Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part III - GAGWTA!

[snappy]

Linda, DD13 is still at the Catholic grammer school (8th grade!).

We went to tour the all girls Catholic high school during the openhosue last night along with pretty much every Cathlic girl in the area.

She wants to go there next year.

Come Lord Jesus is a small group bible study program, a simple one, that centers on the Gospel readin gfor the next Sunday. It was started locally by a priest about 25 years ago. There are many adult CLJ meetings. Our parish has one set up for the 8th graders where a parent or 2 co-leader facilitate. My partner and I have 6 great 8th graders. It is only 45 minutes once a week on Wednesday morning. The 8th grade program was started a good bit ago to to help bind the class together, to help them grow their faith, etc. They have very good materials and themes and music for us to use each week. It is not scripted, we are give an abundance of materials sowe use what speaks to us. I love that part.

My co-leader does not work and is great I mean great with kids. I am blessed.

Linda, I am glad your DD and mom are on the mend.

Good luck with your clean up. I will pay for you to fly down here and help with min. I guess it would be easier to clean out someone else's stuff, huh?

We worked on it a few weeks ago during one of our many rainy weekends. We got our financial stuff cleaned out and worked on Dd13's clothes.

I need to get serious in the kitchen. I have a lot of cabinets and many things stashed without organization.
I have a lot of stuff I haven't seen back in the depths.

Cooler today here, and hopefully the sun will come out. It rained and stormed like the dickens last night, huge thunder cracks that disturbed us and the doggies.

The sun has its work cut out for it to dry all this out.

GAGWTA!

 

[wdw4us2]

I have my first Herceptin infusion @ 10:30 today. I'm hoping it goes as uneventfully as I've been led to believe.

Today is DH's birthday and he decided he wanted to go to WDW (we're only 2 hours away). I am making the trip, but don't plan on going in the parks. I so need to get away from here that I will be happy to hang out at the resort just for a change of scenery. I will post on Sunday night and let everyone know how it went. Don't worry, I have my trusty hand sanitizer in my pocket and I am staying away from crowds. The oncologist said it was okay to go. Can't be any worse than going to DS's JV football games, I hope.

 

[snappy]

I have my first Herceptin infusion @ 10:30 today. I'm hoping it goes as uneventfully as I've been led to believe.

Today is DH's birthday and he decided he wanted to go to WDW (we're only 2 hours away). I am making the trip, but don't plan on going in the parks. I so need to get away from here that I will be happy to hang out at the resort just for a change of scenery. I will post on Sunday night and let everyone know how it went. Don't worry, I have my trusty hand sanitizer in my pocket and I am staying away from crowds. The oncologist said it was okay to go. Can't be any worse than going to DS's JV football games, I hope.

Good luck with the infusion, Fl Lisa.

A wdw trip is always an upper. I hope your enjoy getting away. Which resort? How wonderful it must be to be able to pull off a trip on the fly. I did that once in January. Very good trip, but I did have a week to get all my ducks in a row. Main issue is permission to miss school for Dd and airfare since I can't do the drive on my own.

Have fun!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

GAGWTA, Ladies!

I am crazy busy with work this week. The new baby (who I am calling "Pixie" on the boards ) keeps me jumping. Laundry, bottles, carpool for Princess, CRAZY! But she is a fabulous baby.

Found out my dear friend from high school may have thyroid cancer. She goes in next Thursday to find out more.

DS's friend's mom has breast cancer. Saw her at a parent meeting for the cast of the play last night. She is bald, so obviously in the middle of chemo. I don't know her very well, so I wasn't sure what to say. I asked DS in the car if his friend had said that her mom had cancer - he said yes. She looks good.

Anyway, lots of and to all!!!

 

[wdw4us2]

Good luck with the infusion, Fl Lisa.

A wdw trip is always an upper. I hope your enjoy getting away. Which resort? How wonderful it must be to be able to pull off a trip on the fly. I did that once in January. Very good trip, but I did have a week to get all my ducks in a row. Main issue is permission to miss school for Dd and airfare since I can't do the drive on my own.

Have fun!

The infusion went well. Took longer than I thought it would, though.

We are staying at The Swan. Kind of hard to get last minute reservations at a Disney Resort on the weekends. This will work out well for us since DH and DS want to go to Food & Wine, so we'll be right there. I am going to try and do some shopping at DTD on Sunday depending on how I feel. I'm trying to get a head start on Christmas since I have no idea how I'll be feeling in December and I still feel decent now.

Have a good weekend everyone!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good afternoon ladies

Fl Lisa - Hoping your treatment goes well. Have a great trip and Happy Birthday to your dh.

Linda - glad your mom and dd are feeling better. Cleaning is the last thing on my mind right now for sure!! But sounds like you are getting everything under control.

Laurie - Hope the sun is coming your way. Now we have the rain here for sure!!

Elizabeth - that is cute, now its Princess and Pixie!! Well if your friend does have thyroid cancer and I hope she doesnt I guess I can offer some advice, does she live in Texas? I know my bff Texas friends friend there also has it and she has done mega research and gone to MD Anderson etc. She has follicular with distant spread. So I am assuming they are waiting for biopsy results?? Wishing her all the best

Maureen - give us a little report when you get back ok.

Lisa - are you at the endo in California now? I would have to go back and re read. Hope all is well

Laura - One day at a time sista!!

Candy - hope today finds you better

Well I am still trying to get to my mini hospital report, . This morning was a screamfest. I didnt take the 6am pain med thinking I would be ok, wrong, wrong, wrong It was more my back than stomach, but now the L side of my stomach is hurting. Definetely on tues. I am having a pain med talk with the surgeon

GTAGWTA. Thinking of you all.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

So here is the mini trip, um, I mean. hospital report


Upon arrival I see there are 32 operations and that is not the whole list. They tell me I am getting operating room 19, 20 is the last. I had 20 the lst time. What a walk. I told them I dont think I can walk. They bring a stretcher. I say, no way, its creeping me out. So they get a wheelchair. My anesthesia resident is a cute girl from the Islands. Love her accent. The anesthesia guy can barely speak english well. Dh and I look at each other?? I researched him before and see he is from Romania. The operation starts and dh goes to his favorite place..the cafeteria!! The surgeon tells dh it was worse than expected so took 3 1/2 hours. 1 hour longer. I now have a graft the size of a basketball in my stomach.

I am suppose to go to the 18th floor. Dh is told to go up and wait for me, since I am spending the major part of the recovery time screaming my head off. The one nurse comments to another nurse dont worry, she has been doing that all afternoon. (screaming). They finally switched it to a continous morphine pump and then also added the on demand every 10 minutes. They change my room back to the orthopaedic floor. Dh did see some nurses who remembered him from before. I get the door bed. My roomate, Ann Marie has the curtain closed. She has ms and fell on her porch on her birthday and broke both her legs. I am screaming and she comments to her dh, oh I am in the world of the macabre. um, not very nice lady. Also it appears Ann AnnMarie is jealous that the nurses actually know me etc. Friday I feel great and dh comes to talk to surgeon early. All is well,. I walk the hall 3 times. All the ds come to see me too. Ds19 brings his girl friend Emily. We play cards. During the night they change to po pain meds. I wake up sat. screaming and crying. They now have to give me iv morphine and finally decide I am not going home. Oh Ann Marie left for the rehab on friday night so I had the room to myself. The window was broken (clouded over), but I opened the curtains. All Sat. my nurse was Rob. He was great controlling my paiin. My pastor and wife came to see me too. I want to walk. Dh says no. This was the scary. Glad I didnt because they call a code blue. Who codes on the ortho floor? Glad I wasnt in the hall. It would have been a mess. Also friday I hear hello, who is going down the hall but my endo. She says what are you doing here etc? She is seeing another pt. and didnt know I was there. She says hi ancd checks my neck. She is a sweetie. Sat. I hear another hello in the hall. Its for dh. One of his co workers boyfriends lost his leg in a motorcycle accicent, very bad. She was bringing his little girl to see him. Sun. I got to go home in a lot of pain. I also had the terrible resident Roberto who shouldnt be a doctor in my opinion. So lets hope this is the last one of these you get to read.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

Maryann, I hope you are able to get the pain under control so you can get down to the business of healing.

My friend is in Tampa. Her labs said "suspicious for papillary carcinoma" but that is all she knows so far. She is going to Moffitt cancer center. She is seeing a head/neck specialist guy.

Our RFTC is tomorrow. I haven't had time to go register, and DH decided he couldn't possibly do it because I am supposed to do everything. Might just be making a donation this year.

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

GAGWTA, Ladies!

Managed to go register for RFTC after work yesterday, so we'll be out there in your honor this morning!!!

Hopefully we'll take some pics this year.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

So here is the mini trip, um, I mean. hospital report


Upon arrival I see there are 32 operations and that is not the whole list. They tell me I am getting operating room 19, 20 is the last. I had 20 the lst time. What a walk. I told them I dont think I can walk. They bring a stretcher. I say, no way, its creeping me out. So they get a wheelchair. My anesthesia resident is a cute girl from the Islands. Love her accent. The anesthesia guy can barely speak english well. Dh and I look at each other?? I researched him before and see he is from Romania. The operation starts and dh goes to his favorite place..the cafeteria!! The surgeon tells dh it was worse than expected so took 3 1/2 hours. 1 hour longer. I now have a graft the size of a basketball in my stomach.

I am suppose to go to the 18th floor. Dh is told to go up and wait for me, since I am spending the major part of the recovery time screaming my head off. The one nurse comments to another nurse dont worry, she has been doing that all afternoon. (screaming). They finally switched it to a continous morphine pump and then also added the on demand every 10 minutes. They change my room back to the orthopaedic floor. Dh did see some nurses who remembered him from before. I get the door bed. My roomate, Ann Marie has the curtain closed. She has ms and fell on her porch on her birthday and broke both her legs. I am screaming and she comments to her dh, oh I am in the world of the macabre. um, not very nice lady. Also it appears Ann AnnMarie is jealous that the nurses actually know me etc. Friday I feel great and dh comes to talk to surgeon early. All is well,. I walk the hall 3 times. All the ds come to see me too. Ds19 brings his girl friend Emily. We play cards. During the night they change to po pain meds. I wake up sat. screaming and crying. They now have to give me iv morphine and finally decide I am not going home. Oh Ann Marie left for the rehab on friday night so I had the room to myself. The window was broken (clouded over), but I opened the curtains. All Sat. my nurse was Rob. He was great controlling my paiin. My pastor and wife came to see me too. I want to walk. Dh says no. This was the scary. Glad I didnt because they call a code blue. Who codes on the ortho floor? Glad I wasnt in the hall. It would have been a mess. Also friday I hear hello, who is going down the hall but my endo. She says what are you doing here etc? She is seeing another pt. and didnt know I was there. She says hi ancd checks my neck. She is a sweetie. Sat. I hear another hello in the hall. Its for dh. One of his co workers boyfriends lost his leg in a motorcycle accicent, very bad. She was bringing his little girl to see him. Sun. I got to go home in a lot of pain. I also had the terrible resident Roberto who shouldnt be a doctor in my opinion. So lets hope this is the last one of these you get to read.

Yup, that sounds about right!

Glad you're doing better and I agree, I hope this will be the last one for you.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Managed to go register for RFTC after work yesterday, so we'll be out there in your honor this morning!!!

Aww. That's sweet. Thank you.

Hopefully we'll take some pics this year.

I hope so!

 

[snappy]

Fall is Here!!


Wowwee!!

We put the sweats and sweaters and heavy stuff away away away in the attic becuase I can't even tolerate looking at them in the summer.

Guess where DH is right now?

The attic!!

We got a cold front going on. It is in the sixties. Time to burn a log in the fireplace, quick before summer comes back!

 

[snappy]

LMP that is an amazing hospital saga! Do you keep a journal? I am amazed at how much you rmember, especially with the morphine.

I can appreciate the apprehension you have everytime you face a recovery. The anesthesia especially for me is unnerving.

That was yet another long surgery, and you are having a prolonged recovery, obviously.

It is shame that you seemd to be able to move and walk around well, but the pain returned with a vengeance.

How is the pain level today?

GAGWTA!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Well I feel like we made some progress yesterday. Despite the mess in DD's room, DH made a path and got started on her closet. He cut the wall to make a larger opening, took all of the old hardware out, reframed the opening, went down and bought new bifold doors and a new organizing unit for inside, and then painted the whole inside (which last saw new paint in 1964). He worked pretty hard on it all day, finishing up around 10pm.

Meanwhile, in the same room, I sorted through her clothes. She is turning 12 next week, and grew a ton over the summer. She literally went from a size 10 to a 14, just about skipping 12 (amazing to me, but I realize it's probably the norm. Ladies with older girls, can you confirm?). And of course, I'd bought some nice 12's last spring which were a bit big then, and now don't fit. I still have a lot to do but once that's done and we can put stuff back in her closet, all her clothes will be done.

We decided that we're going to keep going in the bedrooms, doing all the things we want to do, including new windows and interior doors, paint, carpeting, and some new shelving. We talked to the kids about how these rooms are going to take them into teenhood and beyond and it's time to get rid of some of the stuff they kept from early childhood, like the majority of stuffed animals, trophies, etc. They agreed, and in return I agreed to let them pick their paint colors, within reason (ie I get final say ).

It's exciting.

A pleasant surprise was that our builder stopped by for our final approval of the revised plans for our sunroom. (We decided last night that that's what we're going to call it - as that's what it's become; kind of started out as a screen porch but I wanted windows lol [so we don't have to drag everything in there down the cellar for the winter].) Turns out a lot of the delay was that we are in a hurricane zone being near the ocean, and our town has new strict guidelines about new structures within that zone being able to withstand 100 mph winds. So those'll be submitted now and should be approved as he already went over them with the building inspector to see what he had to do. (We used this same builder for our in law addition so have been down this road before with him and he's compliant to the inch. )

We also have the kitchen designer coming out soon to help us measure and design our new kitchen. We are still going w/ IKEA. It's a reasonable price to use the designer, and you get some of the money back w/ purchase - good deal, to me. DH will install (he studied cabinetry in high school and has installed before, but IKEA makes it easy, especially if you use a designer). We are keeping our ceramic tile floor and the basic layout, so it shouldn't be too difficult, I hope, and then we just have to do the cosmetics on the walls and I found a carpenter to do a few built ins that I want. So we are moving along. (Our new sunroom will be built off the kitchen area.)

For people here that are newer and haven't followed my saga, we've been trying literally for years to get started on all of this (since before my cancer, which was what kind of originally what threw a wrench in our plans). Basically the whole house needs to be renovated (1964 ranch with original everthing that's basically just been painted over the years ). We did the upstairs bathroom and living room already - we still have the bedrooms, kitchen, family room, second bath and laundry area, storage room and cellar to do, as well as landscaping. We've lived here 20 years (and have had lots of life events that have precluded our doing this), but we're finally in a good place to get it done once and for all (I hope).

Plans have morphed during that time, but the bottom line is that we're doing much of it ourselves, at least as much as we can, knowing our limitations (eg tilework, electric work, building, etc, will be contracted, but the bull work will be ours alone). We've been overwhelmed thinking about all we have to do, but have also been tremendously motivated watching HGTV type shows, getting the dumpster, and taking Feng Shui. We're just going to plug away doing a little at a time. If everything is done well, using quality products, and fresh, new and clean, I'll feel like we did a great job. I worry about the money part, of course, but I have to keep reminding myself it's an investment in our home, really, which will add value and greatly improve our living pleasure here. We basically love the house but it's had its limitations. So hopefully we'll be able to overcome a lot of them - we've certainly had a lot of time to think about how.

 

[snappy]

Linda, you sound like you are on the right track!!

Here I am patting myself on the back for cleaning out the file cabinet (actually DH did it) .

Did go through and dispose of a ton of winter clothes that don't fit anymore this morning and I am working on washing the ones that do.

I know what you mean about the growing thing. The body shape changes completely as one point. DD13 ( will be 14 on November 1st) is taller than me now. Her big sister was a shrimp in 8th grade, skinny as a toothpick.

Handmedowns aren't working except for some shirts. DD13 is just built differently.

DD19 called last night. She is coming home again next weekend to get her winter clothes (no room in the dorm room or need for that matter in New Orleans for winter clothes for the majority of the year.

She has all A's so far this semester. Tulane's school of business is agreeing with her. She is also working alot and making money (and spending it). She said if she can find the time she is going to run for an office in her sorority. She sounded so up and so mature in some ways. Her boyfriend is going to Boston next weekend to meet his brother and invited her but she opted to come home (did not feel she had the money to spare).

It looks like she is getting the money thing finally.

I feel those apron springs getting looser and looser. . .

 

[lookingforward]

Hi everyone.We are taking a little break in the room right now. Went to Epcot this morning and had a great time. The food and wine festival was mobbed. It was crazy. It seems that the best time to go is right at 11 a.m. whe they open. So thats what we are doing tomorrow! Headed to magic kingdom tonight.

I LOVE the wilderness lodge! Its really beautiful, peaceful and the club level is a lot of fun. We will definately stay here again! More later,

GAGWTA!

 

[Candy30]

I am trying to recoup but its getting better. Thanks for asking LMP. Your mini report sounds.....um...er...not fun. I am glad you are recovering. Jacks your getting closer to your trip. Don't forget to pack my toothbrush too!! Sha I hope you are in good spirits. Hang in there LF Gotta do a trip report when you get back! PNM you are jammin' with your house!! You go girl! My daughter jumped a little in sizes too! I think its the hips starting to grow. Snappy, I started pulling out our winter clothes too! We all have our own bins but nobody likes to do that chore but me. It cracks me up laughing because they all are like where is my winter pjs or sweaters or long sleeve shirts. Mind you. They all know where their bins are! Treatment was a little rough for some reason. I think it was due to all the stress from this week. Monday, I will be with the new company. They have orientation scheduled that day for 4 hours. Here we go!

Welcome FL Lisa. Glad you came out of lurkdom!
Take care everyone.

 

[Sha]

Mom is doing well... life is going on as usual. The walk for breast cancer is here this coming Saturday while I am at WDW. Mom wants to go. I think one of my sisters should take her... and I prefer one over the other. I am sure that is wrong, but I do.

I bought mom a Brighton BC bracelet. It was the one from last year. I think I am going to get this years. Im not a big Brighton fan but it would be nice to have. I think its because I wear more gold now.. switched right before silver became popular.

all is good though.... my coworker is back to work Monday, and I go to WDW tomorrow night. Have to pack for that and for when I leave on Thursday (both are after work).

 

[NHAnn]

having trouble posting

thinking of you all at Making Strides today

GAGWAT

 

[SkyGirl]

Hi Everyone.

I'm having a problem that I hope someone can help me with.

I took Tamoxifen for four years and four months. I took Megace with it to counteract the side effects. I stopped both drugs a week and a half ago because the side effects were all back and worse than before even with the Megace.

I started bleeding tonight along with some terrible cramps. I've read that the withdrawal from getting off Tamoxifen is pretty rough and can last several weeks.

Is this a side effect of getting off of it, or off of the Megace or both? I'm really a bit worried.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

Heidi