Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part II -GAGWTA!

[snappy]

I know she will be praying, Laura, she is very devout. But I really like the monkey business. I will share that one with her and my sister.

I had not heard about the loudness.

Is your husband still handling life pretty well?

I can't wait to pack. However, we will be helping Jen and her family move in to my MIL's house (where I son now lives) Saturday and traveling to Mandeville for a soccer game Sunday. So I guess I will really be packing on Monday, and we leave Tuesday!!!. At least it is just for the trwo of us. It does help that we have a fully packed owner's locker waiting for us. Which reminds me I need to check the inventory of what I left there, last May seems an eternity ago, although we left less than 4 months ago.

Well, time certainly flies when you are having fun.

Anybody ever heard of a 78 year old considering reconstruction?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

How is everyone doing tonight? I am a little under the weather with a head cold.

Laura, love the monkeys visual.

Friends of ours' son was involved in a horrific dog bite requiring surgery last night and last I heard, over 100 stitches.

 

[laurabelle]

Linda- How horrible. I can't even imagine, 100 stitches. How old is he?

Laurie- I chose to do reconstruction for pretty much the same reason as your mom... convenience.

I completely forgot to add to the monkeys playing the bongo drums... an annoying buzzing sound. Have any of you ever been to Hershey Park? They have a bee ride for little ones and they have a button that produces the exact same annoying buzz. There is a variety of banging as well. And you feel like you're inside a clothes dryer. It's a swell test for sure.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

How is everyone doing tonight? I am a little under the weather with a head cold.

Laura, love the monkeys visual.

Friends of ours' son was involved in a horrific dog bite requiring surgery last night and last I heard, over 100 stitches.

How awful! I hope he is OK!

Laurie - REALLY long story short, DS has a "blotch" in his brain where the fatty coating was stripped off of the brain cells. Acute disseminating encephalo myelitis. He had 2 MRIs back when he was in 2nd grade. I was in the room with him both times, and yes, it was very loud! We both had ear plugs. They made him so cozy he fell asleep both times, but they were scanning his head, not his b**bies so the procedure may be very different. It took 20 minutes for his, and there were all sorts of noises, but he didn't seem particularly bothered by it.
Lots of good wishes for your mom!

I just talked to my mom. She has her second Taxol tomorrow. She sounds good. She saw the surgeon today to have her incision checked. It seems to be healing properly. She doesn't go back to the surgeon for 3 more months, and at that time they anticipate being able to take her port out.

 

[NaeNae]

I'm so sorry to read your news, Laurie. But as we know, DCIS is good news (well, compared to what it could be). While I agree that it's troubling that the mammogram didn't show the extent of the DCIS, it did alert them there was a problem. Even mammograms weeknesses seem to catch DCIS pretty early. I know my surgeon said that there was no way to know for sure the extent of the ducts involved. Any left COULD have cancer cells. Of course if they keep watching they'll catch them on another mammogram. Maybe the MRI is the way to go to be more sure? It was never suggested for me...maybe because I chose mastectomy.

I'd also say you should go on with your trip. You'll come back rested, refreshed and ready to help your mom. I'm guessing they won't schedule the surgery that quickly or if they could, putting it off a few days won't make much difference.

My DD was invited to a dinner for National Merit semi-finalists at the University of Oklahoma last night. It was a small, intimate dinner and we enjoyed it. The school rep that sat at our table was a young who is a sophomore at OU. He seemed like a great kid. He's a National Merit Scholar and we had a good time talking to him. He's from Louisiana, and that made me think of Laurie. I asked what town and he told me he's from Baton Rouge. Small world.

Hi, I'm a fellow Sooner too. Are you doing Race for the Cure on Oct 4th? I'll be there wearing my Tink Pink shirt. We're doing the fun walk.

I had a mastectomy too and my onc has never mentioned a MRI. I still have to go for yearly mammograms even tho I've had both breasts removed and reconstructed. I never thought I'd have to keep getting them after the surgery.

 

[snappy]

Hi, I'm a fellow Sooner too. Are you doing Race for the Cure on Oct 4th? I'll be there wearing my Tink Pink shirt. We're doing the fun walk.

I had a mastectomy too and my onc has never mentioned a MRI. I still have to go for yearly mammograms even tho I've had both breasts removed and reconstructed. I never thought I'd have to keep getting them after the surgery.

Precious grandchildren by your signature, adorable.

Glad you joined us, it looks like you just joined the DIS. Welcome!!!

Share your story if you feel comfortable.

I am doing the rRFTC, but in Orlando!! Yes!!!

Best aspect: I am going to join up with some others from our thread here, one that I met in May, yes Sha, and her mom, hopefully, and, yippee!! additional ones for the first time, like Ann and several of her sisters and a friend, and I think Maureen as well (?)

Mom's surgery in on the schedule no, Monday, Oct 13. After a very frank discussion from my wonderful plastic surgeon, he is going to place an expander. She may never do the exchange or the lift on the other side. We are doing it simple, and see what happens. She is in extremely good shape for her age of 78, only takes Lipitor and Fosamex. She is worried about dealing with the prothesis in our climate and as active as she is. She wants to SWIM without a prothesis. It won't be a cosmetic wonder, but will achieve her goal I think.

I am nervous that I am pushing her towards reconstruction. I was glad the breast surgeon brought it up and that we could get an appointment with the P.S. so quickly.

My brother from New York is going to come in for a week to help. What do you think, I believe it would be more helpful for him to come in the day AFTER she gets home, so Wed, Oct 15.

MRI today, I am hoping we don't have further issues. Does anyone know how quickly MRI results come in?

On a different topic, the debris guys got a lot of our trees and branches up out of the yard yesterday. The grass is pretty damaged, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Sounds like they are back started again today. I was actually jumping up and down yesterday when I heard the trucks , etc., beep beep.

OMG, I just saw a guy out in OUR yard, raking stuff in a pile, I guess for the scooper vehicle to get. I am in shock, somebody pinch me, will ya? Oh no, now he is in the ditch picking stuff up, this must be a dream to help compensate for the tornado nightmare.
My opinion of the debris patrol just did a major about face.

Thanks, Sha for my pumpkin, it sure took me a while to get to adding it to my signature (about a month).

I have procrastinated on a lot of things, you should see my house. Thankfully, the lady who cleans my house every two weeks, the esteemed and much appreciated Miss Gloria is coming today. I hope she does not run screaming in the other direction when she sees the state of things, same concern I had the first day she cleaned for me and as I am sure I posted here. I did warn her last night, told her to pack her mask and hip boots.

Laurie

 

[Pea-n-Me]

The MRI is read generally that day or the next, depending on what time it's done. Results are usually read (and signed off on, per policy) by two radiologists, so that takes a little time. Then results have to get to your doctor and reviewed by him or her. (I've gotten them myself the next day as I can look them up at work.) It doesn't hurt to leave a message for your doc that you're waiting, that way he or she can look them up to see if they're there before they leave work for the day.

The child with the dog bite is a year older than my kids, around 12. He is home now and apparently doing ok. What a difficult situation for everyone involved.

 

[laurabelle]

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

NaeNae- I'm not sure what type of reconstruction you have. I have bilateral silicone implants and 4yrs ago my onc said the new follow up procedure for my reconstruction was annual breast MRI. Up to that point it was only clinical and self breast exam, no mamms. I didn't have one the first year it was recommended because I just had my implants swapped out for cohesive silicone gel implants and she said I could wait until the following year.

Laurie- I hope things went well yesterday with your mom.

My onc appt. went ok. My MRI was not back, so she has to track it down. She said sometimes it takes a while. My Dexa scan showed that I have osteopenia. I'm going to try the once a month Boniva, but may end up getting infusions of something else (can't think of the name of it) because the Actonel was starting to affect my upper GI at one point. My calcium is high too. I have a bunch more blood work she wants to do. I have not been taking my calcium recently, so it can't be from that. I may be Vit. D deficient, thyroid, who the heck knows. I'm trying not to bleed before I'm shot. Then after I got home my primary called to say my bloodwork from last month showed my non fasting blood glucose was way too high. I had gestational diabetes with my pregnancies and of course all the steroids can raise it. I'm hoping when I do the fasting test it will be normal since I've been off the steroids for about 6 weeks now.

Whew. When it rains it pours...literally, it's pouring here today.

Which makes it the perfect day to go to Disney World!!!

See ya real soon pals!

 

[lookingforward]

Hi everyone. Well....I scheduled my plastic surgery for Oct. 22. I am so nervous. He will switch out my expander (THANK GOD!) and they will do a skin sparing on the other side with a hopefully immediate implant. One or two nights in the hospital. One thing that surprised me...they will be doing another sentinal node biopsy on the good side. The surgeon explained that about 5 to 10 percent of the time they find a second cancer in the "good" side and if they do find that on pathology they can't go back and do a sentinal. SO they do it then and if it is negative they won't have to do an axillary dissection if they find a small cancer or DCIS in the good breast.. I am not thrilled. I have been reading studies and it is about 50/50 for and against sentinal node biopsies for the good side. What do you all think?

GAGWTA!

 

[snappy]

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

NaeNae- I'm not sure what type of reconstruction you have. I have bilateral silicone implants and 4yrs ago my onc said the new follow up procedure for my reconstruction was annual breast MRI. Up to that point it was only clinical and self breast exam, no mamms. I didn't have one the first year it was recommended because I just had my implants swapped out for cohesive silicone gel implants and she said I could wait until the following year.

Laurie- I hope things went well yesterday with your mom.

My onc appt. went ok. My MRI was not back, so she has to track it down. She said sometimes it takes a while. My Dexa scan showed that I have osteopenia. I'm going to try the once a month Boniva, but may end up getting infusions of something else (can't think of the name of it) because the Actonel was starting to affect my upper GI at one point. My calcium is high too. I have a bunch more blood work she wants to do. I have not been taking my calcium recently, so it can't be from that. I may be Vit. D deficient, thyroid, who the heck knows. I'm trying not to bleed before I'm shot. Then after I got home my primary called to say my bloodwork from last month showed my non fasting blood glucose was way too high. I had gestational diabetes with my pregnancies and of course all the steroids can raise it. I'm hoping when I do the fasting test it will be normal since I've been off the steroids for about 6 weeks now.

Whew. When it rains it pours...literally, it's pouring here today.

Which makes it the perfect day to go to Disney World!!!

See ya real soon pals!

Have a fabulous trip, Laura!! Sorry there are so many open questions from your visit. It does dound like you are in good hands and that they wll not leave any stone unturned. I know YOU know how to relax at WDW.

Hold down the place for me, I am coming Tuesday, be there a bit after 2 pm if things stay calm around here. Aren't you coming back that day?

I hope all four of have a memorable meal for your DH's birthday at Cali Grill. Leave a little sushi for me.

Laurie

 

[snappy]

GAGWTA, Ladies!

Ann - I am sorry to hear about your friend. The pink fire truck is very nifty!

Laurie - I have tornado dreams, too, but I have never been swept up in any of them! I will be thinking of you today!

I hope everyone else is doing well!

DS plays drums in the school band. Tonight is their first performance at a football game. Hopefully that will go well. His band director lacks basic communication skills so I never know how much info we are missing.

How was the playing at the football experience for all of you?

 

[snappy]

Laurie- I was thinking that she may have had dirty margins and yes, it may be latent and more extensive. They would want to double check with MRI and include the other breast. Yes, again, MRIs are not for everyone, they do show everything! I'm not surprised with the recommendation of mastectomy either. Did the surgeon mention if it is ER/PR +?
I'm so glad you talked about the trip and it was okayed! I hope you can enjoy it.

Linda- What a coincidence, poor guy. Hubby still has one more day with his dressing on. I'm interested to see what it looks like.

((((Ann))))) I meant to write earlier that I'm sorry for your loss...

The ER/PR testing was not back when we got the first path report. I need to make a note to ask the surgeon about this.

Thanks

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Wow, Maureen, that is interesting! I think, if it were me, going just by what you've said, I'd go ahead with it. If they just take out the one node and that's it, with no cancer, it's not a big deal and you're good to go. If, however, they were to find a second cancer, well, that's huge, and well worth the effort I'd say, even if they have to take out more nodes. Cause imagine, if you weren't having the procedure, you'd never have known. With that said, though, I highly doubt they'll actually find anything, especially if you've been doing MRIs and they're ok. Good luck with this, and please let us know what you decide.

Laura It does rain when it pours. You are in good hands and I'm sure they'll sort it all out for you. Have a wonderful trip. I so wish I was going. Last night we watched video from our second trip in 2002 (kids idea) and we all had such yearnings to go. It was amazing how much they've grown up, too, they were only 4yo, it was hysterical. Mental note to self: remember to keep doing video.

Laurie, you are doing a fantastic job supporting your Mom. I wish you a wonderful trip also.

I got word yesterday that my cousin had a massive stroke on Tuesday and is being taken off life support. He was named after my father, and his sister is the cousin that had BC the same time I did. This has been a rough year on both sides of our families. We also got word of a suicide on DH's side, the spouse of a cousin. I told my kids last night about my cousin and on reflection, they said, "So does this mean we have to go to another funeral?" (Our 4th since April.) He is only 53.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Forgot to say...

Today DH and I have been married 21 years.

And tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the day I found my lump. (Hmm, for the first time ever I do believe I'm stumped as to what smilie to put in here. I guess I like this one, LOL.)

 

[snappy]

Happy anniversary, Linda!!

Any special plans?

Five years, YAY!! Yay for the 5 years part, not for the lump.

Maureen, my mom's surgeon told us she never does a mastectomy without doing sentinel node. Once the breast is gone, there is no chance for a sentinel, so I think it is conservative worst case scenario planning. I don't know if she also meant prophalactic mastectomies, but I would not be surprised. I am going to ask her when I get to talk to her.

Good for you for reading the studies. It is always good to be as informed as possible. It might not change your course of treatment, but it can help you feel comfortable with that course of action. I have said before, knowledge is power, uncertainty sucks!!

 

[Sha]

I hope that child recovers okay and that there is some help for the effects when around dogs.

Laurie, glad you got the pumpkin working looking forward to seeing you at some point over the weekend next week and any others!!!!

Linda, prayers for the two cousin's families and for the rest of your family too. Am sure that it isnt easy to go. If there could be a better side to going to the funerals, as in celebrating the life of the person lost to us here, then maybe it can be that we realize more and more, how valuable our time here is, how precious it is, and try to make it special for those we share it with. I think after my car accident 3 years ago, I started to pay attention to what I wanted to see and accomplish. I even did the bucket list. Always subjected to have more things added to it.

And Linda Happy Anniversary!

 

[snappy]

Hey, everybody who is going to the RFTC in Orlando, please pm me with your cell number and I will send mine.

We need to get together for the race.

 

[Sha]

Hey, everybody who is going to the RFTC in Orlando, please pm me with your cell number and I will send mine.

We need to get together for the race.

Already did and its a great idea!! Does anyone want to meet up on Saturday? Mom and I are going around F&W, not sure where we will be that evening... as I would love to see MK fireworks, but will probably see Illuminations Or maybe meet up Friday night? We are staying at OKW.

 

[Sha]

I have mom registered for the RFTC as a Proud in the Crowd member. I was going to surprise her with it, and still will I guess, but she will see it in her email. So not as much of surprise as I was wanting. Going to scrapbook tomorrow for BC at a local place... still got to get all that together. 10am-midnight... not sure I will stay that late or not.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Hi everyone. Well....I scheduled my plastic surgery for Oct. 22. I am so nervous. He will switch out my expander (THANK GOD!) and they will do a skin sparing on the other side with a hopefully immediate implant. One or two nights in the hospital. One thing that surprised me...they will be doing another sentinal node biopsy on the good side. The surgeon explained that about 5 to 10 percent of the time they find a second cancer in the "good" side and if they do find that on pathology they can't go back and do a sentinal. SO they do it then and if it is negative they won't have to do an axillary dissection if they find a small cancer or DCIS in the good breast.. I am not thrilled. I have been reading studies and it is about 50/50 for and against sentinal node biopsies for the good side. What do you all think?

GAGWTA!

Again, I don't have any sage advice, but I hope it goes well.

Have a fabulous trip, Laura!! Sorry there are so many open questions from your visit. It does dound like you are in good hands and that they wll not leave any stone unturned. I know YOU know how to relax at WDW.

Hold down the place for me, I am coming Tuesday, be there a bit after 2 pm if things stay calm around here. Aren't you coming back that day?

I hope all four of have a memorable meal for your DH's birthday at Cali Grill. Leave a little sushi for me.

Laurie

Laura, I hope you have a wonderful time and that you and DH can relax! Hopefully all of your results will be back soon and everything will be fine!

How was the playing at the football experience for all of you?

Eh. The band director was out sick, the kids hardly know any songs (It's just the 5th week of school!), there were very few spectators. DH and I went to the second game (the 7th graders play first, then the 8th graders). At halftime the asst. band director said the band kids could leave, so off they went! It was fine. They just have one more (I think) that they are required to attend.

Forgot to say...

Today DH and I have been married 21 years.

And tomorrow is the 5th anniversary of the day I found my lump. (Hmm, for the first time ever I do believe I'm stumped as to what smilie to put in here. I guess I like this one, LOL.)

So sorry to hear about your cousin and DH's cousin!
Happy Anniversary! Are you guys doing something fun?
What does one say to a survivor on the anniversary of lump discovery? How about: I'm so glad you are here! Good wishes for the future!

Mom made it through her 2nd Taxol yesterday. She was feeling kind of achy so her onc said they will cut back her Benedryl next time. Not sure what one has to do with the other, but whatever.

Have any of you heard about the Halo (HALO?) test? They extract fluid from the breasts with a thing like a breast pump and look for cancer cells in the fluid. Supposedly it detects abnormal cells EIGHT YEARS sooner than a mammogram. It also supposedly only costs $75. Not sure how it is different than ductal levage, or if one is better than the other. I am going to look into it. I am going to a new GYN in a few weeks so we'll see what she has to say. Of course I may go have the test regardless of what she has to say.