD taxol, could that be the reason? So many questions......

Egads typo fairy has visited me like crazy this morning... I tried to get them all forgive me if I miss 1,2, or 50. I CAN spell honest.

Sable - Eddie and I are both DD Taxol as well.  I wonder if its a regional thing...we're both in Washington state.  Not sure why it would be a regional thing but hey...who knows.

On the bad boy/rock star thing...if I can't have Elton, I'd accept Keith Richards as an alternate.  Oh yeah.....