trigeek

Kerry thanks for adding a new word to my dictionary lol... !!! Spring you are honoring me, the only resemblance is my hard headedness which I tried to tame after being diagnosed but apparently it did not work. Anne !!! so nice to hear from you again !

This is my plan, I found a half ironman training plan from www.trinewbies.com it is an 18 week one,their assumption to start training is :

The following program is designed for the triathlete who has competed in several triathlons, perhaps even a season of triathlons, preferably Olympic Distance Races. It also takes into consideration he or she can run at least 7 miles or about an hour with relative ease, swim at least 5000 yards per week and ride at least 25-30 miles 3 times per week on the bike

Counting back 18 weeks from May 17th ( thats when the Florida Half Ironman is) I need to start the training plan on 12th of January that gives me 7 weeks in which  I have to be able to work up to the distances stated above sounds doable at this point. Although my slug ( cannot even call it jog) pace is about 14-15 min/mile, and my bike speed on the flats is 13 mph.

Present health challenges/variables:

1. 1 - Heel spurs are a big problem in the mornings until I warm up I have to walk by leaning on furniture for a couple of minutes after getting up(I was given cortisone pills which I have not taken yet)
   2 - I am on Arimidex which is said to play a trick on the joints it has been 4 weeks I do not feel anything hopefully that will continue. 
   3 - I will be getting Zometa infusions for bone strengthening starting in January due to osteopenia am not sure of its side effects
2. 4 - Insomnia due to night flushes, tried Ambien CR which made me have anervous breakdown, presently taking 15 mg Melatonin which is partially working I do not want to take any more meds.
3. 5 - A big a.. !! ( the 40 pounds I gained) - will try following weight watchers presently am 166 pounds yikes !!! I was around 130 when this all started.

I am a member of the Central Florida Tri club and the coach gives weekly workouts on the website and meets some mornings for swim and run training ( I do not like them cause they are at 5 am !!! ) I can follow their workouts too occasionally and run my questions by him.

Talked to the masters coach he charges 30 usd monthly from swimmers and they meet 4 times week in the evenings, I do not like infusing myself with the Y chlorinated water but I guess I will go to 2 sessions/week. I do not like the idea of paying 30 usd monthly but I guess Imight need some help on my swim.

I will not be doing weight training because it takes me forever to recover from an intense session(although I probably should due to osteopenia) but instead will do power yoga 1-2 sessions a week I do believe that I have enough body weight to challenge my bones.

Well now back to work ... I will see how this all rolls out.Thanks for supporting me here !

Previous to sh.. hitting the you know what I used to be a trigeek ( triathlon geek) doing long distance events, I was never competitive but was addicted to the long hours of training. Since july 2007 I had 4 surgeries !!!! chemo rads.. and I have been trying to 'domesticate' myself by being a bit more calm, just doing 30-40 minute workouts at the gym saying that 'this is good for me'

Result : gained 40 pounds, almost went into depression.. according to my hd I was in depression ... and am totally out of shape.

Today is my birthday I felt no compassion to anything whatsoever until I started browsing the triathlon web sites.. Mind me at this point I can not even run 1 minute .. I have done some 5-10 k's prior to my hysterectomy oopherectomy 4 weeks ago but at a slug pace mainly walking them.

And then I saw a Half Ironman event in  Disney on May '09 exactly 6 months from today and went ahead and registered for it .. I felt soo good.

I will not comply, I will notchange I liked who I was and I will return to what I was ( minus the cra..py c cells !!! )

Ohh I felt soo good after I hit that registration button, and cannot wait until I get home to write up a training plan.. it will be tough I might not be able to finish the event .. or even if I finish it might not be a decent time but who cares .. the road to the start line is what is important the race is just an icing on the cake. I have done these suckers ( not this one) before and I know their essence.

Phewww a load has been lifted,  I am back in the tri scene !!!! I think this is the way to go .. follow your heart to whereever it wants to go,.

Hey gals,

Thought I would share this link with you while you are waiting for results ( urghhh that was indeed the worst part of the whole bc deal for me )

 Puppy cam

http://dlisted.com/node/29141

Enjoy ! I do not realize how time passes.. hmm let me share this with other groups too

Ok have been reading a lot of posts regarding humans are not supposed to consume meat.

Which kind of puzzles me although I do feel really yucky/heavy/bogged down the after gulping  new york strip ( yummm ! ) if I cut the meat altogether no matter how much legumes/grains/ nuts I eat I just do not feel right. I do very well with chicken and fish tho my body purrs like a fine tuned engine if I eat 1 portion/day.

Why am I puzzled ?

I was told that the creatures that were supposed to be hunters needed depth perception and had their eyes in the front, whereas the non-carniv creatures ( birds .. ) have their eyes on the sides.

Which kind of made sense ( except the vultures and some birds eating worms and stuff)

 Thoughts ?

oh and I had an unexpected benefit from bouncing. I am kind of depressed had my hyst/oopher 3 weeks ago topped with arimidex really threw me in a loop.

After bouncing on the ball for a couple of minutes I really feel good !

Yoga ball as an antidepressant ?

Thank you all for taking your time to look into this ! 

Ok went to the onco today here is his plan for me.

Arimidex, cause he states that the AI's have proven to be 40% more effective than Tamox in my situation( guess that means for post-menap)

Zometa injections twice a year - like you Gitane -

He wants me to be on Arimidex but pretty much left the decision up to me between Femara and Arimidex his decision towards is Arimidex only because it has been tested for longer he said.

I will get my first Zometa infusion in 2 months he wants me to be on Arimidex for that period first. I reallywanted this because of the research that showed that Zometa not only strengthens bones but also helps prevent recurrence.

Now I just have to dig some research comparing Femara to Arimidex but overall I am happywith the action plan.

Thank you all !

Andrea I had the davinci robotic laparoscopic hysterectomy with oophe done 1 week ago and I have not felt anything yet. ( other than a bit dryness down there and dry eyes) 

Actually all I have is 4 holes in my tummy no bleeding whatsoever a bit of abdominal discomfort for the first couple of days while the organs probably were shifting around to fill in the space.

But I hear what you are saying my daughter said ' mom now you are not a woman.. no boobs, no uterus, no ovaries' WOW !!! now that was really a harsh statement but made me think And then I realized that having all those did not define my womanhood and I was much more than that.

I did get sad for a while but moved on, if you are brac + there definitely is a lot of merit in taking that route.

Good luck ! 

Everyminute, I hear you, almost all of us had to make significant decisions regarding our treatments because unfortunately there is no black and white treatment for this sucker.

All I can say is go with your gut feel, talk to several doctors read the research make your own informed decisions and never look back.

I would like to share my experience with you since it might benefit.

Was offered a lumpectomy, chose to have a bilateral mx. Which was a good choice because the infected breast had multifocal occurences throughout, the other breast was collateral damage, but I just cannot face another mammo machine --> decision #1 

Diagnosed at stage 2b, 2 out of6 lymph nodes positive ( had a sentinel node biopsy)

Chose my own chemo ( Dose Dense AC/T) and found a doctor that would give that to me.. ( surprisingly the MD Anderson doc did not want to do dose dense so had to switch to Florida Hospital)-->decision #2

Once chemo was over I was at another decision point. My oncologist said I should get all lymph nodes removed and did not want me to get rads. The rads oncologist said that I should get the whole package of 35 rad treatment to the axilla. None of them suggested that I do both due to the morbidity associated ( lymphedema) I believe I saw 12 doctors and 6 said rads, 6 said surgery. And actually I was given the option to do neither ! Went to 2 major hospitals tumor boards, one was undecisive the other went by the books and said I needed to get the lymph nodes out. Did my homework, read lots of research and went with rads kept my remaining lymph nodes --> decision #3

Now the exciting part for you. Since the beginning I wanted to have the whole basement cleaned out ( ovaries.. uterus.. ) no one agreed with me and I was BRAC -. The thought was that certain studies compared bc survivors who had ooph.. and those who had not. And there was no significant change in lifespan. Apparently the ovaries do regulate other stuff in the body and when removed problems occur. And I did not seem to have any problems with my equipment at that point.

Fast forward to this year. Started Tamoxifen in May I immediately had significant amount of vaginal discharge, where I had to change pads every 2 hours! No problem I thought, a small price to pay to prevent recurrence. I had gone into chemopause ( I am 45) and thought that was the end of my monthly cycles. Then suddenly in august I had some cramping and a really weird spotting/bleeding issue. Called the oncologist who said not to worry and that my period was coming back and it could be very irregular at the beginning. I still did not like the feel of it so I went to my ob-gyn who did an transvaginal ultrasound. Here is what she found:

Complex cysts with septations and abnormal doppler flows(not a good indication), which are growing on both ovaries.

Thickened/enlarged uterus with fibroids.

Mind you nothing was there last year !!! They did the ca-125 testing ( for ovarian cancer) which turned out negative but that marker is not very effective for pre-menap gals.

Immediately stopped tamox and went to a oncology gynecologist who said that he did not think it was c but we definitely would need to take all out ( uterus, tubes, ovaries ) and maybe the omentum and possible lymph node dissection if things did not look good.

Had Da vinci robotic laparoscopy yesterday ( this is the only way to remove ovaries I believe without making an abdominal incision) and luckily the doc said that everything looked good they probably sent what came out to pathology but he is very experienced and is not expecting foul play.

So if I had listened to my gut feel last year and got the suckers out before they started causing trouble I would have spared myself the 1.5 month of panic.

But there are a lot of gals which do not have any problems keeping them and going on tamox, I just was not one of them and I somehow knew..

Good luck with your decision.

Hey gals,

Did not know where to post this so am posting in multiple threads. My ovaries, uterus seemed to have gone bonkers ( I think the tamox fueled the weirdness although I had only been on it for 5 months.. and I did have lower back pain way before that WHICH I IGNORED !!!) there are complex cysts with abnormal doppler flows on both ovaries, enlarged / thickened uterus, endometriosis,fibroid.. you get the picture.

ca-125 markers came out clean, got a pet scan they did not call me so I am thinking that no news is good news.

Went to a oncology gynecologist who said he did not think it was cancer but definitely said we should take all out, hopefully laparoscopically ( robotic assisted).  If he does not like what he sees after frozen section he will need to open up doing regular surgery yikes !!!

So my questions are:

1 - How do I prepare for hysterectomy, in case I do have abdominal incision ? For after the surgery..

2 - Any suggestions on what to take after surgery ? I heard that due to the growth hormone increase for recovery it is important to take some antiinflammatories to prevent mets if something bad is indeed there ? Can I take curcumin.. fish oil maybe ? should I take it immediately after surgery or is there a problem with those related to clotting ?

Overall any heads up on hysterectomy ? I went so prepared to my bilateral mastectomy but am having a hard time finding info on this.

Thanks in advance !  

Ok so I am passing up on getting a water filtration system installed for the whole house, however am convinced to have 2 filters :

1 - Under the sink for drinking / cooking - which also will feed the fridge water

2 - on the Shower head to reduce chlorine.

Any suggestions on which brand / kind to purchase ? Any particular details I should pay attention to ?

Thanks in advance gals !