Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Thanks, Ritajean - means a lot to me.
Linda
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Good morning (early afternoon?) Ladies,
Lets see, Welcome Leslie, don't hide. We need all the support we can give each other. I know, I am a support taker. LOL
Holistic Medicine. I wrote a long thing yesterday and deleted it as---- I had a good friend that worked for a Holistic Practioner. I will say, they use lots of heavy duty herbs and bella donna, you could end up with a cross medication problem. I like the idea myself but would never leave real medicine for holistic. Holistic includes, food, life style, meditation, reiki. Lots of the stuff we have been talking about. I know there are doctors that will listen and try to incorporate some holistic approaches to medicine but I think you will have to search them out. I would take what I thought would help me from the holistic approach and leave the rest. Just make certain your real medical doctor knows what you are doing. NOW, my last words on this are --- I have a degree in Health Information Management and have learned to never venture into giving any medical advice, this is all just My Humble Opinon. The choices, of course, are yours to make.
Quilts --- I just had to wash two, my grandmother started. They are wearing thin so I am going to get new backing and re-enforce them. One I will just have to cut out her patterns and reapply them to a new back entirely. Her name and the date are on them so I really want to keep that part on the new quilt. Early 1900's. Mostly I crochet but I have wanted to work on these quilts forever. I now know who I can go to - to ask for advice.. ;-)
Chemotherapy. Thank you all for your words. Depending on the results of the bone scan and because I am HER/2 neu negative I may have to have some --- down the road. Although he didn't seem to interested in it. I also have a heart problem. I will have to be reminded of what all you good ladies said but for now you have made me feel much less fearful. Ya know --- before this the C word brought on terror in me, it does in most people. Now --- it's just another disease. Interesting how our perspecitve changes.
OK, as to tomorrows scan. 8:30 nuclear shot --- 11:30 scan. I won't get the results until the 12th of May as that is when I go back to my Onco but it is tomorrow I need the prayers as --- that is when I want the scan to be clear. LOL, does that make any sense.? The results are just "the results." LOL So thank you "everyone" for your good wishes.
I am off to work on my Lanai today. Geezzz, almost all the books are put away. Amazing.
Have a Good Day Ladies.
Hugs,
Pam
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Pam - big hugs to you for tomorrow! Golly, though, that is a long wait until your onco appt., but it sounds as though your hands will be busy!
How wonderful to have your grandmother's quilts! My mom is a quilter, so I hope someday her grandkids will be cherishing the quilts she's made for them. What a beautiful, creative, but time-consuming hobby.
Jackie - I think my biggest regret is not being able to actually meet any of you lovely ladies in person. Having cancer stinks, but having the pleasure of your company makes all the difference!
It's funny, even my older daughter, the health care pro, doesn't get it. When she asked her gyno colleagues about my wish to have my ovaries out, she quoted stats to me against the procedure. What she doesn't get is, that even if a heart attack is more common at my age, ovarian cancer scares me more!! Once burnt, twice shy, as they say!
You ladies know. We know. But, until you've been there... My gyno had the same dx I did a few years ago. She knows.
OK..it's too nice a day to be getting all serious! I'm going home and give that rhubarb some sweet talk to get it growing!
Susan
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Charlotte, NC.....bc walk a thon....Oct 24-25....Anyone going?
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Rhubarb--love it! I remember one time when we had just moved to Iowa, an elderly neighbor called me one morning at 5 am ( I was NOT awake) and asked me if I wanted any of "...that pie plant." I had no idea what she was talking about so I asked what she meant. She just said, "Oh, that pie plant out by your garage." I told her to take whatever she wanted--nothing makes sense to me early in the morning. Later when I checked I saw she meant rhubarb. We were new and I was still unpacking--didn't even know we had rhubarb back there!..Helen
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MMMMM!! Jo - crisp sounds soooo yummy! My daughter has two horses, so I think I'll make good use of her poo.
My rhubarb plants attract strangers off the street, unfortunately. A woman stopped by last summer and asked if she could have some - I should have been suspicious when I saw her 4 kids with her. When I came back out to the garden, there was NO rhubarb in sight...they had leveled it all!! I have no problem sharing it, but, geesh! So, this year, I'll get mine first.
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Hi
Not been around much lately. Have just come home from a long weekend in the mountains, where I went for a 6hr hike on the saturday and 2 two hr hikes on the sunday.
Good luck to those just starting chemo. My only advise is to drink lots to keep hydrated and have little snacks/meals every few hour. Take all the anti sickness meds your onc gives you as prescribed and don't try to tough it out.
Gobsmacked = taken aback, surprised and/or speechless
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G'day there chooks! Susan waz right, Helen, re 'gobsmacked' as a gob means 'mouth' over here, so to be gobsmacked literally means to be so shocked/surprised that one slaps ones own mouth to stop the uttering of profanity - or something similar, which doesn't actually happen any more, does it?
We have Mango and Macadamia trees quite close to the footpath in our yard. When we first moved here we had no fences and, although most yards had one or both of these trees, people would pull up and strip our trees by the car/trunk-boot-full. Some would come in to ask permission, with promises to return with mango chutney or pies which, of course, never happened. Then we put a 6ft fence around the yard and they still attacked the trees from outside the boundary, by bringing their own step-ladders and long sticks!!!
I wouldn't mind swapping some mangoes for rhubarb though.
Sheila.
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Mornin' Ladies,
Rhubarb, my dad loved Rhubarb in a pie with ??? Strawberries??? Raspberries?? I can't remember, he said the fruit made it taste good otherwise it was horrible. ;-) Jo-5 your picture looks just yummy. I have never tried it, maybe it's about time I do. Make it??? No thank you, but I make a mean cherry or lemon meranque (sp). My moms recipes. Very, very good.
The dreaded Scan -- well it was "suppose" to take a half hour BUT--- she gave me one shot and it hurt so she didn't think it worked so she gave me another one in the other arm. Prob was while taking the pictures of my "bones" she said my soft tissue had absorbed to much of the nuclear stuff because of the second shot so she couldn't see all the bones and had to take extra pics. I believe her only because in the middle of it all she asked someone else what kind of nuclear stuff was used for a stress test, and they told her. (I have had a stress test and pictures, a CT scan, another CT scan and a PET scan in the last three weeks.) The stress test had to be done with nuclear meds and lots of pics because of heart problems. Sooo, I was there an hour instead of thirty minutes. Almost all extra pics of the bad breast. Well, they will have good info about the bad breast anyway. I can "SEE" how bad it is they don't have to tell me. LOL So next adventure is a blood teat on May 5th, CA 27.29, CBC and CMP, anyone know what a CMP test is?
Robert and I were talking about opinions about cancer and in my humble opinion we watched to many Marcus Welby MD and Ben Casey MD shows when we were young. I mean, I am happy to have the kind I have as it is semi treatable. I said to him that --- it seems that once you have it you can't figure out why everyone gets so nuts about it. To me, anyway, it has just become another disease and at this point I have had worse diseases. Anyone ever had a gall bladder attack or pancreatitis? I may change my mind if they find something awful in my bones although I don't think so, once the sentence has been pronounced --- it's all up hill from there. Does that all make sense to anyone but me? LOL
My friends think I am nuts, they take "my life" soooo seriously.
Well, its a VEG day I think, I have had enough this morning. Been fasting since midnight and it's 2:00 in the afternoon and I AM HUNGRY. LOL So I am going to go enjoy my lunch and then take a page out of --- I think it is RitaJean's --- book and take to my recliner for the afternoon. No boxes, no nothing to clean, just have to think about what's for dinner.
TTY all later.
Hugs,
PamW1
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Pam -
Thank goodness, that's over. You deserve to put your tootsies up and order in for dinner!
Susan
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CMP Blood Test: Measure your blood sugar level, electrolyte and fluid balance, kidney function, and liver function0
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Hey Ladies,
Susan thank you for the info. Do you know I have my Medcial Coding book here and couldn't find it. Geezzz. I looked up CMP but didn't look it up under Liver or Kidney function tests. Probably would have found it there. Also didn't look it up in my TABERS (nurses dictionary) probably in there also. I haven't tried my Anatomy and Physiology book yet. I thought, heck you all know what is going on so I'll just ask you. LOL See, it worked. Thanks (Big Smiles and bless you's). I'm just getting all these books put away yet alone referencing them. Sigh
Jo, I know I glow in the dark. I have been told not to go into an airport or walk past the White House or in downtown NYC as they have detectors everywhere now. The guy who did my PET scan told me that. I was just praying that my mom made it threw her ordeal OK as I woulda had to drive to Ohio. I surely coudn't have flown. LOL
NOW, I WANT Rhubarb pie. Crave it as a matter of fact. Have no idea how it tastes but you know that old power of suggestion? It is working on me jusssst fine right now. LOL
Thanks again Ladies,
Back to my recliner. It's soooo nice to just sit.
PamW1
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Yep, Pam, my recliner is my security blanket. I just cuddle up in it to relax, watch TV or read and usually fall asleep! I guess now we have a common friend! LOL So glad the scan is behind you. Sending you good vibes for good results!
Rita
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1. Holistic therapy. Thanks for your comments. I know NOTHING about it but am willing to learn. I already expect it is more trouble than I would go to, anyway. The only reason I am willing to learn is because the lady who told me about it is a friend and I know she is not some kind of nut or kook or whatever.
2. Got the bandage off yesterday. I'm feeling great. As long as I get a reasonably good night's sleep and my afternoon nap I'm fine. Am back to work this week, at home on the computer, but nobody feels sorry for me for having to work 8-10 hours per week.
3. Rhubarb. I LOVE rhubarb. Have never seen it here in Texas. When I go to Iowa I make sure I go to the Amana Colonies restaurant for, in addition to the other goodies - rhubarb pie. (See I love food too much to go too nuts over a diet.) My grandma grew tons of it and she called it pie plant, so that was not a new term to me.
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By the way, I finally got my hair washed today! I had this appointment with my beautician set up a month ago, or I would have shampooed this morning when I got permission to get into the shower again! Anyway, she is a rather large lady who recently had bilateral breast reduction surgery because her large breasts have been for years interfering with her daily life, pain etc. While it's not a malignant diagnosis, she certainly has not had fun with this surgery. She had both sides done at once. She has the same problem I do with sleeping on her back, so she went without sleep essentially for a lot longer than the 2 nights I did! Plus she had to come back to work and actually work 8 hours a day, so I shouldn't growse around about sitting in front of the computer a couple of hours a day, plus running to the office the post office and the bank. So there are lots worse things than breast cancer surgery and you don't have to look very far to find them.
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Tests tests tests! It is comforting to know that other people are having all sorts of tests and appointments as well. I thought this week, the week before chemo starts, would be "mine". Nope, tomorrow I see the wig people (that's a good thing) and then in the afternoon have to drive to a town an hour away - which is silly because the hospital where everything else is happening is a ten minute walk away - to get a PICC line installed. Then the next day some heart test, I guess to establish a base line before chemo. The bone scan I had took over an hour. After the part about no further cancer detected, I thought the results were amusing. The onc. said they were concerned about "damage" to my spine. Cancer? I asked. No, just damage. That means I have a bad back. Good grief, I have known that for 20 years!
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Good Morning everyone. My mother was a huge Rhubarb lover so I don't need recipes ( but I'm usually first in line for them ) and had no idea that you could not grow it in Texas.
Lassie....yes, the tests are really good as it gets all the ducks in a row so that tx can be tailored to your exact needs as close as possible. You in fact, do get used to so many tests and so many people helping you through your journey that when you finish txs and go back to just doing something every three months or so....you worry that not enough is being done. Sort of darned if you do and darned if you don't. I'd say just relax....but with this it's almost a dichotomy. Who can relax while all this stuff is going on and who can relax much with that dx. Still.....do your best as you really do get through it all.....and if you are like me wonder why you added so much more drama to it all.
See you all later,
Hugs,
Jackie
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Mornin' Ladies,
Lassie, I had a PICC line when I had Pancreatitis. Not bad. They numb the spot and it feels like nothing going in, just a little strange. I think the strangeness came from the idea of it all. Lawdy, right into an artery. But heck, I had to take in Potassium because of heart problems and it hurt like all heck. With the PICC line, no pain. It was cool. I may have to have one later and as long as I can get past the idea of it all, I know I will be fine. You can even cover it up good so's you can still take a shower.
Jo, you live in Ohio, is there anywere that your not near the Amish? LOL, I know we lived about 1/2 hour drive from Burton, a big Amish community. My brother in law (the lawyer) would defend them in court for Buggy accidents etc. They always paid him well and they never wanted all the extra money Paul knew he could get them. They said, "NO, just for the value please." Use to drive Paul crazy. Then they would pay him extra in Amish furniture, which I love, but my sister hates. LOL.
My Rhubarb experiences -- or should I say my dad's --- came from my wonderful and loving Pennsylvannia Dutch Grandmother (died at 90) who grew up in South Bend, Indiana. I am of good German stock. LOL She is the one that made the Strawberry and Rhubarb pies my dad loved. I woud love to try one, they have Rhubarb at Publix once in a while, but this is in Florida and I am afraid it is probably terrible. I think you have to "reside" in Amish Country to have it taste good. LOL
Let's see, today I get to clean and place area rugs. I swear, I don't think this moving thing will ever end. LOL At least no doc appointments for a while.
Have a good one Ladies,
Hugs,
Pam
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They even had a segment on the Today show this am about rhubarb! Made a chutney with it and served with pork tenderloin. Sounded soooo good. And to quote my daughter the chef - "Mom, you don't get Swine Flu from eating pork". Said no one is ordering pork for the last few days. Hope everyone is doing well today. Pam, glad your doc appts. are over for a while. Will you come help me move in a few months?
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ROFL.
Allison,!!!
Uhm, NO, that's a big NO. LOL Not unless the little elves that fixed all the shoemakers shoes are willing to help me finish my move first. LOL
You can appeal to them, see what happens. ROFL.
Good luck with your move, may it go as smoothly as mine. Comparatively speaking, this has been an easy move. "Cause I am sick I got lots of help. Look sick, maybe that will work. LOL
Hugs,
Pam
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Well, I was trying to look really bad, but you didn't fall for it!
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Hey, Jo..I vote for posting the Amish rhubarb recipes. Those who aren't interested can just scroll right through them. I would love to have them!
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Our local paper has a weekly (nationally syndicated) column called the Amish Cook. Tonight's recipe is Rhubarb Cream Pie!!!
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Jo,
Go for it, I know how to scroll past it but then again, I might decide I want the recipe. ;-)
Oh, also, Sugarcreek, Walnut Creek, Berlin? Berlin is south I know that. "Bout 8 years ago I went home to Cleveland and my mom piled us all, --- Sister in law, Sister, several friends into the car and we all drove down to just before Columbus to an Amish Restaurant, very well known and very popular. I thnk we went down 91.
Disappointment. The food wasn't that good, or so "they" said. Seems to me I had meatloaf and mashed pots and gravy if I remember rightly --- mine was very good. Amish meatloaf? Had to be good. How could it have not been. LOL
Amish Curio, now I am just plain jealous. Whinnneeee.
Hugs,
Pam
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Trying to break away from thinking about the rhubarb. I don't plan on going to Iowa this summer so won't be going to the Amana Colonies. Anyway, the Bra Lady came to see me today and left me with a soft bra and foam prosthesis. She says I am healing real good, so can get the permanent one in about a month, in time for going on my vacation to Illinois.
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I never remember having rhubarb pie, but I am allergic to strawberries and think maybe that is why. My Dad liked plain and simple - meat and potatoes and gravy, so there was little excitement in our meals growing up. My mom could make a pie crust that melted in your mouth and cakes from scratch. After being married a few months, my husband decided he had to teach me "how to eat".. he was greek and I eventually taught Greek cooking classes - learned from his sister, aunt and mom.
It has rained but the pollen count is still sky high. Today is an indoor day as tomorrow I will be part of the Welcome Team for the Avon Walk ( an indoor job ). Don't want to show up with a ruby red nose from blowing and sniffling. HUGS, Nancy
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Good morning ladies.....it is as wet as can be here in southern Illinois. We are having too many gray days in a row....and I'm sure my wilting from it has already begun. Sadly it does not look a lot better for several days. Said I couldn't wait for Spring and now I'm going to gripe my way through it.
Ah....food. One of my favorite subjects. Nancy we had a lot of plain food at my house growing up but my Mom was such a cook so most tasted very good. She made chicken and home-made noodles often --- a staple for us. Friends would stop by on Sundays...the day we most often had it to have some too. Since there were four in our family Mom would make a pie for each of us and since she cut pies in 4ths.....we could share a piece ( trade ) all around the table if we wanted. Great memory of my life growing up.
Pam, Cheyanne, Jo, Arnie, Alpal, Rita, Lassie --- just say hi and hope you all have a nice day as well as all I did not mention. Hope someone is getting some sun. You can send some here if you like.
Hugs,
Jackie
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Good morning gals! It sounds like the whole state is getting rain, Jackie. BOO! We've had enough for awhile!
Cheyanne, where are you headed to in Illinois for your vacation? Jan's in the northern part, I'm in the central part, and Jackie is in the south! It appears we have the state covered!
I hope everyone is doing well today. I'm sure we'd all feel much better with a good dose of sunshine in the MidWest. Hopefully some of you are basking in the rays today! That vitamin D-3 is pretty important! LOL
Hugs to all of you!
Rita
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Morning Ladies,
Jackie and everyone in Illinois. LOL
It's "sunny" in Sunny Southwest Florida today. A beautiful day. NOW, I have to say, you all will have to put up with my grousing once the rainy season starts here. (monsoons I call them, 1:00 every afternoon like clockwork) About the end of May on through the middle of July. It can rain buckets down here and anyone in a flood zone has to beware. It can go from beautiful and sunny to raining buckets in about 5 minutes time. Geeezzzz.
My mother was born and raised in South Side Chicago, back when it was just part of the city and hadn't made a name for itself.
My Grandma Gladys, the one with the breast cancer lived in Decatur, Springfield and Chicago. I visited them all as a kid. I remember us (family) driving into Decatur and it just sort of rose out of the ground at the horizen level of all those Soy Bean Plants --- and stink, lawdy did those plants stink. LOL
Illinois is a lot like western Ohio. Flat, the plains. Lots of seeing on forever. LOL
I was brought up in Eastern Ohio, lots of low Appalchian Mountains step hills. Pretty as you can stand on some of them in Northern Ohio and see the lake. Very nice.
Ok, Bob is home so I am off to do errands today. I thought it would be nice to get my bed put together as my recliner is taking a beating with me sleeping in it every night. LOL
It was easier to sleep in when I had the effusion, I could breathe better, the effusion is mostly gone now so I can go back to my bed and my breast has gone down enough that I may even be able to sleep on my stomach. What an exciting idea. ;-)
TTYL.
Hugs,
Pam
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