Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part II -GAGWTA!

[snappy]

You sure will make it through, Dawn. Good luck tomorrow. You will be in my prayers all day.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Eel ! DH and I will pass on the Snake in the Grass, thanks.

jsg, sounds like some progress!

Dawn, you're in my thoughts and prayers tomorrow.

Love the poop sandwich, Laura.

OK, now I need you ladies to help out with something. Please, the young couple I mentioned above needs your prayers tonight and over the next few days. I just left them. Thank you.

 

[NHAnn]

Dawn--we will be with you in spirit tomorrow morning, for sure!! And you are right, you WILL make it through this

Maureen-- my support group facilitator often refers to the cancer excperience as a "journey" as well....the way some people refer to life itself as a journey with pitfalls and peaks, highs and lows. SHE'S the one I sometimes want to smack upside the head and say "what do you know?" Sometimes things like that rub me the wrong way, randomly, depending on my mood. And as the others have said, how you view it depends on where you are at personally, physically and emotionally, in terms of treatment. Like snappy, I do not attend my monthly support group as faithfully as I did the first year or two. What I like about my group though is that there are long time survivors and people currently in treatment and everything in between. Anyway, I guess that's a rambling way for me to say "hey, you feel what you feel, it might change, it might not, it's all OK"! Oh and my rad onc nurse was a survivor, she was a peach!! I did not have chemo, just surgery and rads,

jsgirl--good news about the tumor shrinking! I often wonder about your 16 yr old sister....if some of her "wanting her own way" is masking fear and anger and all the other emotional turmoil that comes with a teenager facing a parent's serious illness? My DD was a bit older, 18+ when I was Dx'd, but did display some occasional behaviors that summer that came across as self-centered and insensitive but were really manifestations of insecurity, fear, loss, looking below the surface.

snappy....I LOVE the pics!! You all look so happy, you can tell it was a great family trip!! DD and her BF are a very cute couple.

I am getting excited with the RFTC talk. DSis and I are still planning on doing it, tenative dates 10/2-10/6....I am really looking forward to meeting snappy and whoever else is going to be there during that time!!!

Avery seems to have passed his kidney stone(s) with the help of meds and fluids. The Make A Wish people are coming to their house Wed night to give them more details on their Saturday departure DH and I go Friday and come back Tuesday, so we will have a couple of full days to hopefully share the magic with them.

GAGWTA!!!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Waiting stinks but at least you now know the tumor is shrinking. Good news that a lumpectomy might suffice, especially considering she will also be having the Gyn surgery. I hope it turns out that way.

Do you have any influence over your 16 yo sister? Maybe someone needs to have an unemotional heart to heart with her. Maybe someone a bit removed would be preferable, neighbor, minister, etc.

My sister doesn't listen to me becasue she doesn't have to. I'm not the boss of her and all that sort of thing. I have badgered my mother endlessly about getting counseling (for my sister AND for herself!) but no dice. They both still have issues they haven't dealt with in regards to my father's death, so they could really use counseling for that and for the cancer. My aunt and my cousin have tried to talk to her but she refuses to listen to any of us. My sister knows she can talk Mom into doing whatever she wants, so that's the plan she's going to stick with.

You sure will make it through, Dawn. Good luck tomorrow. You will be in my prayers all day.

Lots of good thoughts coming your way, Dawn!!

Linda - Good thoughts for Wendy and her family! And also for you, because you have had a lot to deal with lately!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Ann - She has quite the track record of being selfish, but she also has quite a track record of insecurity and loss. Father was an alcoholic, he moved out so Mom filed for divorce. Mom lost her house. They lived in an affluent area where the kids were very privileged, and my sister felt like she had to be privileged, too. Mom was a SAHM for decades, she had no job skills, and then she was faced with raising a teenager by herself. She moved to Kansas 2 years ago to try to pull things together - her sister lives up there. Father died from cirrhosis like a week after she moved. She has a P/T job as a lunch lady during the school year but their finances are very tight. She tends to give in when my sister demands things, even when they can't afford it. Their relationship is not healthy - my sister manipulates her and she gives in because she doesn't have the energy to argue. And neither one of them will listen to a word I say, so I am forced to watch them self-destruct. Probably more info than you needed! It's a mess.

Good news for Avery! How exciting to be leaving in a few days! I hope you all have a wonderful time!

 

[laurabelle]

~~~***GAGWTA sistas***~~~

Dawn- You are well prepared sista! I hope and pray you kick some big ole bc butt today!!!
YOU ARE A SURVIVOR!!!

Ann- I'm so glad Avery is doing well and the magical trip is on! Enjoy every minute of it sista! I'm sorry I'll miss you at the RFTC. I wish we could stay longer...

Linda- I did read what you wrote about the sudden passing of this man. I'm sorry I forgot to post my sympathy yesterday. Do they know what happened? I am praying for his family...

BTW- The first time I ate eel was the Snake in the Grass roll...I liked it. But if you like only the shrimp tempura I'm sure the chef could leave off the eel.

Laurie- Sounds wonderful! I'm trying to sort it all out now before I leave next week. I do think we'll plan on arriving Sat. 9/27 since the kids have school on the 26th, hopefully they will get any homework done that night and not have to take it with them! We can take the first flight out, it's about 2hrs so we'll get in early. I ran more numbers and Pop costs $130 less than CSR for 3 nights. I may have hubby talked into staying there instead. I hope it's available!

jackskellingtonsgirl- That's great news about your mom's tumor shrinking!!! I think sending your younger sister away so your mom can heal sounds like the best plan. Maybe your sister will learn a lesson in this, maybe not. I for one would not have had the energy to deal with other people's issues during treatment, your mom sure doesn't need it. I hope she gets on the surgical schedule soon.

BTW- I got my Disney Visa statement and my AP DDP package DID qualify for the 0% 6 months! It looks like about $40 was not part of it. I put all my prescriptions on there and pay it every month. I'm sure if I called Chase they would say I overpaid by that amount. Whatever. I will use another card for my drugs instead and I'm sticking that money in my ING account until it's due in Nov. Ha!

lookingforward- Glad it made you laugh! Mylette was really a special person. She was the first in my online group of young survivors to die, no easy way to say that. Even though she lived in MI I did get to see her a few times in person, at our first SIS meet and later when she came to NIH a couple of times for experimental treatment. I attended her funeral in Ohio with 2 other sistas and we were the only ones to eulogize her, it was pretty intense. She was only 32yrs old and left behind a young husband and a little boy. I love and miss her but I am able to look back on the wonderful, fun, silly times we had together too.

I guess some would say cancer brings us together...I don't know about that. I think in spite of cancer, we live and love... and really, that is the cure!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Laura - I think you are right - sending my sister to the other sister would probably be good. She lives about 150 miles from me so we could take turns if we needed to. Mom has her sister and several nieces who can help her with her post-op stuff, the biggest issue is my sister.
Very cool about the DxDDP on your Disney Visa! I think I am going to cash a 0% balance transfer check before we leave to pay for ours (since it is part of a DVC room we pay at check-in). I am afraid if I use the card to pay at the hotel that it will all go through as regular purchases. Our DVC down payment and closing costs went through as 0%, but then I owed $40 more on a room deposit (because I switched weeks and lost my AAA rate ) and that has interest on it. It's rather confusing!

What a wonderful friend Mylette was! It is hard to lose someone like that, but the time you spent with her sounds like it was very special.

 

[snappy]

Linda, that couple is in my prayers as well today. They are blessed to have you caring for them.

Ann, we definitely need to meet up for the RFTC. I'll be by my lonesome by the 5th, I don't think I can talk my mom into going this year. She is preoccupied with helping my brother in Costa Rica set up a restaurant. It goes well one day and craters the next. What a roller coaster!!! He must be manic depressive, and mom seems to be on that ride with him. At least my sister and brother from New York, along with me are trying to support mom.
Wierd thing is. . . he only communicates to mom. It makes us all unsettled,

Wow, both Laura and Ann have a trip coming up in June, then going back in Sept/Oct. I guess I just did that too, going in May and going back in Sept/Oct. And I think Laura also was there over Easter, am I right????? Ann, this trip with Avery will be special. I hope he continues to do well so the trip goes off as planned. That beautiful little family needs some pixie dust, heck they deserve it. I am glad there is make a wish around to help Disney supply the magic.

My co workers were hilarious yesterday. They said I looked like a different person, so relaxed, etc. They even said I looked like I had lost a lot of weight, NOT!!! It is not so bad now going back to work after a vacation, not like it was in my previous position with the Fortune 500 company where we knew when we went back to work after Christmas/New Years that we would be working 7 days, long days, through at least the month of January until earnings were released. It is nice to not have that hanging over my head.

I actually think these Disney trips are part of the solution. We only took one while I worked there, in 1994. I never felt like I could take the time off although I had a month coming to me. It was always some huge project or calamity waiting in the wings.

Can you believe we went from 1994 to 2002 before another WDW trip???

Never again!!!!

 

[Sha]

morning everyone!

Miss Kitty is laying sort of on my laptop with her head.... trying to stay near my fhand... so sorry for typos. Just wanted to say hi and talk to you here and there as I am heading to Virginia and then to Germany.

Snappy, PM your address please???

hugs to everyone!

 

[DeeCeeSW]

GAGTWA Sistas! Thank you SO much for your thoughts and prayers today!

I made it thorough my first infusion! I was only slightly nervous about it. There was a bit of crying at first bc it's still so hard to believe that this is all really happening. You would think after removing both breasts it would have hit home, but it's taken the chemo to do it.

The nurses were wonderful today. I am on Taxotere and Cytoxan, The T was fine but the C caused some congestion and weirdness. I have been drinking water nonstop to get the stuff out of my system. Apparently, you don't want Cytoxan sitting around in the body too long. I am feeling some very mild nausea. which is interesting, since I had loads of stuff put in my IV and also took a Zofran at 6pm. However, I don't feel like vomiting, which is good.

I go back in for my Neulasta shot tomorrow, so if I am still feeling this way, I will ask to have something stronger for the nausea. Should I ask for Emend or Compazine? Which do you all prefer?

Speaking of the Neulasta shot, I will have it in my belly, as I hear that it tends to be less painful and some say that they feel less bone pain afterwards compared to when they have the shot in the arm. Someone suggested that I take an Aleve 15 mins. prior to the shot and then for 2-3 days afterwards. I'll try it out and see how it works.

I can't believe that I will more than likely be losing my hair in about 2 weeks time. I am going to ask my wig person to shave it all off the weekend of Father's Day as DS's last day of school is on June 18th and I am concerned about clumps of my hair falling out while I'm there dropping him off and picking him up. It's all going to come out anyway, so I might as well do it. I have a few hats (some nice and some for sleeping), some scarves and the wig.

I don't know what the next few days will bring, but I hope that it doesn't get too bad. As I said earlier, I have all the "stuff" lined up to help with the side effects. We shall see.....

Love to all!

Dawn

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Dawn Sounds like you did great. I like zofran the best.

 

[DeeCeeSW]

Dawn Sounds like you did great. I like zofran the best.

I took a Zofran at 6pm. and it worked well for a while but after three hours I started to feel a little "eh" again (it's supposed to last for up to 6 hours). I am staying up late tonight despite being tired so that I can take another before going to bed. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe it just needs a little while to kick in? The staff told me from the get go that nausea and vomiting "should not be tolerated in this day and age" with all the drugs available. If I should still feel queasy, they will probably give me the Emend.

 

[laurabelle]

~~~***GAGWTA sistas***~~~

Dawn- What your nurses said is right, so be vocal and let them know if it's not completely working and you're feeling just a little queasy. Even when you are feeling ok, keep taking the meds. It's much easier to stay on top of nausea (or pain for that matter) than to try to get it under control. Keep drinking lots and try to keep eating small amounts. Having a little something in your tummy can help. I shaved my head too. I felt like GI Jane...get your warrior on gurl!!!

Sha- Have a safe trip!

Laurie- I'm glad your trip left you with so much magic even your coworkers noticed! Yes, this trip and the one in Sept. will make 3 this year... Your fall plans sound great. Lots of time to stop and smell the roses! I hope your brother's restaurant venture goes well, for his sake as well and your mom.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I took a Zofran at 6pm. and it worked well for a while but after three hours I started to feel a little "eh" again (it's supposed to last for up to 6 hours). I am staying up late tonight despite being tired so that I can take another before going to bed. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe it just needs a little while to kick in? The staff told me from the get go that nausea and vomiting "should not be tolerated in this day and age" with all the drugs available. If I should still feel queasy, they will probably give me the Emend.

You may have to experiment to see what works best for you. I took a whole aresenal of meds on schedule and I was never able to completely eliminate that feeling (which us Italians call agita). It was rarely severe, just kind of always there. Let us know how you do.

 

[snappy]

Dawn, how are you feeling this morning?

Linda, how is the couple you asked us to pray for doing?

Another subject, I sure thought Ted Kennedy was brave going into his surgery awake. It sounds like that was the way to get the best results but I still admire him for it. Glad to read he was walking around yesterday. He is also in my prayers.

Softball is in full swing as is swim team, We are also doing a summer soccer league. Being out of town for 10 days prevented me from easing into the summer schedule.

Naj will have her spay surgery tomorrow. Any suggestions out there? Snappy was a bit older when she had hers and did fine other than constantly licking the surgical site,

We are hoping the surgery calms Naj a bit. She is making us for the 10 days in the kennel. What works best for her is lots of exercise. She also responds to commands very well even outside off leash to treats or kibble. She sure likes her treats, even likes the word "treat."

She looks nothing like she did back in March. I'll have to take a picture and post it. You would not even guess chow if you saw her. She is strong and appears to be continuing to grow. When does a dog reach its full size?

 

[violetshelby]

Hi DeeCee,
I finished chemo. on Feb. 28th. The Emend works great , I took that on the day of chemo. treatment and then for the next 2 days so for 3 days with each treatment. I also took both zofran and compazine as needed for several days after each treatment.

I was told to take a claritin-D after the Neulasta shot and then keep taking the claritin -D for the next 2-3 days after to keep the bone pain away. It really helped me. I forgot to do this after my first shot just because I just had so much stuff to remember ,and I was in a lot of pain that time. I remembered to take the claitin after every shot after that and never had that pain again.

Hoping you are doing well, Violet

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Thank you for asking about the couple, Laurie. I wish I could share the details with you because it's an amazing story, but I can't. Suffice it to say that they are still in need of prayers, very much so. So thanks to anyone who offers some.

Dogs usually do amazingly well with spay surgery, far better than humans do. Yes, just try to keep her activity level low, and keep an eye on the sutures and surgical site. Poor baby. Our friends are getting a puppy so we went to see the pups last night. Four week old Golden Retrivers and way too cute. We contemplate getting another dog someday but when we do DH has always wanted a Newfoundland and he's been good about me and my GSDs so that's what we'll do. I'd like to rescue one if possible, but it'll just have to be one that has a personality suitable for my furry princess - Queen B, really, in the dog world a very dominant female.

We've been busy with baseball season as well. Seems like most nights we're out with either practice, games, tryouts, etc. Fortunately I love baseball. DS was initially embarrassed, and then proud of ol Mom one night last week. I donned my glove to do some catching during practice, just like all the Dads do (I keep my glove in his bag). Not for nothin', but I was captain of my softball team in high school and can generally play pretty well even though I'm out of practice. So when the kids and Dads saw some catches and long throws I made to DS, they couldn't believe it, LOL. The kids were like, "hey dude, your Mom can throw"; the Dads were like, "Wow!"; and one of the coaches said "If I ever put a team together I want her on 3rd base!" So I guess now it's ok for me to play sometimes (guess I better enjoy that while it lasts).

Have a good day, everyone!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Dawn - More good thoughts for you! I hope you can keep the nausea at bay!

Linda - I am continuing to keep your friends in my thoughts!
I found an e-mail in my bulk folder yesterday advising me that my purchase was ready for pick up at WalMart. I don't shop at WalMart. I read a bit further. It was a lens for an Olympus. DH thought he could skate it past me and I wouldn't notice. He is hugely busted. I told him that will be his Father's Day present.

Today is the last day of school. In 3 hours DS will be a 7th grader! We are all so ready for a break.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I found an e-mail in my bulk folder yesterday advising me that my purchase was ready for pick up at WalMart. I don't shop at WalMart. I read a bit further. It was a lens for an Olympus. DH thought he could skate it past me and I wouldn't notice. He is hugely busted. I told him that will be his Father's Day present.

Which one did he get? Something really good, I hope. (Tell him I got the pancake.) I'm glad he's enjoying his Oly!

I am continuing to keep your friends in my thoughts!

Thank you so much.

 

[lookingforward]

I took a Zofran at 6pm. and it worked well for a while but after three hours I started to feel a little "eh" again (it's supposed to last for up to 6 hours). I am staying up late tonight despite being tired so that I can take another before going to bed. I'll see how I feel tomorrow. Maybe it just needs a little while to kick in? The staff told me from the get go that nausea and vomiting "should not be tolerated in this day and age" with all the drugs available. If I should still feel queasy, they will probably give me the Emend.

Sorry you are feeling icky. I kept taking the steroids even if I felt good the first day or two post chemo. I only got sick once in six treatments. Hang in there, I am thinking of you.