Illinois ladies facing bc
Comments
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Oh thank you Jackie for your kind words. I found a haven here when I needed the haven and hope that those who followed us in our journeys found a home here, too, where they could vent and reach out to each other.
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Its been invaluable on my journey to have this site. Enjoy the Illinois gals alot too...
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Best resource I've ever found.....Thank you so much!
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The art of living... is neither careless drifting on the one hand nor
fearful clinging to the past on the other. It consists in being sensitive
to each moment, in regarding it as utterly new and unique,
in having the mind open and wholly receptive. Alan Watts0 -
I too would like to say thanks Rita! I am a year out from my BMX & almost ready to put this chapter behind me but this is the one thread I read on a regular basis. It was comforting to know I always had each of you to lean on during both of my battles (and beyond)!
Jenn
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Wow, Rita! This is really remarkable! So many posts, so many women who found each other because you stepped forward in your own search for a connection. You must and should feel very proud that your misfortune (cancer) brought so much fortune to others who shared that one thing in common with you.
Susan
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Yep--Rita made Lemonade out of Lemons.....and we all got to have some
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Thank you, Rita. Thank you very much!
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Rita-Let me add my thanks to you for starting this thread-lots of good information and a place to feel like we can say what we are feeling. On that note....one year ago I was going through life fat, dumb, and happy, my only child just graduating with her bachelor's degree...Then the crap started hitting fan as they say. I had been worrying about a lump in my right armpit for a couple of years, had mammos and ultrasounds-everyone said nothing to worry about. Well, once again I complained about it and lo and behold after mammo, ultrasound, CT, CNB...it was indeed occult breast cancer! Makes me mad that no one took it seriously back in 2011, maybe then it would have been found at an earlier stage, before it spread to my lymph nodes and ended up Stage 3, but...water under the bridge so they say. So here I am a year later still fat (emotional eater), dumber (thanks chemo brain) and not so happy
This last year has sucked as you all know cancer sucks and the treatments suck big time! I pretty much have pain all the time now, some new pains from the hormonal therapy, some old that has been ramped up to the point that it is almost unbearable. I am seeing my ortho next week for a hip joint injection to hopefully get some relief there. Most days I feel 85 instead of my 58. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for all the advances in cancer treatments that have made it possible for me to still be here a year later, I'm just fed up with being exhausted and in pain all the time. I know many ladies have it much worse, but feel the need to whine this morning. That is what is great about BCO and this thread, we can feel free to moan and groan without being judged for it.Thanks for listening and hope everyone who is still doing treatments have few SEs, hang in there ladies together we can power through this-we are stronger than we know! I feel blessed to have found this thread and all the great gals here!
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Once you accept and rejoice in your authenticity, you begin to see things as YOU are. You begin to see the authentic SELF in the soul made visible. Godspeed on your journey to wholeness.
Sarah Ban Breathnach
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Mimil55 --- as you have easily, but I'm sure with so much reluctance seen, this dx is such a life changer and re-arranger. However much kicking and screaming, we have to go along for the ride. It is one of the times in life where attitude I think plays a major role. I'm glad to see yours looks fairly good for all you have had to endure.
Though much is painful, and there are days, on my, maybe even some weeks of overall discouragement, I do try to keep in sight the fact that what we go through and how we go through it, I believe with my whole heart helps someone else. Indeed, that is the reason so many of us stay right here. Hoping to encourage and help others through the road that is the same but so different too.
Someone looks and sees and hopes to find the very best way within themselves to cope with these very huge life events and come out as good as possible. Because they see that is what you are doing.
I also have kept in mind for the longest time -- if life were great, what would we learn about ourselves and about others. What would propel us to change our circumstances in ways that would help us the most. It is when challenges come that we look to open our eyes and minds and search for the very best answers we can find for ourselves.
It is good to whine and allow some of our negative emotions to take over for a bit. You always have trouble with the things that are swirling around you that you maybe haven't identified totally. Once you let them form, and become solid, then you can identify ( like old clothes in a closet ) what to keep, what to throw away and what to alter -- to become a you that can handle your problems and live life the best you can.
I'm glad your here.
Blessings,
Jackie
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"I've
learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands;
you need to be able to throw something back."
Maya Angelou0 -
Mimi- so sorry to hear about your pain. Our stories sound somewhat similar. I had pain in my armpit and saw a surgeon who said it was nothing. Several months later, still pain, saw another doctor, had me do a diagnostic mammogram and ultra sound. Bingo.....cancerous lymph node right where the pain was. They diagnosed it as an occult cancer until I had a MRI. They found a very small cancer in my breast. It was too small for the mammogram to pick up. The doc at Northwestern took out the small breast mass plus 27 lymph nodes and left in the cancerous one. I found that out when I went to a local hospital for chemo. My second surgery took out the cancerous node. Anyway today I made an appt to see an orthopedic doctor for my knee pain. I hope he doesn't tell me to stop dancing.
Like you, I'm grateful for living in this age where they can better treat cancer but wish the treatments didn't cause continuous pain. Thanks for listening.
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FGM- Wow how could they remove 27 nodes but leave in the cancerous one, really????? Even with MRI my primary has never been located. I guess I'm just that special LOL...Hope you don't have to quit dancing, that just wouldn't be fair not after all we have been through lately. Good luck with your appt.
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Never quit dancing girls, even if we have to do the shuffle step.....
Hoping for relief for your aches and pains . Its just hell to hurt.
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Deep within us all there is an amazing inner sanctuary of the soul, a
holy place, a Divine Center, a speaking Voice. . . . Life from the Center is a
life of unhurried peace and power. It is
simple. It is serene. It is amazing. It is radiant.
T.R. Kelly0 -
The further you distance yourself from your
expectations, the more exhilarating your life will become. Though a
situation in which you find yourself may not correspond to your initial wants,
needs, or goals, ask yourself how you can make the most of it and then do your
best to adapt. Your life's journey will likely take many unpredicted and
astonishing twists because you are willing to release your expectations.
Madisyn Taylor0 -
Are you present in this moment, right here, right now? Or are you remembering what you didn't do yesterday, thinking about what you have to do tomorrow, regretting what you did last week. If you are in any of these places, you are not her...e, right now in the fullness of this moment. The richness of the present is here. The fullness of now is present. If you are not here now, it means you could be missing the love, joy, peace and brand-new ideas that are here right now. Why not take a moment to gather yourself, to pull yourself together, to collect all of your thoughts and feelings in this time and place? -Iyanla Vanzant
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Because gratification of a desire leads to the temporary stilling of the
mind and the experience of the peaceful, joyful Self, it's no wonder that we
get hooked on thinking that happiness comes from the satisfaction of
desires. This is the meaning of the old adage, "Joy is not in
things, it is in us."
Joan Borysenko0 -
Although the world is full of suffering,
it is full also of the overcoming of it.
My optimism, then, does not rest on the absence of evil,
but on a glad belief in the preponderance of good
and a willing effort always to cooperate with the good,
that it may prevail.
- Helen Keller0 -
The world needs all of our power and love and energy, and each of us has something to give. The trick is to find it and use it, to find it and give it away, so there will always be more. We can be lights for each other, and through each other’s illumination we will see the way. Each of us is a seed, a silent promise, and it is always spring.
Merle Shain0 -
Good morning,
You gals must be having a wonderful summer as no one has posted lately. Hope you are all well and doing fine. Sometimes, no news is good news.
We are ( and I know the Chicago area has gotten it too ) having heat, humidity and storms off and on and it is going at this point for about a week. It has been ( but like that several yrs. now ) a bit of a strange summer so far. If you are running or walking outside I hope you keep some water with you. We have been using our local Rec Center. You can walk for a dollar a day....or buy a walking pass for $12.00 which will cover a month. That is what we do as the weather can be so un-predictable here.
I think about all of you every day when I put in your quote for the day. You are very important people.
Blessings,
Jackie
EDITED to correct miss-spelled word0 -
Hi Jacki and all--
yes it is really hot and humid. I am walking two miles every day until I do something totally dumb like schedule the vet appointment the morning tht I go to Weight Watchers and Volunteer at a Master Gardener Project each week. (I'm blaming it on the Rads and Arimidex screwing with my memory). Been busy putting in a few plants each week in my garden and trying to catch up of the stuff I let go while doing Rads. Still have some fatigue issues. Today after weighing in and doing the vet visit, cleaned off the back patio and put down weed killer between the pavers. Now I am wondering how many pounds I've prespired off since this a.m.
Had my post rads check up yesterday. She says I am NED and will see me in Feb 2015 after I have my diagnostic mammo. Disgusted to learn that the diagnostic mammo is for both breasts. I told her I only needed screening in the healthy breast and she winced and said in NY, where she used to practice, they could order them that way, but not here..... My insurance will not cover anything on my diagnostic one, but it is free if it is screening. There ought to be a law against ripping of women who are cancer fighters......
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Life is not always as
it seems.
What you have wished for is not always best.
What you have feared may become a blessing.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie0 -
I have always loved this quote because it has been true for me so many times.
Getting ready to face another hot, humid day. Of course, I won't be outside too much and that will help but we don't keep it super cool inside either. About 78 to 80 indoors. We hope to avoid huge shocks either way.....whether we are going out or coming back in from an errand.
I have been places where it was kept much cooler and I find I'm actually cold and a bit un-comfortable. Hopefully that won't happen too much this year. I think of the days around here when no one had a/c ( everybody pretty much does now ) and think how dicey it must have been. At the time I was a kid though and heat did not have much of an effect then.
Blessings
Jackie
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I'm sitting outside at work now for lunch because the lunchroom is so damn cold
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Redheaded1,
I was actually upset that I didn't have a diagnostic on my healthy breast at any time for two years after the diagnosis, then at my last mammogram they called me back for a diagnostic and ultrasound. We wait for the results to be read so everything is done within an hour of the screening one. All was fine. But now they have a solid baseline to compare future mammograms. I feel future problems, if they occur, will be spotted more quickly.
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Doxie---are you saying I will know when they are done with the diagnostics that all is well before I leave? this is new to me, they did say that they only schedule them in am because they take extra shots and then there is time if ultrasound is needed. That's pretty cool.
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Redheaded1,
That is what they do at my clinic. I don't know if it is standard everywhere else. After a screening mammo, they send you on your way and you have to wait for a letter stating you are clear for another six mo or a year. I suppose the results are reviewed a 2nd time before a letter is sent.
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I believe that the first test of a truly great person is one's humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of one's own powers. But really great people have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them but through them. And they see something divine in every other person.
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