Best Of
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
@goldensrbest Yes, praise god for the good news for your DH. That is an answer to prayer.
@mara51506 Covering you in prayers this morning.
Re: Over 60, Birads 3 and a Story you Can’t Believe
I wanted to give an update, mostly in case someone else in my shoes sees this post later. I had my ultrasounds done at the new facility. They look very reassuring, but I am getting bilateral biopsies in January. This is the first time I feel calm since this whole mess started, because I will get a definitive answer. As women get older, new focal asymmetries have a higher risk of cancer than they do in younger women. I wish I’d never Googled that, but it’s definitely more than the 2% risk that is the standard for Birads 3. When you add in my family history, it’s just scary. I’m very hopeful this will be benign, but for me it is better to know now than wait.
There is one other thing that I can’t stress enough. If you aren’t happy with your care, get a second opinion. Every thing about this second facility has been better than the first. I was able to see the radiologist in person and he spent time answering my questions. There was one thing where he didn’t have an answer and he called me before I was even out of the parking lot with the information. No matter what happens, I feel secure that the care I get will be appropriate. There is no way that I could have said that if I’d stayed with the first radiology group.
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
@intolight The decision to stop treatment or to continue on is definitely a hard decision, I am in your pocket as you decide what to do and hope that the choice is for you as much as others who love you. Holding you in my thoughts.
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
@intolight @threetree I am so sorry to hear of your treatment changes coming up. That is hard to do when you do not know SE that may be involved, in my pocket for sure.
@intolight a change in treatment is a big deal. What I am going through is similar to the first time around. I will admit not really looking forward to it but at least it is a known experience from before. As long as I have stuff to do whilst sitting in bed post surgery and a sleep mask when bored, it will all be fine. So many here have endured hospital stays, I can hardly complain.
Re: So...whats for dinner?
Wally, What a crummy day. Definitely have some wine. If I were there I’d give you a real hug; a virtual one will have to do.
Eric, Those first responders realize they are doing a service for the individuals they help and society in general. One of them said the goal is to keep people in their homes for as long as possible. Their experience means they also recognize when it is no longer safe.
Aging is like child development in reverse: things happen at different rates for each person and you have little control over how they unfold. Some things can't be fixed (like my DH's brain lesions.) As Wally said the emotional part is the hardest. Looking over the edge of the cliff changed my mindset. Since the day my pulmo called and told me he now thought I would see my next birthday (six months after "the talk") I count each day as a gift. I guess having been to that place means I no longer fear it. I vowed I wouldn't whine whatever happens but sometimes I still do, lol.
Dinner tonight was corned beef hash.
maggie15
Re: So...whats for dinner?
Dinner ended up being a hard boiled egg. DH had another seizure and we went to the emergency.
Turns out he has 4 brain lesions. They suspect mets from prostate cancer but could be a new primary. Will call onco on monday. One of the nurses hugged me when she saw me sobbing….
They had 2 huge traumas and it took 2 hours just to get stuffed into a closet of a room….got there at noon and just got home at 6.
I'm having wine. Lots of it, I hope.
wallycat
Re: So...whats for dinner?
I appreciate all of your kind words. I know getting older has pitfalls and I hope I have the strength to get both of us to a nice finish-line-landing. Emotionally and physically.
I ended up making tuna melts last night. I'm thawing chicken thighs and unsure what they'll become.
wallycat
Re: Bone Mets Thread
@shanagirl - you had 13 years before the bone mets hit, @xsuzx - you had 8 years. I only managed 3 🙁. @tougholdcrow - I agree that a lot of these pains, as in the sternum, are from all sorts of things and not necessarily mets. I get pain from exercise, inactivity, posture and ergonomic problems, and the weather. My oncologist too, suggested that the pain I have in my sternum, and in the area below it, is likely "multifactorial", so we're just keeping an eye on things. I did have a scan on Veterans Day and they saw nothing "glaring or acute" at that time. Going for routine scans again today (CT and bone with contrast), so we shall see. It's always so scary and stressful!
Re: Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
I went at noon to get Holter monitor applied. It's four pads on my chest and a small palm sized battery pack connected to 4 leads. Then headed to Acme to pickup some additional items that I couldn't locate at Giant yesterday. I still have to go on Monday to buy ground beef and eggnog for Christmas day. I don't like buying it with a short expiration date. Did also buy some poinsettia's: red, pink and cream with the pink centered leaves.
I did hit Hallmark for cards for my DSIL's birthday, Christmas card for DH and a graduation card for my dear niece's husband. He just graduated from the police academy on Wednesday. It's been a very eventful month for them, since they lost a DF (DSIL) and DGF (niece), he graduated the day after the funeral (overshadowed a bit) and then her Christmas Eve birthday.
This is also the month my DF died 16 years ago. The fathers died within a day of each other and their funerals were also within a day of each other. It was also the month when I was being indoctrinated into the BC debacle. It has taken me 10 years to finally consider putting a tree up again. It's up, but I am not enthralled, it's more for others than me. I used to love Christmas, but not anymore. Long story short, what the radiologist said still rings in my head and it was not empathetic.
I also managed to find a parking spot close to the Sherwin Williams paint store so I could grab the paint for the dining room walls. There are 2 restaurants and other stores in this shopping center and parking is at a premium. The owner was telling me that he is losing business due to the fact there is no parking at times. He should have several dedicated SW parking only, but I am sure people would ignore it anyhow. They even drive next door to the empty Rite-Aid parking lot and walk back. I wanted to get the paint while it was still on sale since it was 30% off. DB said I only needed a gallon, so fingers crossed it is enough. I had DH pickup Glidden ceiling paint yesterday at Home Depot.
carole, I will be doing the lasagna marathon for Christmas day. Since they are so labor intensive, I make a massive one for dinner, one for DS, another for DD, and then at least one for my freezer. Whatever is leftover on Christmas, gets cut into meal size pieces, and then sealed with my seal a meal into individual pouches and put into the freezer. I make the meat sauce either in the oven or microwave in the largest Corning ware container I have and since DSIL doesn't like lasagna, I will cook him some ravioli or spaghetti that he can have with meat sauce. I may have to do the same for DGS.
The deer managed to open one pumpkin and were busy chowing down on it yesterday. I will take a hammer to the second one and hold the others in reserve until we get cold weather again. We are expected to hit 60 today, but at 3:30 it is only 48 degrees with a forecast for thunderstorms accompanied by high winds later.
Deer only have teeth in their lower jaw for biting and grinding plants. They have a hard palate on their upper jaw. So they pinch off plant parts with their lower front teeth and their back teeth are used for grinding. I learn something new everyday. So getting that pumpkin open was a challenge for them. However, they really enjoyed it. I just went out and made a hole in the pumpkin using my meat tenderizer hammer. I was barely back in the kitchen when a doe showed up. Then a second one came. I hope it gets some.
cindyny sorry to hear of the challenges presented by updating to Windows11. My computer and laptop are both too old to update to Windows11. We always backup to an exterior hard drive before we make any major changes and it sounds like this is a good thing. I hope you can recover what you think you have lost. Would it be on the Cloud? I am not a computer expert, so I leave any updates to DH or DS for that reason and have at times given DS remote access to make changes for me.
X-ray reports are back for cervical, thoracic and lumbar spines. The bottom line is that I need a new spine since this one seems hell-bent on collapsing. I have bony and positional changes in all three, but each of the comments sections and impression sections are blank even though the impressions sections say "see comments". I think the PA who ordered them is out of the office until 1/6 and I hate having to wait until then to get answers. Oh, well, my back hurts like the devil whenever I perform repetitive motions, so I am suffering today for ironing yesterday.
The Bipap is a hard adjustment because each night presents with a new challenge. I reread the booklet and did a google search to see if I could get some help. I loosened the mask, and was able to sleep on my back last night for a brief time. When the seal breaks, it emits these fart-like noises, which could wake anyone. I did sleep the best last night, but still don't feel rested. That was the aim of this, restful sleep with less hypopnea episodes and no nocturnal hypoxia. Not sure if I am there yet.
Hope everyone had a great day and waving "hi" to all who are busy. Just noticed my one orchid had one flower open today. It's lovely and Bumblebee is singing away like crazy today. He's happy and so am I.
betrayal
Re: My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
@intolight - I am so very sorry to hear about your latest situation too! My gosh, this is all so awful, and at Christmastime too! (I also have my birthday tomorrow.) Like you say, what a terrible Christmas present! Well, I commend you for giving the chemo a try; I don't know if I could/would or not if I was in the same situation - I think I'd have to be in the situation before I would know what I would do. I think it's good that your oncologist is starting you off with a low dose. That should help for sure. She sounds really good and nice. I wish you all the luck in the world with this and I will be "sending vibes out to the universe" and have my fingers crossed 🤞that this will work well for you. Sending a big hug!
@chicagoan - Thank you so very much for the good wishes re my new situation. I'm holding out that it might not be quite as bad as it looks, although I'm sure there is some kind of progression, especially in the liver. I still can't help wondering how much all my arthritis, etc. might have affected some of the scan results though. Well, I'll get a better picture when I see the onc on Dec 31. I really appreciate your nice and very welcome thoughts.
@tougholdcrow - I wish I could accept that hug you are offering and would like to be able to give one right back. It's sure nice of you to offer your sympathies and warm thoughts. Thank you.