Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Jackie - I believe you can get a prescription from any doc for a scop patch before you go to the hospital - but I'm not sure. They have different strengths & sorry but I don't remember my level. Even at the VA - don't you get to talk to the anesthesiologist before they sedate you? Although I had tried to reinforce my message at pre-op, it wasn't until anesthesiology came to put me out that I finally made my point. And then they got a supervisor to talk w/me. And they they changed the type of anesthesia they were using. And it was added to my permanent record for the next time.
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Betrayal, this has to be a real disappointment for you. I hope they move quickly on that.
People, I have taken a big step. I do not have a car, I have been going about the downtown area with a mobility scooter. It has been developing some problems again, and will need some new parts. The person I got it from says that I have been using it hard, and I need to expect parts failures. Which got me thinking. Long story short, I ordered an electric bicycle a few hours ago. I am now reading the manual (ever wonder why manufacturers do not allow people to read the owner's manuals until AFTER they have bought the merchandise?). Will need to have it taken to the bike shop one town over to have it put together.
My daughter and the scooter-man are concerned about my poor sense of balance. I tell them that it is from chemo nerve damage in my feet, and is irrelevant with a bicycle. I fell today hit my head on the sidewalk. Just before I went down I realized I didn't know exactly where my feet were. My brother (my daughter lives 40 miles away from him) is not concerned, so long as I maintain a low center of gravity, use panniers rather than baskets when I get groceries. Daughter says his world revolves around electric bicycles.
Feeling sad but scared-- this will be a big change. Even had to call the credit union, was a bit short for the purchase. They were happy to provide me with a small loan.
Dog is doing well. Vet says to not let him develop into a hypochondriac-- that could get expensive. We caught it early, no bladder stones, but he has to be on a urine acidifier for the rest of his life to prevent any in the future.
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IllinoisLady and Betrayal- so sorry neither of you received the news you wanted. With all of us in your pocket, I had hoped for the best. Petite - I'm hoping your dermatologist was able to help you.
Quiet here today, rain early, gray skies and dark most of the day but it got up to 80. Raining now I think. I didn't have PT today so I was able to dosome cleaning. My house has been ignored for weeks so it's long over due. I still have the dining room to clear out. Although yesterday I was able to clean up 2 areas, purged a lot of old paperwork, and shuffled someone others around. HA! Such is life.
Tomorrow is Friday so TGIF to us all.
PS- Mary, you go girl! In FL people go all over the place on those electric bikes. If serious fear, training wheels could aid you, act as stabilizer
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Oh my - things just aren't getting better. So sorry to read and thinking of all of you.
Just came home from DH's second birthday dinner out - 78 today. When we married we doubted - due to family heart history - that he would see 60. So grateful for all these extra years that have been generally good.
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I was diagnosed at 69 last year, after being misdiagnosed in 2019. Pandemic delayed treatment/surgery and more 4/20 to 8/11/20 I was finally given bilateral mastectomy 8/11/20 after 4 months. Then AC to T chemo for 16 infusions and Radiation for 5 weeks 5 x a week. Hormone therapy started April then stopped 9/8/21 it was horrendous...extreme reactions too many to say. Used Predict breast cancer NHS to see what was survival table with hormone therapy and without the same for first 5 years for my inputs and with chemotherapy. No input for radiation treatment was on site. 91% 5 years and 76% without hormone therapy after 10. Since I would be 79 and average age for death is 78 for women...I am reminded...it would be possible for something other than cancer to take me out. Seriously deciding on whether my discussion end of October will be I am not moving forward with a new aromatase inhibitor to try.
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So much is going on with everyone. Cyber hugs to all.
My nasty lump is an infected sting. The Dermatologist drained it and sent in a culture. I am on oral and topical antibiotics. Feeling better today.
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any of us older gals doing cold capping? Just curious since I start treatment next week. Had chemo 20 years ago. No such thing then. Seems like a lot of trouble. Opinions, please?!
Annie
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Annie, when I had bc surgery and reconstruction in 2009, one of the women I got to know on bc.org opted for the cold caps and it worked for her. She had long hair. I'm sure there must be numerous women with information on this web site. You might start your own thread with a request for feedback.
Sorry for all the bad news from testing. Good luck to all of you.
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Wow -- so cool in the mornings now. It is welcome but a truly definite sign of Fall. Some leaves are falling and the yard is full of acorns which bring the deer to the yard in multiples. Always a joy to see. I love living where deer cannot be molested.
Minus while I could wish to know how much meds were in your patch it is enough to know it is possible. Wonder if it is like other meds and it is wt. based. I do get to talk to the anesthesiologists beforehand but it seems they ( even though its in my record ) seem to think their administration protocol will work. Should I say this -- the one who listened to me was the female anesthesiologist while the men seem to think it was some odd event that won't happen again.
MC Baker, there are I believe 3-wheeled tricycles, but I just don't know if they have motors. That will offer a lot more stability. Well, you have probably found that out. I'm pretty sure they are more expensive too. Just thought here. I do know with my own feet and something lack of feeling how easy to lose some control.
Taco, happy birthday to your Dh. Wonderful to be able to have health more stable then you dreamed it would be. A joy for sure. Wishing continued good heath for both of you.
petite, glad you were able to verify what your leg issue was about and get a fix for it.
Caargill2103 I think it happens a lot that we go on and end up having something else other than cancer. I think I read that your reactions to different therapies can be a 'better' experience but it has been so long that I could be far from accurate. Hopefully, between now and your appt. time you will be able to find a lot of information to help you. I do think there are a lot of people who ( for a number of reasons ) opted out of the 5 yr. pills. You will make the right decision at the right time.
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Grace is goodness and respect given freely and unconditionally. A sense of divine love and protection bestowed on us when we need strength and renewal. Grace helps us know we are not alone and believe we are cared for and cherished. Grace is a drink of clear, clean water in the desert. -Sue Patton Thoele
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Yes, an electric tricycle is more expensive. I was given a tip on one, but it had been in storage for more than ten years, so I was concerned about the condition of the tires and battery. I was also concerned about the owner not having the power to sell it. I called the local bike shop, they are currently very busy. If I have to get training wheels, I will. But at this point, I figure that fine-tuning the visual part, and hopefully the labyrinths in the ears for balance should be an advantage.
Praying for you, Cargill. I would like for all of us to be able to reach 85 at least.
I often exert myself beyond comfort, but I am coming to expect a painful next two days, and accept the consequences. There is no way I will increase my gabapentin just to get a higher tolerance of activity. I would end up in the same place, anyway. Shutting off the pain receptors could be catastrophic in the long run.
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thank you, Carole.
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So I spoke with the GI specialist today and after 3 colonoscopies in 15 months he recommended that the best option to rid myself of this pre-cancerous lesion (no polyp found this time, just nodular mass where it had been) is to have an extended appendectomy during which part of the cecum is also removed to ensure clean margins (I suspect). This type of lesion uses a pathway of spread similar to that of ILC in that it is sneaky and hard to detect. He said that he was not expecting the nodular mass to be anything more than normal bowel tissue but because it was not there a year ago, he biopsied it. Since they know it was in the appendiceal orifice initially he said they are unable to evaluate if it has invaded the appendix and it would be too risky to keep it. He was telling me that I am "young for my age" (nice to hear but he is older, too) and that he thinks removal will give me more years with less worry. I agree and he offered to contact the chief of the colorectal surgery department to perform the surgery and says that he refers all his patients to her. Nice to have someone who can make those connections for you plus this will get me in the door faster. I saw the email he sent to her so I will wait to hear from her office. The procedure is performed laparoscopically so perhaps it will be OP? He had already spoken to my normal GI doc so she is aware of what is happening and I will see her on Tuesday for a regularly scheduled annual visit to get other questions answered. So now that there is a tentative plan I feel better but this has been a hell of a year. Have a good weekend everone and thank you for your support.
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That sounds like a quick and very safe response to the situation. Glad your doctor is on board with such a plan.
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Cargil2103l - I was 70 plus when diagnosed. I stopped AI's after 30 months. Tried both letrozole and femora. I too looked at predict and decided it was the right choice for me. Five years coming up and I've not looked back. I think for many of us "older ladies", QOF is weighed differently than for younger women. My knee replacement wasn't successful and both my orthopedic surgeon and I think the AI's were a contributing factor. If I had even thought to ask about that, I would have quit them before the knee surgery. While I am currently "well" and my mother and grandmother lived into their mid-90's, mine has been a "life well lived" and I don't want to die like they did of senile dementia. My mother's last five years were miserable and she begged to die.
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Fingers crossed that it is, Mary. The thoughts of another colonoscopy in the near future was alarming and something I was hoping was off the table. He did present 2 options; one of which was to do nothing but then he explained why he was not in favor of this option and why he was opting for the "standard of practice" as the second option. I do feel this was informed consent and that it was a team effort rather than paternalism. My GI doc recommended him last year for my initial follow-up and he is the chief of the endoscopy/colonoscopy service so I feel his recommendation was based on his experience and took into consideration my concerns.
I hope your new bike will provide you with the means to be out and about. I hope you own a bike helmet? If not, please consider one. Unfortunately as we age, we are no longer weebles and we do fall down :-(. Not sure if you remember them but they were toys my children had and I unearthed a slew of them when we had to vacate the attic last year, now my grandchildren play with them.
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"Weebles wobble but they don't fall down." A blast from the past for sure. Fisher-Price? I remember that in the early 90s, Arsenio Hall had one of those flat-top "fades" with shaved "sidewalls." Gordy said "he looks like a Weeble."
Mary, I second the recommendation for a good helmet--but also elbow pads and cycling gloves. I wore all three when I rode a mountain bike with 20" training wheels. (Still have it, but it'd be a pain to haul it out of the basement, reinflate the tires, and store it--space in the garage is already tight and I already had the first one stolen from under my deck, where I'd U-locked it to one of the posts. I found the lock in pieces on the ground--likely frozen with some kind of spray and then shattered. Same thing happened to a friend's "The Club" steering wheel lock). If I had a secure place to store it I'd spring for an adult trike--electric or not. Then again, with the current system of shared streets, bike lanes and "walk your wheels" sections of major arterials, and cyclists who blow through red lights & stop signs I'm not sure I'm ready to join the ranks of the bikers. After all, I used to ride on the sidewalk because I was afraid of cars.
Jackie, Transderm Scop rocks! Sorry to hear you & Betrayal had less-than-clean scan/biopsy results; but you are getting fewer lesions each time. And Betrayal, nobody needs an appendix. (At least tonsils have a function). The surgery would very likely be OP or at most a "23-hr. admit." You'd be losing less of your colon than with a hemicolectomy (my DH's was for a perfed bowel & my neighbor's was for in situ colon cancer, and both went home the next morning). That doesn't mean you shouldn't take it easy, however.
My BIL's thyroid biopsy came back benign! Not sure what if any treatment he'll have going forward, as my sister didn't say whether it was a goiter or just a nodule--should ask about the bloodwork.
I have my 6-month checkup next Thurs. with my melanoma MO, Dr. B. at Kellogg. Not having any symptoms, but he messaged me reminding me to get a liver MRI and chest x-ray--but as long ago as two weeks ago the first appt. I could get was all the way up in Gurnee (45 mi. away, 3/4 of the way to WI) on next Tues. at 5 pm. Will have to go up there much earlier to avoid driving with the sun in my eyes. Yesterday I drove west at 6 pm and had to put my visor all the way down as far as it'd go (not far enough), put cataract shades over my sunglasses, crank up the defrosters, pull over constantly to wipe down the inside of the windshield. (Maybe also get a car wash and new wiper blades). Come to think of it, we'll be driving west at about the same time tomorrow to go to a hospital dinner-dance at the Morton Arboretum. I think it might finally be a sign that the L capsular clouding (behind my artificial lens) is finally symptomatic--should get it lasered ASAP.
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You will not grow if you sit in a beautiful flower garden, but you will grow if you are sick, if you are in pain, if you experience losses, and if you do not put your head in the sand, but take the pain and learn to accept it, not as a curse or punishment but as a gift to you with a very, very specific purpose. -Elisabeth Kuebler-Ross
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Betrayal, it is nice to have a plan and one that sounds pretty positive all way around as well. Hopefully you will get OP surgery. Always good these days I think to spend as little time in the hospital as is feasible.
Sunny and cool today. Such a change from a week ago. We are enjoying it but the rally cool morning temps. will have lots more acorns and leaves coming out of the trees. The deer are coming to the yard all the time now. Not unusual to see eight or ten meandering after the acorns. We come and go and while some will scurry away a fair distance, some just look as if to scold us slightly for 'almost' interrupting their repast. We love to see them, but do worry when they are docile because they have gotten so used to 'people'. It makes them easy targets if they are in the wrong place.
Expecting SIL to make it in today. Sure hope so although there will be a truck to un-load. This has been a 'need to get done' since 6 mos. ago so the thought of its being shortly behind everyone is already inspiring feelings of contentment.
Nothing else special planned for the day -- just the normal things. Hope you all have a great Saturday.
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Sandy, I wear double sunglasses driving west in the afternoon. There are places where you just can't see.
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Perhaps, indeed, there are no truly universal ethics: or to put it more precisely, the ways in which ethical principles are interpreted will inevitably differ across cultures and eras. Yet, these differences arise chiefly at the margins. All known societies embrace the virtues of truthfulness, integrity, loyalty, fairness; none explicitly endorse falsehood, dishonesty, disloyalty, gross inequity.
Howard Gardner0 -
Expecting a really nice morning today. Even more so as SIL made it home by about 10 p.m. last night. Said huge rains going through Colorado tore up some of the interstate and he had to find another route through -- I guess almost a full day of driving having to be devoted to that. Nice to have him back. Not only the truck with all their things, but a trailer and boat behind. Hmmm. Well, we do live on a lake. SIL can enjoy some quiet fishing as he really is a hard worker and much like my dad -- not really satisfied until the job is finished to the best of ability.
Just catching up today. Since we had the incident with the surge protector and I changed many things around -- I do have some accessory work for sorting out old paper-work and out of date records that can be shredded.
Hoping you all have a good day and are recovering steadily from any issues. Saying hi to those who haven't come for a bit.
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Summer like temperatures in the forecast for this week.
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Today was supposed to hit 73, partial sunny. Now it’s calling for rain from now thru 3 pm. The rest of the week highs in the low 60’s. Our pool is closed with only the filter needing the hose put in to make sure it’s totally clean. I had hoped to do that today. It will have to be after the rains, ugh! Never put off for tomorrow what you could have done today (yesterday for me).
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I move through my day-to-day life with a sense of appreciation and gratitude that comes from knowing how fortunate I truly am and how unearned all that I am thankful for really is. To have this perspective in my everyday consciousness is in itself a gift, for it leads to feeling "graced," or blessed, each time. . . . Every time I see beauty around me I appreciate what I am seeing, and simultaneously I have this sense of appreciation—for being alive to have this particular moment. -Jean Shinoda Bolen
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Ah, I know the great art of putting off a few things here and there. We are going to have a bit of heat today, but minus the humidity so not all that bad. Truck goes back to the U-Haul lot today. Cleaned it all out yesterday -- we had a four car garage that was full and now it is even fuller. That is okay. I don't know if it will actually get done this late in the yr. with winter approaching -- but I've talked it up to Dh to let our SIL set up ( massive clean-out ) the garage as he would like it since Dh is not going to be doing all that much. That may end up as some "fixing" to get by and then a Spring project. Will have to see.
I see you are having something of our same weather at your summer place.
Hope you all have a wonderful start to your week.
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Good morning, I am a new member to the BC club, I received my DX 8/23/21 SX 9/17/21 Lumpectomy and 2 node dissection. according to path report I am Stage 1b, T1N1mi. I am 65 yrs old. Although I have peace, it is hard to get my mind around that I have cancer. I hope that this will be an outlet for me and to have suport from all those that have walked this path before.
Irisheyes756
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Good morning, all. It is a beautiful morning and in the 60's. I went for a long walk and so pleasant. The infected bug bite or sting is slowly getting better. I was concerned that I survived BC to be taken out by a bug.
Caargill2013, It is a difficult decision, but you have to do what is right for you. I did not do chemo, but am on the 5 year hormone therapy. I have the mutant gene. Both grandmothers had BC and several of my cousins. My mother had ovarian cancer. I think it is the same gene. So, I went for the 5 year therapy, but had a PET scan before. I wanted to make sure that I didn't have cancer of something else. You have to do what you are most comfortable with.
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Irish, glad to see you here, sad to see that yet another has the dreaded C. Will you have chemo or radiation? HER2+? Hormone status? You can put all that information in your signature.
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Welcome Irisheyes756 to the club no one wants to join. As a new member, we are here to support you, answer questions, let you rant and just be there for moments when you need a friend and someone who knows what you have or will experience. You can list your info (and it does help) under your entry and make it public so all who read your message will know what your status is. This can be entered on the same area where you registered for BCO.
Wrapping one's head around a cancer dx is hard but all of us have done that and somehow managed to find a way to deal with it, sometimes only on a day by day basis and others for longer periods. I am 5 years in and still have a day now and then that is a challenge. So what you are experiencing is not unusual or unexpected and may be difficult for those without BC to understand. We do so reach out to us as need be. ((Hugs)).
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