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Illinois ladies facing bc

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Comments

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015

    DSW, I understand--I was a tough as nails broad that nothing ever got to-then we found my achillies tendon as they say----you tell me something is wrong with me physically and I am the weakest and worst scared cat in the litter.

  • zap
    zap Member Posts: 1,850
    edited February 2015

    Tryler,

    Here is the url for the Cancer Wellness Center

    http://cancerwellness.org/cancer-wellness-center-n...

    It offers free programs for all people with cancer and their families....not just breast cancer. I attended some programs and like every other organization, some were great experiences and some were not. It is in Northbrook so not that much closer than Evanston. It is somewhat near Northbrook Court. Perhaps you could look over their bulletin and see if there is something that might work for you. Good luck!

    Susan/aka Zap

  • trvler
    trvler Member Posts: 931
    edited February 2015

    Thanks, Ladies. Northbrook is much more convenient to me than Evanston.

  • DSW1976
    DSW1976 Member Posts: 34
    edited February 2015

    I would need both lago .  Thanks again 

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    If you can accept the flow of life and give in to it,

    you will be accepting what is real.  Only when you accept

    what is real can you live with it in peace and happiness.

    The alternative is a struggle that will never end because

    it is a struggle with the unreal, with a mirage of life

    instead of life itself.

    Deepak Chopra     

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    Light snow here this morning -- but just about enough to float in the air.  I don't think it will change so no real accumulation -- and then after today -- on to warmer temps. 

    I will be going first thing in the morning to stay where I work and will in fact stay overnight -- and not sure when I will get back home on Wednesday ( great for me as some extra  money will be much appreciated ) but wanted you all to know that I'll be a little lax on quotes.  They will resume as quickly as possible.  When you are so use to doing something and then you don't  --- you spend lots of time wondering what you have forgotten. 

    I know the weather up North is not at all good ( we are so fortunate here ) and was glad to hear that school for many won't be in session.  Hope all stay warm, well and safe.

    Blessings

    Jackie

  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 11,653
    edited February 2015

    DSW1976 I did see a radiation oncologist but I did get a pass. I was in a gray area. I really liked her though:
    Dr. Katherine Griem linky

    My breast surgeon is semi-retired and only there 1 day a week. Not sure you want to go to him since he's semi-retired:
    Dr. Thomas Witt linky

    I have heard great things about this breast surgeon at Rush. I know a few people who used her:
    Dr. Andrea Madrigrano linky

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015

    Have fun, IL Lady.   We got about 5.5-6 inches and my driveway got cleared 3 times yesterday.  At 7.am. (while still snowing) by my paid person, about 2:30 by the Blues star (Matthew Curry and the Fury) who lives next door, then again at 10 pm by . person who I pay.  Then of course, the city plow plowed me shut sometime last night after 10p;m   I t was such huge clods,  I just hoisted the big ones out of my way and I will gun it over the rest.  Good heavy layer of ice on the whole drive. .....

  • vanmama
    vanmama Member Posts: 74
    edited February 2015

    The sun is shining and it looks beautiful outside today! Of course it's a whole 18 degrees out! I don't plan to go anywhere today. My DH just left after checking in on me and said the roads are pretty slick in our little town. He's a farmer so he sets his own schedule and will stay busy making sure driveways and sidewalks are cleared for friends and family in our two small towns.

    I have an appointment with my oncologist tomorrow so hopefully I can get the details on my cancer (so I can put it in my signature) and he will have a plan. I'm not quite ready to begin treatment since I still have half my staples and a seroma has developed again on the right side.

    My appointment with the surgeon is Wednesday so I'm hoping the staples come out and he'll aspirate the seroma.

    I have had a sore throat and headache for a couple of days so I'm really trying to take it easy.

    I am so ready to move on from the "healing" phase to the "treatment" phase. I've been off work the whole month of January and am just not ready to return quite yet.

    Have a great Monday!

    Laura

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    Since I won't be available to put this in tomorrow morning -- I'll put it in tonight.  Then hopefully be able to get home sometime on Wednesday afternoon and find all of you another nice one. 

     

    "Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't
    resist them - that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow
    naturally forward in whatever way they like."     ~ Lao Tzu




     

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015

     Wonderful choice for a quote.  Especially suitable for those of us here on this roller coaster ride with the Big C!!!! 

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    You may not seem able
    to change some outer circumstances
    but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.

    - Joy Page

  • vanmama
    vanmama Member Posts: 74
    edited February 2015

    Woo hoo! I am finally staple free and my seromas are drained again! Surgeon will see me again in 2 weeks and hopefully release me then.

    Saw the oncologist yesterday. Very positive appointment. He will start me on Femara as soon as I'm released from the surgeon, until after my son's wedding March 29. I just didn't want to start chemo now and have the wedding pictures show me looking sick/possibly without hair. IF I decide to do chemo, it will only be 4 rounds but will probably lose my hair. Then I would go back on the Femara for 5 years.

    Laura

  • MimiL55
    MimiL55 Member Posts: 84
    edited February 2015

    Laura-great that you had a positive appt with both the surgeon and onc. Hoping you get released at the next appt. Did your MO say which chemo you will take if you decide to? I had 4 rounds of TC and believe me even though my MO said I might not lose my hair, I did starting at about day 14 after first treatment. Glad your MO will work with you for your son's wedding-it is important that they realize we still have lives while going through treatments.

    Wishing everyone peaceful, painfree days!

    Mimi

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015

    Vanmama--glad you had a good meeting.   Are you using one of the MO's at the Community Cancer Center?  I have Dr Migas.  Got to be honest---I don't like that IF in your post regarding Chemo-----  YOU CAN DO IT!!!!!!!!

    Just get yourself a good wig from a shop over in Peoria.  Before you need it----I can't think of the name, but several of the
    townies went over there.  You don't want this shit popping up someplace else in your body, that's for sure....

    LakeGirl--if you are lurking, tell her the name of the shop you went to...

    (((Hugs))))

  • vanmama
    vanmama Member Posts: 74
    edited February 2015

    Redheaded1, I see Dr. Migas too. He's the best. The chemo (Taxotere) I believe would lower the risk of recurrence by 10% which I see as significant. My DH just sees it as poison in my body and can't quite get past that. I'm pretty positive that I WILL do it. It's only 4 rounds. I tried to explain to him how good that is, that some people have way more...he will agree to my decision.

    Dr. Migas just always leaves you feeling better about things, doesn't he? I was first around him when my dad got sick in 1999. When Dad died in 2001, Dr. Migas came back to the hospital to be with us. I have always said "Dr. Migas could tell you that you're going to die a very painful death in 10 minutes, and you would be glad to do it just for him" !!!

    And he's not hard on the eyes either! *wink wink*

    Laura

  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015


    Vanmama, someone told me years ago when I was picking out a doctor, to pick out one whose face you wouldn't mind looking at when they were giving you the worst possible news.....  Now of course, with hospitalists, that's not always gonna happen, but yes, he is very smart, very kind, and I think very good at what he does.  Wink Wink is right......one of my friends saw another Onc in another practice, and she went with me to my first meeting with him and she was blown away by how much time and information he gave me.  She said it was like pulling teeth to get her doctor to answer a question.

    Chemo isn't without its long range side effects, but what else can you do ?  Never give up and let the C win....

    I was scared of radiation treatments and it wasn't nothing like I imagined.  We always build stuff up worse in our minds...  

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    Vision
    stands on the shoulders of what is actual to get a better view of what is
    possible.

    --Mary Anne Radmacher

  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 11,653
    edited February 2015

    Laura I did 6 rounds of taxotere with carboplatin. While it does have some special side effects I managed OK. If I could have stopped after the 4th it would have been a breeze for me. But yes I did lose my hair. It all grew back just fine.

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    Perhaps one of the greatest rewards of meditation and prayer is the sense of belonging that comes to us.
    ~Bill W.

  • karen1971
    karen1971 Member Posts: 15
    edited February 2015

    I finished my A/C jan 27th. my next phase is feb.17th. taxtol.


     

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    Karen, glad you are marking off your A/C milestone -- I still recall my four rounds of A/C vividly even after all these yrs.  It is good to be making progress and I hope before you know it we are hearing that you reached the finish line for it.  Hoping for a smooth path for you with good results, always.

    Blessings,

    Jackie

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    When I speak about attention, I mean literally, "How much attention
    can we pay to ourselves?"  As children, sometimes we cannot hold
    our attention for more than a couple of seconds.  Over the years we
    are able to attend to more and more.  Yet, we're seldom schooled
    to hold life in respect, to enlarge our ability to love, take care of,
    and be respectfully connected with all things around us.

     
    Brooke Medicine Eagle


  • Redheaded1
    Redheaded1 Member Posts: 1,455
    edited February 2015

    Congratulations Karen----one giant step for womankind in the fight against  BC!!!!!  Isn't it funny how these milestones mean so much....then the dates get burned into our brains!

    I kept remembering Kathy Bates in Fried Green Tomatoes when she was "Towanda the Avenger and smashed up that little car in the parking lot and telling myself that was what I was doing to the C-cells.

  • karen1971
    karen1971 Member Posts: 15
    edited February 2015

    thanks Jackie.

  • karen1971
    karen1971 Member Posts: 15
    edited February 2015

    thanks redhead

  • ritajean
    ritajean Member Posts: 4,042
    edited February 2015

    YAY Karen, you're done with that A/C! Isn't it great to finish that part of the treatment????

    Vanmama...I see Dr. Migas, too. He is the BEST...as you have already discovered!

    I am really enjoyiing this warm, Florida sunshine. I keep an eye on your weather, though because I have a lady who comes everyday to feed the outside cat and check the house.

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    An old favorite of mine:

    How far you go in
    life depends on your being tender with the young,
    compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving
    and tolerant of the weak and the strong.
    Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

    - George Washington Carver

  • illinoislady
    illinoislady Member Posts: 39,794
    edited February 2015

    In your days - things like this happen to you...
    You get a tap, a nudge, a gentle shake,
    and life whispers to you, "I know you're tired -
    but I don't want you to miss this."
    - Mary Anne Radmacher

  • mdg
    mdg Member Posts: 1,468
    edited February 2015

    Hi to all! I just spent forever reading all the posts and catching up.  I know there was someone new from Elgin - I am in Geneva so "Hi Neighbor!".  I love my oncologist and he is local so PM if you want his info.  I had most of my surgeries in MI before we moved here but I do have a great plastic surgeon at Northwestern.  That is pretty far though.

    So much going on with all of you girls!  Welcome to the other new gals.  Sorry you have to be in our club but glad you found this amazing group of ladies. 

    Last time I posted we were talking a lot about aches and pains from tamoxifen.  I was having so much pain I could barely walk in the morning when I got out of bed.  I could barely workout and teach my aerobics class because my feet hurt so bad.  I would not even be able to make it through an entire yoga class because my hands were killing me.  I have an update I wanted to share.....this is crazy!  For the past two weeks I have gone gluten free and I no longer have any aches and pains!  I never had a gluten sensitivity before and I know I do not have celiac because I was tested before.  I wonder if my body changed after the chemo and now is more sensitive to gluten??  I don't care how it happened....I am just glad I have no more pain!  I am even back to running - I ran 4 miles this morning!  I feel full of energy and I can think more clearly too.  So I just wanted to share in case anyone has pain from tamoxifen.  Going gluten free may be something worth trying.  I personally don't find it hard to be gluten free, but I know for others it may be a bigger challenge. 

    Well I hear our temps are going into the negative numbers again this week.  I just hope it doesn't get as cold as last winter!  Hoping you all stay warm and healthy!  Maybe we should shoot for a spring get together somewhere.  It would be nice to see some of you gals again.  :)

     

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