Dis Breast Cancer Survivors Part IV - GAGWTA

[snappy]

Wow, Sha, busy life, huh?

Have a wonderful time over New Year's. I bet you will love the tree houses at Saratoga. What fun!

Glad to hear Mom received good news, as well as you with that recent scare.

Merry Christmas to All!

 

[PatsMom]

Hello Leslie and welcome to the cancer survivor's club, the one no one wants to join! You've gotten some pretty good advice from some very smart ladies who have dealt with breast cancer. Sucks to get the diagnosis so close to Christmas but I don't think there is ever a good time to be told that you have cancer. And it really sucks to have to tell you child that you have cancer. My daughter was home from college for the summer when I had to tell her.

MaryAnn, hope you get some good results. It isn't pleasant to have a cystoscopy but after all you have been through, it will be a piece of cake. I've heard of people who have had anesthesia for them. One friend of mine has low grade bladder cancer that keeps recurring and her doctor burns out the new tumors while doing a cysto. Low grade doesn't tend to spread, just keep coming back. I almost prefer having my high grade cancer - bigger chance of it progressing but no wide awake burning out of tumors! Urologists do so many cystos that they are very good at it. They do use a topical anesthetic that helps. I must confess I take a lorazepam before the procedure but I think that is more for the anxiety about what they will find. You are awake and I don't know about all uro's but mine lets you watch the monitor. Kind of odd to be looking at the inside of your own bladder!

Got the pathology back on the urine sample. Blood in the urine again but it cultured positive for bacteria. So what we thought were side effects from the treatment turn out to be a UTI. I am on antibiotics and will have to go supply another specimen when they are done. Hopefully then I will be all set until March when I have my next routine three month cysto.

Seasons Greetings to everyone! I am heading out tonight to finish up my Christmas shopping and then the marathon of visiting and eating begins tomorrow!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Sha - you are one busy lady for sure! I am glad your mom got good news. Enjoy your time with R. I hope your medical issues get resolved also. The treehouses sound interesting. Hope you like them!

Laurie - enjoy the bonfires!

Lisa - sounds like you have the present situation under control. Ds20 loves chicken parm too! Sorry you have to go to the drs. over the holidays,

PatsMom - Ok. I just about puked when I read your post about the procedure. They did give me some written instruction thing. I am so on the fence about this.

I have had it with the invasive procedures. Tired of the cameras up my nose, down into my vocal cords, needles in the eyes, next the lovely pelvic sono, then the cysto. I have had it! I know they want to be careful and watch everything and rule out stuff, but I am so weary of all of this. Guess I know I also have the blood tests and neck sono which are my regular 6 month follow ups and then the eye surgery in April. Oh I forgot about the kidney sono the new dr. now wants. I just want a break once in a while, hence my Disney World trips! Only thing besides God,dh and praying that keeps me sane!

Ds20 got a B in chem, so he is happy.Good enough grade for nursing school I hope. He is doing another chem class in the spring and a nutrition class that some schools want.

Cant wait to see ds20 be Joseph tomm!

GAGWTA. Wishing you all a blessed Christmas and Holiday Season.

 

[snappy]

Pre Christmas eve bonfire structures

I am going to try and get some more tomorrow night!

 

[annrae]

I've been absent in posting for some time but I think of all of you very often and try to catch up on what is happening with you. I hope this New Year will bring comfort and good health to all of you and a "lightning of your heavy hearts" for everyone who is going through a procedure of some kind or awaiting results.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Holiday.

Hugs,

Barbara

 

[NHAnn]

Season's greeting ladies....I'm sorry I have been "absent" as far as posting too, but you are all always very close to my heart.

Leslie reading your post brought me back more than 6 years to my first post n the VERY early days of the original version of this thread. My diagnosis was (and stayed) DCIS with the lumpectomy and radiation....but you're never really "done with it" at least in my opinion. The good part...yes someday we ALL find some degree of "good" in it....for me has been the wonderful people I've met and true friendships I've made as a direct result of breast cancer. (Some right on this thread) Too early, too hard for that now though, for you...... but you have come to the right place for information, for support, and also for diversion....yep sometimes we do digress.

Been kind of a blur here the last couple of month's with Avery's leukemia relapse. (For the newer ladies he is my 10 year old grandson). He's in the hospital this week with a fever and some back pain and all the usual poking and prodding and meds and trying to figure out what's causing what. We were hoping he'd be home for Santa coming, it hasn't been completely ruled out ...yet so send positive thoughts and prayers!!

I wanted to wish you all the blessings of family, peace and reflection this holiday season. I may not be posting as much but you are always close to my heart!!

 

[Sha]

wasnt there something with a bonfire accident last year or something?? Just made me think of it when I saw that pic Laurie. I could be very wrong though.

 

[MerMom60_94]

Leslie, I am glad you posted here.

I am sure this is the worst possible time of year to receive this news. However, you may feel relieved once you have disclosed it. I think your mom and daughter might already sense something is amiss, depending on how long this has been going on. It is not easy to tell but it sure helps to have that support system close and by your side. Know too the ladies on this

How was the possibility of DCIS detected, through discovering the lump or based on a suspicious mammogram?

I was diagnosed with DCIS in two places on one breast, and the stuff actually snaked all around my breast (my mom had a similar deal about 4 years later).
I also had an area of invasion, but it was small and apparently all taken out during the stereotactic needle biopsy since no more invasive cancer was found in the testing after the breast was removed. Because the area of invasion was only 1 mm, chemo was not recommended.

I did not have the additional testing you are facing, since the DCIS was found in multiple areas, the only real surgery that was recommended was a mastectomy. That was the standard of care at least back in 2004 for multi-focal DCIS.

Do you have your MRI scheduled yet? An MRI showed that my mom's DCIS had also run rampant throughout her breast but there was no invasion so she had the mastectomy but no radiation or chemo, just like me.

The MRI seemed to be the definitive test for my mom. I hope the same goes for you. Not knowing what your facing is the hardest part of this, along with giving bad news to your loved ones, as you know.

Please feel free to ask further questions, come here and vent, whatever you need. You might be surprised how it is also helpful to us to share our stories here, and respond to your questions/concerns. It is very healing, even after the over seven years since my diagnosis.

Hi everyone. Sorry I didn't get back on yesterday and thank you for your support. I can't wait until this sneaking around is behind me!

My Mom was a trooper the other day when my husband and I went over to talk to her. She was pretty strong and there were minimal tears. She went with me yesterday for my appointment for the BRAC test. She was rather teary eyed there at one point but it has helped me to have her there to talk to. In addition to telling her I have breast cancer, I had told her my brother's fiance has been diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this week. So it is a bit of a double whammy for her. The NP who is an expert on genetic testing was a lot more encouraging and her recommendations made perfect sense to me. She was very logical and provided me with a lot of statistical information to go on which made things a lot more clear. She thinks I should address the immediate need for now, based on the results of the MRI. If the cancer isn't invasive I should have the lumpectomy. If the cancer has spread and the area to be removed is fairly large I should consider the double mastectomy. Even if my BRAC comes back positive, which she thinks is unlikely, I don't have to address that right now.

Anyway, my MRI is Wednesday morning and I am in a much, much better place than I was the other day. I know I can get through this and I have found where I can turn to for support. I am getting a lot of good information and knowledge is power. That power is putting me back in control so I can move forward and eventually reach some decisions.

Thank you everyone and if I don't get back on for a couple of days, Merry Christmas.

 

[MerMom60_94]

Season's greeting ladies....I'm sorry I have been "absent" as far as posting too, but you are all always very close to my heart.

Leslie reading your post brought me back more than 6 years to my first post n the VERY early days of the original version of this thread. My diagnosis was (and stayed) DCIS with the lumpectomy and radiation....but you're never really "done with it" at least in my opinion. The good part...yes someday we ALL find some degree of "good" in it....for me has been the wonderful people I've met and true friendships I've made as a direct result of breast cancer. (Some right on this thread) Too early, too hard for that now though, for you...... but you have come to the right place for information, for support, and also for diversion....yep sometimes we do digress.

Been kind of a blur here the last couple of month's with Avery's leukemia relapse. (For the newer ladies he is my 10 year old grandson). He's in the hospital this week with a fever and some back pain and all the usual poking and prodding and meds and trying to figure out what's causing what. We were hoping he'd be home for Santa coming, it hasn't been completely ruled out ...yet so send positive thoughts and prayers!!

I wanted to wish you all the blessings of family, peace and reflection this holiday season. I may not be posting as much but you are always close to my heart!!

NHAnn, I just read this post after responding to Snappy's post. I am so sorry about your grandson. That is awful! What is his long-term prognosis? So sad to hear about a child being this sick. I hope he recovers soon and that all goes well.

 

[snappy]

Ann, I have been following Avery's blog and he is in my prayers.

Sha, there was a bonfire accident at a university, I think in Texas.
I think it was unstable and fell.

These in Grammercy where my sister lives and where her DH grew up are set up at the top of the Mississippi river levee. There are also not huge but are numerous. Most are the pyramid shape in the picture I posted, each one constructed by a separate social group. Some groups do different shape structures that are newly designed each year. The design is closely guarded because there is a competition for best design.

Looks like rain tonight, kind of a drag. Will make gathering around the fireplace more appealing.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Barbara - thanks for thinking of everyone. You are a sweetheart! Hope you dont have too much snow up north. Enjoy your holidays

Anne - so sorry to hear Avery is back in the hosp. He continues to be in my prayers.

Leslie - totally agree about the knowledge part. I wish I could find more info. about the rare part of my cancer. Even my oncologist doesnt have much info. I am even in a worse position since this rare variant is usually found in men, not women, so statistically I am off the charts. Wishing you all the best with your testing on Wed.

Just wanted to share...we have a ham for christmas. Dh and I bought it last night. It was over $15 and I had $2 off so it was really $17. After we bought it, dh took the groceries we got out of the van and unloaded them in the house while I waited outside since we were still going christmas shopping. Well today I ask him about the ham. Dont see it in the refrig. Says he looked everywhere..no ham..We think the check out girl forgot to give it to us, so now he is going to try and get another ham. They said bring the receipt, they will give him a free one. Hmm..the missing ham. Hope they have some left in the store this late. Oh well...If not we might end up with ziti.

Cant wait to see ds be Joseph tonight.

GAGWTA. Merry Christmas!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

LOL the Christmas Ham caper! We had a mix up (not unusual in my family) where my brother had said he'd do XMas but when my mother talked to him last week he didn't remember saying it, lol. He really wasn't prepared, so we'll be doing it here. Anyway, I thought I'd do Italian - had antipasto, lasagna, maybe eggplant, meatballs, garlic bread, etc., dancing in my head. But my mother really likes a traditional meal on the holiday, and because she's 86 and will be helping us prepare it (mostly cause she's 86 ), we decided to go more traditional. So I picked up a honey ham, but the men in the family, including DH and DS, decided they'd really love pork roast with gravy. So I bought pork roast yesterday, had to have the guy cut one. Got it home and Mom thinks it's not big enough, and I realized she was probably right, so DH stopped and got another one. (We like to have a lot cause it's tradition to take stuff home.) So hopefully we can do this pork justice, but I had to chuckle when you mentioned the ham, lmp. (It looks as if I might get part of the holiday off cause some of our beds are closed. Yay for seniority. If not, DH and DM will be handling the meal, so I can just walk in and eat! )

Barbara and Ann, good to see you guys. Ann, I'm sorry Avery's going through this again.

Sha, you lucky dog you! Treehouse villas stay would be awesome. I'm glad you had good results from your testing and that your Mom is doing well.

Leslie, seems like things are falling into place nicely. Did she say why they'd recommend taking off the other breast if MRI testing on it is normal? Maybe they qualified it as a recommendation if BRAC testing was positive (which would make sense, as a precaution)? My oncologist had told me if it's healthy breast tissue, why take it off (unless it's something you yourself feel pretty strongly about)? Although my family history wasn't strong, and I didn't have BRAC/BART testing till years later, so really, all cases are different. But it is food for thought and something to research yourself and ask around about. I agree another opinion is not a bad idea, and actually pretty standard, I think (insurance covers it). I had two and they were slightly different based on the background of the surgeons. (I went with the breast surgeon.) I'm glad you can breathe a little sigh of relief and hopefully you can enjoy Christmas.

Wishing everyone a lovely holiday and thinking of all of you. GAGWTA

 

[Sha]

we are going non traditional tomorrow since we have NYE weekend together too. Had trouble doing online check in but got it all cleared up. They didnt tie the added night together correctly and got that fixed. Also had left a letter off of R's name. All fixed. Getting very excited. Bought myself something amusing for Christmas today. From Brookstone, its a martini mixer, but it has batteries to mix it and then a spot to pour from by pushing a button. LOL Will be perfect for my pomegranite martinis NYE.

I do feel very lucky to have the tree house! OMG! they are incredible!! And the shower/bath area for R and I will be great too! We will be reviewing what we are bringing for meals and all tomorrow when my sister and nieces are here. Figure after my other sister goes home to sleep will be perfect time to plan since she isn't going.

Ann... can I send anything to Avery from WDW next weekend???

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Ann... can I send anything to Avery from WDW next weekend???

That's so nice of you, Sha. Can you send me something while you're at it? I'm having withdrawal lately, lol. (Actually, friends of ours moved down there this year and for Thanskgiving brought home a few goodies for us!)

 

[Sha]

yes Linda if you send me your address

 

[wdw4us2]

"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night."

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Good morning ladies

Lisa - loved your post. Made me

Laurie - hope the rain didnt dampen the bonfire viewing

Sha - hope the plans worked out

Glad Christmas is over. We got the ham. Think I will have to freeze some, its alot, maybe too much. Dh and I have said that next year we are just giving the ds money. They dont like what we get and I exhaust myself shopping. So it will be a win win situation, even though ds20 thinks its thoughtless.

Best gift: ds21 got ds20 a dwarf hamster. I saw it briefly. He hasnt picked out a name. But he said, it doesnt give love.

I got alot of thoughtful gifts
A necklace from dh, who knows I hate jewelry and nothing says love like trying to put something on your neck that is half cut out and already in pain.
Suave body wash from ds21, real big spender. Guess it goes with the just for men he got dh. That did not go over well with dh.
Ds20 got me a book on cancer and a book about Disney. Somehow I dont think I know enough about either one
But he got a frame and picture from our photopass for us. and got me 2 disney shirts.
Ds24 got me godiva chocolate, after I told him I was on a low fat diet, oh well. Some silverware. Its for 4 place settings, I guess he doesnt know what 20 pieces mean, we need 24 pieces
Everyone is checking out the keurig and ds24 got a blender too. Our old one broke last summer. I never use it though.

Today I am getting my best present. Thougth dh was taking me to the sales, no he is fixing the toilet, Merry Christmas to me Nothing says more than that.

Wed. we are going to a wedding, just the church. A girl ds24 age whom we know. Ds20 did a great job being Joseph.

GAGWTA

 

[Aliceacc]

Hi everyone, and Merry Christmas!!!!

I've gotten out of the habit of posting here, and have to apologize. Things have gone well, health wise, over the past 2 years Thank God! It's been blessedly quiet. I even graduated from my oncologist last year-- he said that as long as my other doctors are monitering me, he saw no reason for me to continue to see him. A little scary, but a milestone nonetheless.

Now that we're planning to return to WDW, I'm back on the DIS more often, and wanted to pop in and say hi.

I'm hoping everyone is happy and healthy.

It turned into a brutally rough Christmas here. My mother in law was supposed to spend it with us, but a stomach bug kept her from coming. So on Christmas Eve, my husband and son went to check in on her-- she was up and dressed, though kind of wiped out. Yesterday, we called her at 10, then at 11,and got the answering machine. When we got the machine at 1, the guys got into the car and drove out. It turns out that she had died in her sleep overnight. She was 86.

In a way, I'm very thankful that she died when she did. At least we found her right away. Had it been 2 weeks later, we wouldn't have thought anything of getting the answering machine a few times in a row.

So this week will be very different than planned. I have to make sure the girls have appropriate clothes (my 8 year old's Christmas dress had her looking like one of Santa's elves-- totally adorable, but not appropriate for grandma's funeral.) My 11 year old has English homework that has to get done today; tomorrow people start arriving from upstate and CA.

Anyway, I did want to check in, and promise to do so more often. My own bad news aside, I'm hoping you all have a relaxing, rejuvenating week between now and New Years.

 

[luvmarypoppins]

Alice - so sorry to hear about your MIL. Sending you my deepest sympathy and prayers for comfort and peace in the days ahead.

 

[Sha]

so sorry to hear of your loss Alice! Many prayers for your family. The news about your health is wonderful is good to hear. I am sorry that the news is overshadowed though.

LMP if you want to send some ham here... LOL I never could have enough.

Plans worked out for Christmas... and we planned for NYE! Was a very nice day and really enjoyed it with my sister M and niece S where here. God I love them! My little martini thing didnt work. It mixed but didnt pour. I will stick to the manual way anyways. We made a list of things to bring and are going to wing it for meals on NYE and stay in a park. We will see how that goes since S. will be late getting there with her friend. He is excited now too.

Enjoyed watching R and K opening Christmas! K gave R a hug for me. Was so special watching the 2 of them together. He is such a good dad.... off to run a couple errands