Topic: Calling all TNS

Apr 17, 2012 02:37 PM, edited Apr 17, 2012 02:39 PM by Paintingmywaythru

Heidi..have a great trip and hope the shot does it for you.

Heather your picture lookss wonderful. I just this Monday stopped wearing my wig to work.

Selena1973...sorry you have to be here but welcome. These women are a trememndous source of support and knowledge. I was on enbrel for over 10 years prior to the diagnosis. Stopped taking it the day of diagnosis and haven't resumed it yet. The chemo kicked back all my rheumatoid arthritis symptoms. This is a journey and we will be here with you.

Monish...I was so stressed before I was diagnosed, big financial worries that I kept telling my husband I was afraid I was going to die. Looking back, I truly don't think the stress caused my cancr, i think I knew something wasn't right  with my body but didn't know what . And yes, I worry that the stress could cause it to come back although I tell myself that this is just fear talking.

Heather... I think my husband is so afraid of anything going wrong he does not want to talk about it, but he IS going with me TOMORROW for my ONCOLOGIST 6 month follow up and I am feeling really NERVOUS!!!! I have no idea why, except that you walk back into that world and next month is the tomographic mamogram..... just scares me and it is hard to shake. Have had a few nightmares recently and I never have them.

Wrenwood 47....so sorry what does your oncologist say? Are the mouth sores still there from treatment. I used a thing from the dentist that really helped clear up my mouth sores. It was a steroid paste I applied to the ulcer.

OH AND THE BIG NEWS IS MY SON-IN-LAW CAME IN #243 IN THE BOSTON MARATHON YESTERDAY. Yea Shamus!

Apr 17, 2012 06:34 PM KSteve wrote:

OMG Susan!  My husband's name is Shames (his parents spelled it wrong!).  Such an unusual name.  Congrats to your son-in-law . . . what an accomplishment!  With that, I'm headed off to the gym to do my measly 3 miles!

Kathy

Apr 17, 2012 06:49 PM tracie23 wrote:

wrenwood47, I to have had mouth ulcers since my last chemo in feb of 2011...I may get a day here and there without one but 98% of the time my mouth hurts soooo bad.and my fatigue over the last 2 months has been horrible... I have been on bioplasma cell salt regeneration , coconut oil , vitamins, etc...and of course eating good and exercising  at curves almost every day but I drag all day long... I am thinking it's my thyroid and lack of hormones (had an ooph)  I also have been getting boils in one location for about 3 months.... I have a Dr.Appointment on the 30th so we will see.

Apr 17, 2012 10:42 PM Hope60 wrote:

Susan - congrats to your son in law!

I have an appointment coming up Thursday with my RO.   It's just my one year follow up, but I find myself getting nervous.  And then next week, I have my 3 month follow up with my MO.  That's just too many oncs at once,  you know?  I'm starting to feel the old anxiety building....does anyone else go through this at exam time?

Apr 17, 2012 11:20 PM Huskerkkc wrote:

Hi all. Haven't been on in awhile. I have a stressful job as a school counselor and we have five weeks left. Really a tough time of year-everyone winding down and I'm already scheduling for next year, doing orientations, field trips, honors night, meetings, ack. I'm at school every night until 6 or later. I'm very stressed and worry about it contributing to a recurrence. I also have developed mild LE so go to therapy once a week (down from twice a week since Dec) which means missing work for two hours.
I see my BS, RO, and MO every three months for the next three years. I will see both RO and BS in about two weeks. Going that often is stressful and makes me anxious. I tried to eliminate one of them but they all insist that protocol says I see them that often so I figure if something does come back I will catch it early. I think after this next round I will cut one of them-probably RO. However he wants mammo every six months and neither BS or MO think this is necessary. Anyone else getting 6-mo mammos?
To our newbies, I heartily second the recommendation for The Cancer Husband book. My husband really found it helpful and says if we know someone else with BC, we should buy them that book. The patient gets plenty, not so the husband.
My mantra has been the saying in my avatar: Keep Calm &Carry On. I don't always, but I try!

Apr 18, 2012 04:52 AM kittycat wrote:

I haven't been in BCO for a long time (longer than I realized). I am so incredibly sad about the loss of laurajane, Suze and MBJ. I am also very shocked. I so enjoyed all of their posts and words of encouragement for us TNBC girls. I hate cancer so much!!!! RIP sweet ladies. :(

Apr 18, 2012 07:49 AM mccrimmon324 wrote:

Congrats Cocker!  I didn't have the AC + T, I had it all together, TAC, but from what I've heard, the worst part is over for you and your hair might even start growing back!

Hope, I've only had 2 3 month follow up visits so far and YES, both my husband and I get very anxious beforehand, I actually break out the xanax about 2 days before the appt  AND I never go to the doctor without having taken one anymore. 

I haven't been back to my BS or my RO, I figure the only thing they can do for me is give me a physical exam and my primary does that for me too.  I have to make the appts!!!  Sadly, my BS speaks broken English so I can't understand alot of what he says and has a terrible bedside manner and gets annoyed if he has to repeat himself to many times , I usually leave in tears for no reason and my RO while extremely nice LOVES to talk about my HIGH rate of recurrance, which I specifically did not want to know but he loves that phase.  That's why I've been avoiding them. 

Apr 18, 2012 08:22 AM, edited Apr 18, 2012 08:23 AM by Sugar77

Mccrimmon - I only went back to my bs once, six months after surgery and my rads onc discharged me four months after radiation was completed. I only see my medical onc every six months and my GP for a breast exam every six months, so essentially I'm seeing someone every three months.

Apr 18, 2012 09:51 AM phgraham wrote:

Apr 18, 2012 10:48 AM Hope60 wrote:

Annie -  Your last AC, that's excellent!  Somehow my last one was easier, just because I knew it was the last one...hope you have the same experience.  Also, as others have said, many women find Taxol to be much easier....I know I did....so there's a good chance you're over the worst.

Heather -  I never used to get anxious, in fact I found the check ups re-assuring.  But now,  a year out from treatment, I'm anxious about it.  Weird, huh?  Also, I hated my RO...she has zero bedside manner, hardly spoke to me, barely answered questions......and when she did, she just scared me! So I'm not looking forward to it and will definitely be breaking out the Ativan for the occasion!

Apr 18, 2012 11:17 AM mccrimmon324 wrote:

Ewww, I don't know how that would work with me, I'm going to be looking for a new job.  Wouldn't be very good for me to have to keep leaving for drs appt.  That's upsetting. 

Apr 18, 2012 11:34 AM kittycat wrote:

Cocker, I had the exact same chemo, dense dose AC and 12 weekly Taxols. I was originally supposed to get 4 dose dense Taxols. However, my counts all plummeted after AC, so my onco changed the regimen. I was a LOT EASIER to be on Taxol. I had zero nausea and could leave a fairly normal life. The only issues I had were with my nails. They hurt and turned funny colors. I used tree tea oil everyday on them and always kept them painted. I did not lose any nails. Yay! Also, the steroids made me anxious for the 2 days I had to take them. I took Ativan so I could sleep. You will be OK! :)

Apr 18, 2012 12:32 PM mccrimmon324 wrote:

Lory, am I reading this wrong?  The vaccine was for HER +?  I get so confused reading this stuff

Apr 18, 2012 01:53 PM mccrimmon324 wrote:

I asked the other day at my appt and was told I was definitely in the negative range.

Apr 18, 2012 02:41 PM inmate4232010 wrote:

Good Afternoon Ladies,

My surgery went well and I have healed (sort of).  The area which used to be host to my left breast has now had 5 surgeries and looks more like a quilt with all the scars, redness, etc.  Playboy stopped calling years ago, so no worries, I just don't look at myself much any more.  My Mo said that the margins were not quite what they wanted and I still have internal mammary nodes involved. That is what we knew was probably going to be the case so we will use those nodes as an indicator of the success for the next chemo.  

The games begin again on Friday.  Two years to the day of my bad mammo.  Cancer does just love irony!  I will be getting erubilin this time.  2 on one off, repeated for three cycles, then scan. I have not asked my MO what stage I am and he has not offered.  I guess we both know I am stage 4 now so why talk about it.  That seemed ok to me until I looked up the side effects of erubilin.  Apparently this drug is used for advanced metastatic breast cancer.  Nice!  I could have gone all day without reading that.  My MO wants to get me to NED and thinks this will do the trick.  Here's hoping he is right!  This will be my 10th chemo and I feel like I am running out of options.  Cancer just fucking sucks!  (not in the mood to PG-13 my swear words, sorry).

With that said I generally feel good and am very excited to get started again.  How sad is that?  Now if I can just remember where I put my "big shoes" so I can put them on and kick some ass!

Best thing that happened to me today:  Ok, it hasn't happened yet, but my sister is coming down for a sleep over, last hurrah.  We will be hanging out in the yard, eating pizza and washing it all down with some sherry barrell aged tequila.  Friday I become a teetotaler.  Ugh! 

Love to you all!