Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part III - GAGWTA!

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

GAGWTA, ladies!

We are expecting temps in the teens by the end of the week. It has been in the 30's and 40's this weekend and I am frozen solid. I haven't even been outside!! I don't do cold very well.

We are going to WDW June 4-19. We typically go in August but our APs are only valid until 8/1 this year so we decided to go as soon as DS gets out of school.

 

[CherylDan]

KJ, welcome! I had a bald head about 3 years ago, but I really didn't do anything special for it......other than keep it warm with soft stocking caps. I remember I hated the way it felt against my pillow for some reason, so I had a very thin, soft babylike cap I wore at night. Anyway, I was diagnosed Nov 2006, age 44, mastecomy, chemo, radiation & currently on Tamoxifen & doing just fine. And wow on those temps of 20 below!!!! We are *only* -8 tonight, I feel like such a sissy! LOL

LMP, I hope your doctor's visit goes smoothly.

Snappy, I've just got to ask about the squirrels - what happens when they eat the wires? Dont they get shocked? LOL, you'd think that would be enough for them to leave them alone! We also spent the weekend taking down Christmas.....the house always looks so empty right afterwards, I just love having it all decorated.

I have some very exciting news...LOL, well to me anyway! We are going to get another puppy! Another bichon, from the same breeder as Charlie (who will be one year old this month). We will be getting her on Jan 31and have decided to name her LuLu. I've been reading about introducing a new puppy to the "resident" dog, and I hope it all goes smoothly. Anybody have any helpful insight?

Our DD25 and her DH are currently in Austraila. Color me green with envy! That is one place I'd love to visit. Maybe she'll send me a nice postcard!

I have a follow up appt with the surgeon tomorrow.....expecting it to be a quick in & out visit.

GAGWTA!!!!

 

[honugirl]

Hey all! I'm still alive and kicking... sort of. I've kind of needed a rest break from medical stuff.

Hopefully my surgeon's office will call tomorrow (err, today depending on where you are) and set up my initial consult so that I can get down there and get surgery scheduled.

I'm going to do a liver panel tomorrow morning. I hope my levels come back OK, but I fear that they aren't going to. I need to make sure that the funky allergic reaction I'm having isn't from the ketoconazole fubarring up my liver... it tends to do that after awhile... This medication is what's keeping me somewhat functional and somewhat like a "normal" human being with energy. I'm really scared I'm going to have to go off of it because this reaction is happening when I increase the med. It's going to be 3-4 months before my actual surgery date, so I don't know what I'm going to do if I have to stop it.

I've been playing with my Wii. Man, I love that thing, except when my Wii Fit groans when I get on it...

Anyway, I guess I should head to bed.

Hugs for all. Hope you're doing well.

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

Thanks CherylDan for the welcome and the info on the bald head - appreciate it. I love your banner - "I fight like a girl".

My husband always thought I was a bit of a sissy because I get migraines - bad ones - but he doesn't get headaches so when I would be in bed with one he didn't understand the pain. But then he saw the technicians inserting large needles into my chest with no anesthesia and the poking and prodding a week after surgery (and I never took one pain pill). Now when I tell the nurse that the taxotere is causing pain in my back - he says "She means it - she can take a lot of pain - I've never seen someone so tough" -what a change in attitude. I too fight like a girl!! And now he knows it.

I hope for good news for everyone this week - and warmer weather.

 

[snappy]

Cheryl, don't follow our example, our 2 dog scenario is a disaster. But we have 2 females, one older dog, one very energetic younger dog, two completely different breeds.

I am betting Linda chimes in here, she has had multiples before.

I am amazed at some of your temps. We are whining down here and we are 42 here. We are sure not set up for colder weather in lots of ways, home construction, the roads, our clothes, so we are dreading forecasted teens this weekend. We'll be dragging in the potted plants I want to keep till next spring.

Good question about the squirrel shock. We actually mused on that issue. We turn the lights off during the day, and we don't know what squirrels do during the nights so we assume they are doing their payback chewing during the day when they are off.

I think they are low voltage anyway.

KJ, it sure sounds like your DH is squarely on your side now. I love the sound of that! I will never forget how my DH had a come to Jesus moment when I was working gangbusters after a total applecart turnover of staff years ago. He had been let go from his job and was working on his MBA and doing consulting but could make his schedule. This was when we had two and they were young. He became parent #1. He was astounded what all was entailed in juggling parenting with life. He did things differently and I think they ate a lot of pizza (I was eatting food brought in at work nightly so I did not really know what they ate). But it gave me a new found respect not to mention his continuing involvement in the future.

It was a stressful time in my life but it was probably one of the best things that could have happened. He can operate the vacuum cleaner much more efficiently than me to this day and has been known to wash clothes in big honking batches!

And I love my man with the ZZ top sunglasses!

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

Isn't it great when you see that little light bulb go on over their head and you just know things are going to be different?

DH never could cook and he always said that. Then one night I came home from work after a long 12 hour day and he had the day off and a full chicken dinner was awaiting me. Was I astounded. We lived in the middle of nowhere so it wasn't take out. He said he learned from watching me. But now he had lost that excuse! Laundry - only when I have to travel, and only his own . I think I'll keep him. After almost 27 years of marriage we're pretty set in our ways (we always joke that we are the only two that can stand each other anyway.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good afternoon ladies

Elizabeth - how is your friend in FL that just had the cancer surgery?? Our friend from Tx was here visiting and I just found out our other friends in TX will probably be getting a divorce, sigh, sigh. He is a pediatrician and she is a dentist.

Cheryl - Hooray for the new puppy!! Twice the fun!!

Lisa - Glad to see you back and hope the meds can get straightened out. Think of me sista, I am getting scoped tomm. How are your dogs and your horse?

Laurie - if only they made squirrel proof lights!! Hope your bro. stuff gets straightened out too.

KJ - I am so glad I am not so cold as you. I could not take that much cold, especially with not havig a thyroid to regulate my body temp. either. You will love the Yacht Club, we were just there dec. 9th -16th and I even swan, well floated around stormalong bay. I love the Poly but with all the monorail troubles I think we will stay at the Yacht club again. Glad your dh helps. I keep mine out of the kitchen. He is basically useless there . he was doing the shopping when I was sick with one of the ds. My grocery bills were astronomical and he would call me from every aisle!! He said he didnt want to make a mistake, guess he knows I would freak out about that as usual.

Well ds is sleeping now. It will be interesting when he has to get up and be with me at the drs. tomm. Rise and shine son I would like to go to disney but dont know when, probably before christmas again. And of course I probably should have done the bounceback, but there was nothing in the room and I dont really know what will be haopening then, hopefully we will have alot of airline miles to cash in if we can. We used to go may and dec. Ds is going to either cbr or por for his class trip in may. He will also volunteer at the orlando rescue mission too.

GTAGWTA. Have a great day

 

[CherylDan]

I don't think I ever posted a link to this song, but here is "Fight Like A Girl" by Bomshel:

http://www.cmt.com/videos/bomshel/393440/fight-like-a-girl.jhtml

The banner - I don't remember where that came from....copied it from somewhere. Anybody else who would like it, feel free to copy mine!

My DH has really stepped up his game lately.....not that he was lacking before BC, but I think it really made him appreciate our life together. We just celebrated our 28th last October. LOL, we were just babies when we married, 19 & 20! Gosh, that just sounds so rediculous now!

Laurie, sounds like it's time to declare war on those squirrels!

GAGWTA!!!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good late evening ladies

Well I survived the voice test. It was over 2 hours of waiting and ds was climbing the wall. They were really backed up and the nurses and dr. were profusely apologizing to me. Finally before the test they hooked me up to something I would consider like a dog collar around my neck with wires attached to a computer screen. I had to keep making sounds while the dr. had the scope down my throat all the way to the esophagus or at least to see it. By the end I about had it because I think the numbing agent was worn off because they waiited so long to do the test. It was getting real uncomfortable and I think he knew it. That was my worst scope experience so far. I toughed it out and didnt complain. Good news is he didnt see anything wrong!! Praise God. He thinks its a combo of effects from the surgery, acid reflux and not drinking enough fluids. He did say it could be something he couldnt see on this test though.

I did ask him in his other practice of 16 years did he ever see anyone with the rare variant I have of the cancer and he said...NO!! Oh I hate being rare!He said everything that is routine here at the university teaching hospital he would consider extyremely rare in his old practice but those things are just the common stuff here
He did say he took the time to read the note I wrote him and he thought it was really nice. He told me thank you very much and I am a great writer!!

We then went to ds game and they lost but it was fun to watch and a few of the faculty said hi to me.

Candy and Laura - just wanted to give a shout out to the both of you and hope you are o.k.

GTAGWTA.

 

[honugirl]

Good late evening ladies

Well I survived the voice test. It was over 2 hours of waiting and ds was climbing the wall. They were really backed up and the nurses and dr. were profusely apologizing to me. Finally before the test they hooked me up to something I would consider like a dog collar around my neck with wires attached to a computer screen. I had to keep making sounds while the dr. had the scope down my throat all the way to the esophagus or at least to see it. By the end I about had it because I think the numbing agent was worn off because they waiited so long to do the test. It was getting real uncomfortable and I think he knew it. That was my worst scope experience so far. I toughed it out and didnt complain. Good news is he didnt see anything wrong!! Praise God. He thinks its a combo of effects from the surgery, acid reflux and not drinking enough fluids. He did say it could be something he couldnt see on this test though.

I did ask him in his other practice of 16 years did he ever see anyone with the rare variant I have of the cancer and he said...NO!! Oh I hate being rare!He said everything that is routine here at the university teaching hospital he would consider extyremely rare in his old practice but those things are just the common stuff here
He did say he took the time to read the note I wrote him and he thought it was really nice. He told me thank you very much and I am a great writer!!

We then went to ds game and they lost but it was fun to watch and a few of the faculty said hi to me.

Candy and Laura - just wanted to give a shout out to the both of you and hope you are o.k.

GTAGWTA.

Hey LMP!

Glad to hear things went well.

It's weird to be rare. Good at times, annoying at others...

Back on the road again tomorrow. Not sure when I'll have good computer access again. It won't be until I get back up to my place.

It's going to be a week full of interesting stuff... I've got vision therapy on Thursday, the new Tyler Perry Madea play on Saturday, then HOPEFULLY... I can go home... God willing... I need some time to myself to sort out a lot of the feelings I'm having right now.

So I'm headed to S.F. (ugh) for January 29th to see the surgeon and get a surgery date. With any luck, I'm hoping to get down to D-Land for a few days for some R and R. I really want to go right before my surgery, but if it's when I think it's going to be, that's going to be a BAD time to go... I think surgery is going to be the end of March/beginning of April. Conveniently during spring breaks and Easter. NOT a good time to go to the land... Besides I probably shouldn't be sharing germs with that many people that close to such a dangerous surgery...

Very nervous and scared mixed with excitement that maybe I'll get my life back. I know my life is about to change drastically in 4 months and it's never going to be the same again.

I keep thinking about something someone said on one of the message boards that they have no adrenaline rush anymore after this surgery. What will Disney be like then? Will I even enjoy Tower of Terror or Rock n Rollercoaster anymore? If I don't get that rush, will I enjoy anything any more? I know it's stupid that in the back of my mind to contemplate letting nature take it's course and not do the surgery just because I don't want to lose what I love the most right now. But I've lost so much already... I don't want to lose any more...

Alright. I better stop being depressing and head to bed.

GAGWTA all. Hugs!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

GAGWTA, Ladies!!

Honu, I hope things go well!!

Laurie, my friend is doing great! I do think her emotions are a little unstable at times - not sure if that is the meds or if it is just the fallout from her having such a super stressful year. She really did go back to work 2 weeks post-op. Now she is going to start training to be a flight medic (in the medi-vac helicopter). Toughest girl I have ever known. She had previously mentioned doing radiation this month, but it hasn't come up again. I need to ask her about that.
Glad the voice test went OK!!
Sorry to hear your friends are divorcing. Several of my friends have been down that path lately, too.

Cheryl, good luck with the new pup!

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

I don't think I ever posted a link to this song, but here is "Fight Like A Girl" by Bomshel:

http://www.cmt.com/videos/bomshel/393440/fight-like-a-girl.jhtml

The banner - I don't remember where that came from....copied it from somewhere. Anybody else who would like it, feel free to copy mine!

My DH has really stepped up his game lately.....not that he was lacking before BC, but I think it really made him appreciate our life together. We just celebrated our 28th last October. LOL, we were just babies when we married, 19 & 20! Gosh, that just sounds so rediculous now!

Thanks for the info. Congrats on 28 years! What a wonderful accomplishment and to do it when you married so young - good for you . Here's to many, many more.

I hope everyone gets the best news possible as they go through the week and that if they are having treatments, the side effects are few.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good afternoon ladies

Lisa - YOU will still be YOU, just a little different you. I just say, well I am glad to be alive and just deal with the stuff like the voice, my seemingly non existent short term memoty lately etc. etc. Jan. 29th was my original surgery date, so I will pray your consult goes well., and going to DL would be great, but as you said, I bet super crowded!! I hope you can get there!!

Fl Lisa - how are your counts?? I hope they are better so you can do your treatment.

I forgot to add yest. that the dr. asked what I had about the radiation and following it up. He liked the blood tests every 3 months, and I know he said something about external beam radiation. I actually heard from the np that this might be an option in the future if the cells come back and get resistant to the radioactive iodine, oh what fun. But at least I know there is a Plan B if they have to ever use it. Also one of my favorite nurses cindy left to go back to school. I told nurse Ann I didnt care for the new nurse I had on the other side with the other surgeon in dec.

Its going to snow here again tomm. night, they are saying 3 inches, we will see. Hmm, where is the snowing smilie

GTAGWTA.

 

[NHAnn]

GAGWTA from the always-chilly-in-January northeast!

Welcome KJ!

I have a WDW trip coming up next month 9 nights for DH and I at the Dolphin, DD is joining us for 6 nights. Can't wait to get out of the cold!!

In the meantime, plugging along. I have annual mammo next week, annual checkup with surgeon a few days later. Annual physical with a new PCP at the end of the month. Our imaging center has finally converted to digital mammo, I know a lot of ladies getting callbacks as the digital apparently shows more/different and they are of course super cautious if you have a history...so I am sort of preparing myself that I'll get a callback and hope I'm pleasantly surprised if not.

Think of you all every day!!

 

[snappy]

Stay warm, MaryAnn and Ann!

9 nights at the Dolphin, way to go!

Not Mardi Gras Week, eh?

I think Mardi gras is about the 16 of February.

I wil be out of pocket for a few days as I found out yesterday I need some out patient surgery. I found a colon rectal surgeon and I was lucky to see him within 2 hours of calling. I am blessed! He is the senior partner and very well respected, actually did surgery on my mom during the midst of my reconstruction in 2006. There are only a couple of true specialists in this area in town and this group is the best.

It seems I have an abscess in an unmentionable place along with a fistula, a small tunnel that poses a problem, and will actually have to be surgically removed later once we get the infection cleared. I was trying to self treat as I thought it was something else, but I realized I was no match for the thing Tuesday night.

I am having loads of fun with word puns regarding this surgery. Use your imagination!

Anyway, I do not think I will be sitting at my desktop computer for awhile, and I am getting a reprieve from work (don't know who will be doing the bingo reporting, or a host of other things). I am trying not to think about it. I stayed and worked through the first payroll of the year and all the gremlins that were released in full force, got home at 8:30pm.

Trying to get ready. I used the link from Laura quite a while back for colonoscopy prep concerning eating light to make it easier. I figure that is the ultimate cleanse so I just went with it.

I am hoping the super light diet helps.

Just did not want y'all to wonder to where I had strayed. I realize this is already probably too much info but in case I am MIA for a while, I wanted y'all to know what is going on.

Wishing you all well and GAGWTA!!

I'll try and get DH to post when I am home but don't expect much. He is a man of few words and fewer emails.

 

[CherylDan]

Laurie, sorry to hear that you are having problems, but glad that you were able to get seen so quickly and get things rolling. Colon prep is no fun, done it a few times myself.....yes, eat light the day before, and only liquids the day of. When is the surgery scheduled?

Hi Ann....your upcoming trip sounds wonderful!

LMP, glad to hear that the doc didn't find anything wrong. sorry that it was so uncomfortable though.

Still cold here too, and about 6 inches of snow today. Blah. I know some people love the cold and snow, I just can't figure out why! Funny/gross thing happened today - Charlie went out to pee, but never made it off the deck. I guess with all the snow covering it, he figured it was the same as the yard. Probably a good idea to shovel our deck.

GAGWTA!!!!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Once again lost a post.

LOL, Cheryl. I've seen our dog do that in deep snow, too.

As Laurie mentioned, I did have a brother/sister pair of GSDs (now gone). They were also one year apart, and great dogs. We still miss them so much. They got along fabulously - I don't ever think there was a cross moment between them. Of course all dogs have unique personalities so you never going to know exactly how they'll get along, and in our cases (yours and mine), I'm not sure our dogs know they're related, but chances are since they're so young and going to grow up together, that they'll be just fine. I take it things are going quite well with your dog now. (The biggest issue, I think, was how expensive it got when they became elderly. ) But I wouldn't change a thing. Let me know if I can be of any help with info, etc.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Laurie, if you need me to update here for you, just drop me a quick email (or have your husband do it) and I'd be happy to. Stay well.

Ann, have a wonderful trip.

Honugirl, lmp, all in treatment, testing, etc

jsg, ask obm how he likes my signature.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good afternoon ladies

Ann - Your trip sounds fantastic. Wow 10 days!! Good bye snow and cold and hope you have lots of sunny weather!!

Laurie - so sorry you have to go through all of this. Sending you prayers and wishing for a speedy recovery and not too much pain. I am sure your family will be a big help to you too.

Well not too much snow so that is good. At least the snow plow came before it froze over. At dh work they collected 109 units of blood at the blood drive. Dh is not going to Penn. next week, hooray, I think they are coming here. Good. But of course he will be wrapped up in meetings, dinner meetings etc. I think ds has to start calling for his jury duty standby. My guess is he will go by wed. At least the weather will be good.

GTAGWTA. Have a great week end.

 

[snappy]

We left our house at 10:30 and were back home just after 2 pm. The day surgery place was great, having a late time for surgery seemed ideal as they were not busy and I had many nurses attending me.

The doc said the abscess was not deep as he thought, neither the fistula. It sounds like he worked on both instead of saving the fistula for later.

I will know more when I see the doc in two weeks. From our discussion afterwards, it sounded like he was very pleased with what he found and the result of his surgical efforts.

DH was great. He set up a new DVD player we bought at Sam's Sunday before all of this came up. He hooked up the old one in our room where we used to have one before it crashed and has been feeding my new fish movies into it for me to watch. I am glad now we bought the new cusy foam mattress and box springs back in August. I could lay on thing for hours and I am! And thank heavens for Snappygirl she gave me peace before and after I got home.

Lortab is my friend. I am drinking tons of water though to avoid the issue I have with all narcotics.

I am typing standing up so forgive the typos. I think I will be standing up a lot. Laying in the bed though is the best right now.

Great results at the blood drive, LMP.

Cold here for us but we are ninnies. They even cancelled school today all over the city, public and private. Most of my coworkers worked from home. Some ice on the roads was anticipated but it was a no show.

I'll post later.

Thanks for the kinds words, all!

Glad that is over. Now to heal!

Thanks for that picture of your dear GSD's, Linda. I know how much you loved them and they you.