Chemo in Sept 08
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We are all very very short blonde hair twins!!! (or tripplets??) LOL. I am moving on to more red tones. Also, friends have told me to die it pink and other colors. I guess it's now or never girls! lol.
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OH JANE!! I am wearing my puppy tatto!!!
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It works Bev.....and you have 3 times more hair than I have......lol. My hair would LAUGH if I tried to color it......lol
You could have shown your face ya know.......would love to have seen the hair WITH a face attached to it.
Thanks for keepin us updated on Juli. I haven't been on FB since early this morning.
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Genia, your hair will grow too. My last taxol was early November. I can't believe it. 4 months ago. You will see when you get here, life sort of feels like it is opening up or something.
OK FACE PICTURE NEXT!!!!
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Ok girls....tell me how much this mastectomy is gonna hurt! I'm ready to hear it......God I'm dreading this!
My hair looks hilarious Beverly......it kinda resembles pubic hair!!! lmbo
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LOL Genia! (pubic on top of head LOL LOL LOL .... It will GROW!) You are a FUNNY PERSON!!!
Genia, they have good drugs. Ask Trude. I had issues because the good stuff causes me constipation. So I was trying to balance the two!!! If you can take vicodin, etc., you will be pretty good. That is my take.
Would like to hear what others thought...
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Spring - love the strawberry color. Going back thru the post to see where you purchased the henna. Went all weekend with only a ball cap. I'm getting more comfortable going out without the wig.
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- you girls have a little more hair that i do....I am dreaming of haircolor but can't as i am now allergic to it. I guess i am stuck with the grey!! But I love the color spring. If i coul color i would probably have fun with it since it is so short....
Tamoxifen hasn't been too bad yet but i have only had one day of it. I am however very hot today...not flashes just contstanty hot! Hubby is amazed at how fast my cold naturedness disappeared.....makes me wonder how bad summer in hot steamy Ga is going to be...
Genia- My mast wasn't horrific pain. It wasn't comfortable but i knew that would be the case.. The MOST aggravating thing to me was the drains, not being able to sleep on my side and since i had a double being very limited at what i couldn't do for myself. You learn to let your pride go( you really don't have a choice) and let them help with even private things...The worst day for me was the day after i got home and the day after...(2 and 3) then it got better. We will be praying for you the whole time and believing that everything will be smooth sailing after all you have been through.
Remember to get things in your kitchen cabinets that you use a lot down lower. My cabinets are a tad on the high side and i hd trouble reaching coffee cups and glasses. DH was doing the laundry and putting my jammies in the top of the closet....ARGH...had to break him of that!!!
HUGS to all and have a good night!!
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Genia - I am such a baby, but this was not bad .....trust me. I did not have a pump or any pain meds thru my IV.....I only took vicodin by mouth....for two days. Surgery was Wed, took pain meds Thurs and Fri (for drive home) and NONE since then. Did take a stool softner the night before and the day after. All went well.
Pathology report on entire missing boob.....no residual carcinoma !!!!! Yipeeeeeee !!!! My cancer surg was delirious......as am I. Not sure what will come next....but I am soooooo excited.
Trude
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Oh, Genia, My plastic surgeon told me ( in front of DH) I was only allowed to sit with my hands in my lap and tell every one what I needed done !!!!! LOL, and he was a man !!!!!! Even better
Trude
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YAAAAY TRUDE!!!!! I'm so happy for you. I got a feeling mine's not gonna be that good! We will see.....but mine was huge......I'll be happy if they get it all with my breast removal. Even tho they said the chemo had done it's job.....the surgeon said there could still be small cells in there...which is why they wanna take the whole breast.
I know the dread is far worse than the actual surgery. I'm terrified.....and yes I'm a big baby too. Here it is a week before and I'm already gettin myself worked up. I'm sure it beats the worry of having this still in my breast tho.....
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By the way....if any of you send me a PM.....let me know on here.....because my notification thingy isn't working. I don't know I have a message unless I click on private messages.
hugs and love
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Well....I lived through 3 c-sections.....surely I can make it through this! Those were bad.....the soreness and all. How many drains is there? And how long do I have to keep them in! Oh dear....I'm a side sleeper...this ain't good! lol
You can tell I'm nervous.....I'm yakking too much!!! lolol
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Hey Genia,
You'll two drains per breast, or at least I did- but I had expanders placed under the muscle and an alloderm sling put in at the same time as my Double Mast. I'll admit that I had a hard time after surgery. But I woke up with 300 cc on each side, so my muscles were screaming at me. I was expecting only 50cc when I woke up. Since my PS used alloderm though, he was able to inject a lot more saline. I kept my drains in for 4 weeks.
No, you won't be able to sleep on your side for a while either. At least until your drains are out. If you have expanders, probably longer. You also won't be able lie flat... Some people suggest you sleep in a recliner. I didn't. I borrowed a foam 'wedge' from my MIL and slept propped up on that. I got used to it fairly quick.
I know you are on the fence about reconstruction. And you will probably have a quicker recovery without it. However--- if you are planning on having it down the road anyway. Getting everything done at once will save you a surgery!
Trude-- I am so happy for you!! That is terrific news on the path report!! I think that definitely calls for a celebration! Isn't God good?
Much love, ya'll!
Lei
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Hey chicas!
I'm meeting with the integrated medicine team at the cancer center this afternoon, and wanted to know if there were any other questions other than about flax, vitamin C, and eating red meat.
I'm leaving around 2:30pm EST, so leave me your questions here and I'll be sure to write them down and bring you back your answers this evening!
Congratulations, Trude! Definitely celebrate!
Genia, darlin'.... don't you worry. God's got you in the palm of His hand!
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Robin, would you also ask about
- things like Acai berry and Pomagranite juice as antioxidents?
- Do they think it true that ER+ BC women should stay away from Soy products?
- Organic cows milk vs. something like Almond milk?
- Green tea?
- What percentage of fat calories is "low enough fat" for an anti-cancer diet? (20%)?
- How many times a week should we eat fish? if not eating red meat and very little other meat (poultry). Two times?
(I better stop before I take over your whiole appointment!!)
Genia, I had 2 drains each side, One was gone with in the week, the next at about 2 weeks. I had full implants with AlloDerm and skipped the expanders. (One Step they call it).
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Genia, I was anxious to prior to surgery, and the close it got, the more I felt I would POP. BUT, I found it helpful to keep thinking how relieved I would feel when I woke up, and no more BC or breast tissue (they say there are traces of tissue left, but to my mind, it was EL GONe-O!!!)
Think about "the other side" of this. The anxiety of the surgery is worse than the waking up and just dealing with it. My take
Spring.
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Have a great appt., Robin! Take lots of notes for the rest of us! lol
Spring, you are so right. It is the 'unknown' that is so scary and makes us anxious. The before was much worse than the recovery.
Also a question for you-- are you happy enough with your implants and alloderm to keep them? Or are you still going to go for a DIEP once you recover from radiation?
Morning!
Lei
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I got your question, Bev! I'm leaving in an hour, so if anyone else has any qurstion they want me to ask, let me know!
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Thanks Robin! Let us know what you find out!
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Genia,
I left the hospital with a full bottle of pain meds. I think I took them for the first day. Then, I got tired of feeling sleep all the time, and just switched to Advil and Tylenol. I didn't know I could have Advil, but after surgery you can apparently. Check with your dr before you leave to be sure. Honestly, it really wasn't that bad. It hurt at times. I didn't have a recliner, so when I would have to get out of bed, I knew it would hurt on the way up. Once I was up, I was good. It also was difficult trying to find a comfy position to sleep. I'm definitely not saying it was painfree, but all things considered, it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected.
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BrandonMom,
True, the "getting up out of bed" was a bit hard. But then once you move around it's better. I would like curl up my leg and swing it out to get momentum!!!
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Spring,
Exactly! Tried to make myself as "log-like" as possible rolling out first thing.
Tomorrow I go for Taxol 11 of 12. Not sure if they will give it or not. My face is now numb and last Friday I had bouts of being confused-like. I hope they do give it. I need all the treatment they can throw at this thing!
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OK... I'm home. The integrated medicine meeting was mighty informative, and it won't be the last one I'll have! (yay!) I got most of the questions answered this time around, but some will have to wait until I'm done with rads.
1. Flax is fine as long as it's in seed form. Grind it up if you like. The oil and the capsules are sketchy, because you don't know where they've come from. (Pesticides, organic...etc)
2. Red meat and poultry: Lean only, and organic if you can afford it.
3. Dairy: Try to steer clear from dairy unless it's organic, and keep it very low fat or skim.
4. Acai & Pom juices as antioxidants: The only juices that will give you any benefit are the ones that are $45 a bottle and up. The ones from Tropicana and Ocean Spray don't have enough in it to make a difference.
5. Milk: Organic is fine, so is almond milk, provided it's organic and the almonds haven't been treated with anything weird.
6. Green Tea: DRINK IT! At least 3-5 cups per day. Apparently, numerous studies have shown that green tea has the same properties that break down cancer cells as chemo. I can't stand tea on its own, but I love Arnold Palmers. I asked about those and she said that that would be perfectly acceptable. Brew 4 bags of green tea (either decaf or regular) and mix it 50/50 with lemonade.
7. 20% or 20 grams of fat is considered "low enough" on a low fat anti cancer diet.
8. Eat fish 3 times per week if no red meat or poultry is eaten.
9. No vitamins or shark oil/cartilage is to be taken at all during rads for the rad protocol up here...don't know about where everyone else is.
10. After chemo/rads: Multi-vitamin that contains 200 mcg of Selenium (or eat 2 Brazil Nuts per day to get the Selenium necessary)
11. For joint pain due to loss of estrogen: 2000-3000 mg of Omega3's daily. Loveza is a prescription grade Omega3 (which is what I'm getting). It's pure Omega3. The stuff that you get off the shelf in WalMart, etc., isn't pure.
That's all I was able to get in for Q&A time... But....I got some other information that I wasn't so happy with. The average POST CHEMO weight gain is THIRTY POUNDS! Now, pardon me, but there's no way in HELL that I'm gonna let that happen. Since I finished chemo three weeks ago, I've added 6 pounds to my already round body. We discussed this at length, and after rads, we're going to go over some weight management ideas. Weight Watchers, portion control, etc. I've already done WW, have the books, cookbooks, calculator, and their scale. I know about portion sizes. I'm exercising. I liked WW, but I got sick of turning my dinner plate into a mathematical equation. We'll see.
I also got sent over to the hospital for an ultrasound on my legs, because she's concerned about DVT and blood clots. I've never had one done on my legs before, and she wants me to have one for my chart. The scan was interesting...and there's a priority on it, so it'll be read first thing tomorrow morning, and the results passed on to my onc and then to me.
I'm also getting my CT setup for rads tomorrow at 9:30AM down in Muskegon. It stinks big time to have to drive an hour each way every bloody time. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll say that I only need three treatments! Wishful thinking, eh? Hey! A girl can dream!
Love you!
Robin
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Robin - I have to drive an hour each way every day for rads. Today I hit a pot-hole and flattened my brand-new tire. It couldn't have happened 2 weeks ago BEFORE I got the new tires. Now I have to shell out another $120 for a tire. My DH had to drive an hour to where I was to change the flat and put on the donut.
Genia - I sent you a PM.
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I got it Jane and sent ya one back.....
Robin....thanks for the info. I'm in trouble....cause I LOVE milk. If I go for a few days without it....I start to crave it. My dad was a milk man....lolol......I swear he was!!!! We always had our pick of dairy products. Ice cream....milk....choco milk.....you name it. And to this day....it's my favorite beverage!!!
Nite hugs.....love to all
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I'm not going to go out and buy a box of oreos and a gallon of whole milk, but I don't want to restrict my diet so I can never enjoy food again. Life is just TOO SHORT for that. Some things, I think, are ok in moderation. I don't want to give up cereal for the rest of my life, but I'm not going to put water on it. We use 1% milk. I will try to look for more organic foods and we don't eat a lot of red meat. We do eat a lot of fish. I still want to eat chocolate when I need to. Also, what would life be like without pudding and macaroni and cheese?
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Amen, Jane! Dark Chocolate pudding!!
I'm just fortunate that I don't eat a whole lot of dairy. I make my own yogurt. I can't drink milk. Cheese makes my throat itch and my nose plug up. Organic milk is best, and I've found plenty of coupons for Horizon's organic milk online and in magazines...
Has anyone played around with false eyelashes?
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Hi Girls,
Just checking in, but wanted to let you know I am keeping track of you all. Genia, you will be fine, just think maybe this time next week it will all be over and you can focus on getting better. Althought I never had a mast, I have a fair bit of flesh removed and the recover was pretty good. Our bodies are very strong and heal amazingly fast.
Trude, great news, congratulations.
I had some false eyelashes, but when I tired to put them on they looked like spiders crawling across my face! Good luck Prettiest.
I will try and post a photo of my current hair status, slowly growing and already coloured.
I found out yesterday that it is Sam's 40th birthday today, that's woorus, if anyone wants to send her a PM to say Happy Brithday I am sure she would appreaciate it.
Take care everyone, Singapore Chris
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it still gripes me that chocolate still doesn't taste as good as it used to!!!!! I used to love milk but not so much anymore.
day three of tamoxifen and all is still well..just hot all the time..
Had a spill tonight, got caught up in the cords under the desk getting up from the computer. Had one yr old in my arms. Both of us are alright but my knee is black and very stiff...hopefully i will be able to walk tomorrow.Lucky to have not hit more than i did. We have an end table with a tv on it where i fell and i hit the corner of the table a little..SOOOO glad i didn't hit the port side...Loaded up on advil earlier and a vicodin a little while ago....time to go nite nite
Take care freinds!
Genia- try not to worry too much!!! You will do great!!
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