Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Mommarch, glad you had a good trip to visit your mom and sisters. Hope your dh can get some medical relief.
My sister who is 3 yrs. younger than I has been undergoing x-rays and an mri for her knee and also the foot on that same leg. I sure hope her drs. can come up with some suggestions for improving her mobility. She feels bad that I'm older and much more active than she is. Her problems started when she injured that foot a few years ago and her goofball husband told her she didn't need to go to a dr. The foot would heal by itself. My sister has good insurance, too.
We toured the WI state capitol bldg in Madison yesterday. It's the most beautiful capitol bldg. I've every seen, but there are a lot I haven't seen, admittedly. The ceilings are stained glass and admit natural light. The variety of marble used in the construction was a pleasure to see. Construction on the bldg. began in 1907 and took 10 yrs. to complete. Everything looked in perfect condition. It's hard to imagine maintaining such ornate features in the interior.
Today we drove to the Milwaukee area and are staying in the rv park at the State Fairgrounds. It's raining and we have the heat on in the camper to cut the chill. The next two days are supposed to be perfect weather. We'll be spending time with dh's niece and her dh and their two children. The plan for tomorrow is to do sightseeing by bicycle while the children are in school. The niece insists that it's a good way to see the city. So keep me in your prayers!
Jackie, I'm glad you're having some good weather to enjoy.
Kaara, what's going on with you?
Hi to everyone else not mentioned.
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Jean I hope all goes really well for you tomorrow. I know what you mean about all the medical things. I still feel much of our social life is tied up in which of us is having an appt. for what.............and then along comes the what now's. Even though I'm done pretty much with all but a cancer check-up every four months....it seems like something tries to get started. Right now I'm having extra appts. to deal with bad hearing. I sure hope life settles down for you soon......people our age pray for boredom.
Carolethings for you sound anything but boring. I felt like I was in the Capitol Bldg. with you. Sounds like they take a great deal of pride in their building. It must be great to work there....though you know that after a bit you are probably not seeing all that beauty --just going to work.
We are still enjoying moderate temperatures, but the past two days have been a bit on the muggy side taking away just a little bit. I'm not feeling so bad about that when I look out and see green lawns again and hear the sound of mowers going all over the place.
A big hug and hi to all,
Jackie
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Had my lumpectomy, SNL today, sore and achy Good news preliminary tests say clean nodes. Will probably be doing rads, see onco on the 27th, who happens to be our primary too. Breating again! Now got hubby's carotid sono on Wed. Enough already. Jean
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Congratulations bonnets! That's ALWAYS good news, about your nodes..... Remember to ask for a copy of your "final pathology report"....Just so you will understand, and can ask questions!
Good luck with your DH's sonogram!
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I.ve been getting copies of everything, adding them to a folder. Learned to do that here!
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Forum for older people with bc would be great. I am 64 and just diagnosed after years of false alarms due to lumpy breasts. I am so afraid, been up since middle of night, can't switch off. At clinic feel really old. Up to yesterday was feeling positive and upbeat now just want to sleep and never wake up.
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Edithesther, it's a roller coaster. I'm 6 months into the ride, and it has evened out a bit, and I know it will get smooth one day. Please don't despair, you will get through this, and there will be better days ahead.
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Thank you Susannah, it's the not knowing exactly which kind of cancer it is and if it has spread that is the worse part.
Lumpectomy and two lymph removal this Friday. Then will know more a fortnight later.
Trying to live a " normal " life but not doing it very well.The roller coaster ride is a good description, will just strap myself in and hope for the best.
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Hey gals! It's ME, almost the oldest one here! Ha, ha! Nope, I would rather tune up a car, (which I know nothing about) than have BC!!! But I'm about 3 years out now! It comes, you take care of it, and then you can relax!!!
Edith, are you alone? Try getting out more, if only for a walk! Go grab a Star-bucks, or find someone to talk to...... We are always here!!!!!! I just turned 75, and I'll be your cheer-leader! I'll drag you out of the doldrums, and get you perkin' again!
And don't let anyone else make you feel "old." Tell them you are older, but better now, Ha!
Susannah, thanks for popping in! There's a bunch of us that will hear you guys, and come to the rescue..........
Just think of it as something you have to go through...... like getting through that dark tunnel, and out into the light again! Do everything you have to do, but take care of your beautiful mind while doing it!
Okay, now I'm going to finish making the Kahlua I started yesterday!
Then we'll all have a cup of coffe, with a little Kahlua in it, or the other way around!!!0 -
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Chevyboy, what a cheer up! You made my day.
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Thought for the Day
Good thoughts bear good fruit, bad thoughts bear bad
fruit -- and each of us is a gardener.0 -
Hi Chevyboy, I just turned 75 too, and am thanking God I didn't have to deal with this with young kids and a job and no medicare. First chemo and Neulasta on Wed. No side effects yet. Claridin, lots of nausea meds, prunes. A little exercise--up to 15 min on stationary bike and mowed the lawn. A little lazy this morning. Keep in touch.
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edithester & susannah,
welcome to the Older Forum and out little corner of BC. Org. So glad you found us. We feel there is strength in numbers and that it is much harder to fall down when you are holding some one else's hand. This can be a bumpy ride..........and oddly enough many people around us seem confused and unable at times to understand our fears and upsets. Since we have all had them here --- good, bad, and everything in-between you can say what you need to....let it all hang out as they say...............and find comfort and caring and acceptance. We are the been there-done that group and we hope you will keep coming back and we will walk with you hand in hand and help you through. Pull up a chair, grab a cup of Chevy's delicious tea and relax.
Beauty of a morning outside. Nice and cool outdoors......a perfect Fall morning. So nice and green outside too from the rain. Hate to think of the summer being almost over.......since so much of it this year and mainly heat and drought.....so this is a little taste of what we should have had.
Hope you have a good day Carole.
Forgot to say.....I am 67.....at least as of two days ago. I don't feel any older....but then in my brain....I'm only about 50. There are times --- but thankfully few and far between. Maybe part of the acceptance is that it is nice not to always be waiting..........for when I'm old enough to--whatever. I'm old enough to do anything now and don't have to feel the longing anymore. Anyway......a great Saturday to you all.
Hugs, Jackie
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Edithesther, Call doc and get anxiety medicine. I got two kinds, one for once a day and one for every four hours. Some times we need a little help. I had in the past three panic attacks all in hospitals and I was the patient only one of the three times. I might add that I have solowed an airplane with no pbms. Anyway, I have a needle phobia. My port has been wonderful. The first chemo turned out to be a walk in the park compared to the anxiety. Join the September Chemo group. There are 38 of us all very supportive. You can do it. Hang in there.
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Cindi 74 welcome --- at this point, we are not older, but just a whole lot better.
hooray for you and hoping you se's ( side effects ) will stay really minimal. You are doing all the right things. I had 6 mos. of chemo and 7 wks. of rads.....so it is a real ride, but do think in the main easier most of the time for we ladies with a little TIME on our sides.Hugs, Jackie.
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Jackie
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Cindi! This is sooooo funny! I was reading your post....about anxiety and what help you can get, and I read "My pot has been wonderful!" Ha, ha! I didn't read it right.... but it's funnier my way.... 0
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Gotta say, I am a lumpy old laady too, 69. Had several cysts over the years, and one neg biopsy. As we say, the Golden Years are such fun!!
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Hi - This is my first post. I have been reading a lot on this website. I look forward to getting to know all of you who post. I have an unusual situation. I was diagnosed last year at the age of 66. My tumor should have made between 50 and 150 slides with cancer on them for testing. Unfortunately (we don't know what happened) there was not 1 slide available for testing. That meant I could not get an Oncotype DX test done or any other test to determine the aggresiveness of my cancer. I then found out due to my low Vitamin D and high Estradiol levels that I would have scored higher on Oncotype DX and most likely needed preventative chemo. The result was I could not get treatment because they could not tell what would work or not work. I am taking supplements to address both the vit. d and estradiol issue. Has anyone heard of a similar situation?
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w6ugfgomeo, hi and welcome to you. You didn't say where you were from ( that's ok ) but I am amazed at your story. I have never heard of someone's slides being lost, but I do know to never say never as it seems that is just when something will happen. Judging from your Dx line......at least it was IDC and does not look too scary.......there again, you really would like to be aggressive in your treatments if you can......and those slides would have been so helpful.
I'm not up on a lot of canser info.....but I would have think....since you are able to have supplements to get your D and estrogen to acceptable levels.....that you might not need chemo.
Also.....it seems to me that the MO could have come up with something for you to do. The flip side though is that there are individuals ( no way to actually tell ) who have for a variety of reasons done nothing or next to nothing and never had a problem again. They are though the minority.....partly because we know as much as we do.....most people end up doing a prescribed regimen.....so we don't know now how many would be in that category. The worst part is not knowing why......of course, having the why's would help so much to treat period. Some day.....but the end is not in sight yet.
I do hope you will keep coming back. These are a great group of women.
Hugs, Jackie
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Hi w6ugfgomeo... So WHAT now???
Do you mean you had the surgery, and they cannot give you a final pathological report? Ask that nit-wit Doctor again....! They MUST have some way of telling you what grade, and type your cancer was, AND how big! It is having the final path report, that they send in, with tissue, to test to see if you DO need chemo! Did you have radiation???
Tell us more about you, so we can come and shake some sense into your Doc's head!!! If he says you probably don't need chemo, then maybe you don't, and the same with radiation.... Some women refuse, but most of us go through it, to give us better chances, or in other words more assurance that every cell is gone... (if we can ever be sure)
And ask about taking Tamoxifen, or Femara, or Arimidex! If you are ER & PR positive, those are usually given....
So let us know, because we might have to form a posse, to make sure they are taking care of you!
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Wow !! feel like I have just landed in a crowd of wonderful funny and supportive friends. My eldest daughter rang this afternoon then collected me and took me to the library to help little granddaughter pick her books. By the time we left there I was feeling better, got to look forward to getting through this and living my life as before. Thanks .
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Just got back from my consultation in Seattle. THANK GOD, I went for a second opinion. the results are the same, double mastectomy, but I have two experts handling my case.
I go in on October 17 to Swedish.
These docs are prescribing expanders and I am a little freaked out about the pain and discomfort. But,once they explained how the instant implant my other surgeon wanted to put in following the mastectomy had problems I felt so much better
So, now I have to do my homework. Get rest and get ready for the marathon.
Any suggestions on where I should look to learn about the expander process ?
The problem is I will be 5 1/2 hours a way from home for the procedure and will be staying with my husband in a motel .
I just want lots of tips on how to manage this all in a safe way
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Beth...so glad you got the second opinion. Some people get more than two.....but that could cause some confusion. You can do tissue expanders, but you as well can do I think dorsal or lateral flap surgery. I only had lumpectomy.....so I am not a good one to ask about this, but I would gather information on all of it. Maybe you did and I'm not recalling the info you presented before.
Any sort of surgery can present problems....nothing is problem free....if the Dr'.s you consulted for this second opinion are used to dealing with expanders.....then likely they would feel much more comfortable presenting that option to you. I would just make sure to read and study about all of them and I'm sure you can find a wealth of information not only in the front of ( beginning sections of Bc.Org ) but you could probably find whole forums and threads which discuss pros and cons. Other than that or along with that, I'm sure there must be many references from material that you find here which you can read.
Thank goodness there are places like this one and an Internet to help us get connected to help. I am wishing you well and probably some one else will come on here and talk to you as well.
Hugs, Jackie
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Welcome Edithesther, SusannahW, w6ugfgomeo and Cindi74, sorry you have to join this forum but everyone is here is great and very helpful especially when one of us is feeling blue.
I have a 6 month visit on Monday with my OD. A little nervous but always am before appointments. I am 63 and 2 1/2 years out. I have been following the posts this week but have not written for awhile. The last two weeks I have felt so tired that I have been going to work and then just laying around the house and going to bed early.
Today is beautiful out. Wish it would stay this way for awhile. I forced myself to clean the house today before dg came to spend the day with us. She is only 3 and would not know the difference but I would. It was good to play and spend time with her.
Hope everyone has a great weekend.
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Welcome to all who are new. Sorry you have to go through all of this, but this is a great group for support.
I had my six month mamo and ultrasound yesterday and they said it all looked good. Dr. will have report on Monday. I took myself off of the cymbalta, my stomach was really bothering me. I had been on 30mg once a day for 6 months. I just went cold turkey and so far so good. I did not take my ambien last night because I was really tierd and thought I would sleep, that was a mistake. A miserable night.
DH found out he had arthtic knees, is to do some excercises and take some medicene, Dr. gave him a shot of what ever in his shoulder and it is better today.
Why is it so many bc patients have trouble sleeping after the chemo is all over with?
We had rain here in West Texas, started late last night and continued until around noon today, it was a nice gentle rain. Temps have only been in the 50's, we fnally had to turn on the heat for awhile to get the chill out of the house.
I was 63 in May and went through treatment last year, I do feel older, the tamoxifen does make me fatigued, it is hard to get things done.
Take care
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Hi to all my new friends. Sorry for the delay in posting I was off line. Thanks IllinoisLady and Chevyboy for your support and everyone else too.
I should have been more detailed when I sent my post. I live in the US. I did get a pathology report which told all the details below, that was not the problem. The problem started when my MO said the lab could not do any tests (Oncotype DX, Ki-67, etc) because there was not enough slides with cancer on them. MO and I were told by other path. labs that a 1 cm tumor should have yielded between 50 and 150=200 slides with cancer on them for testing. But, the lab said there was not even ONE slide that could be used for testing. My MO thinks they threw it out by mistake, most likely in the beginning during gross examination. They have covered up whatever they did up for over 5 months. That is why we could not get the genetic code (for future treatment) or determine what treatment would or would not work now. My MO said he was back over 30 years in trying to figure out what to do for me. Sad thing was he could not think of anything to do that he felt would work for sure (other then addressing the vit d and estradiol (elevated hormone) situation. The Oncotype DX would have shown how successful the hormone therapy would have been.
Meanwhile, I independently had my vit. d and estradiol levels checked after reading information regarding the importance of that situation. My oncologist should have done it, but did not, I discovered it from internet reseach and had my primary dr. do it. Vit. d level was severly low, it was 14, normal is between 100 to 155 I think. Dr. said it needed to be over 75 to keep cancer from coming back. My Estradiol was high, I think it was about 32, and needed to go down to 4 or below. Took it to MO who said he felt that indicated a more aggresive type of breast cancer and that I would most likely have scored higher on the Oncotype DX test and would have needed preventative chemo. But, he could not give the chemo without more information, so that is why I could not get the chemo treatment. The preventative chemo would have had to be given within about 12 weeks pos-operatively. By the time I discovered this it was too late.... I did have a mastectomy (left side) but no radiation.
Wish I could get a big posse together with a lot of you to help whip the lab and MO into shape. Unfortunately, my main oncologist is now history. He was afraid to tell the truth of what happened in my medical records (about the path. lab situation), was afraid what the lab would do to him....I really told him off and, of course, said goodby to him...!!
Hope that answers some of the questions.....thanks heaps for the support I really need it now with all that I am going thru.....Mary
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Okay little Mary....... Sounds like a job for Superman! They should all be ashamed of themselves for sweeping you in-between the floor-boards! They were probably looking at a text book, trying to figure out what they were doing, while they did your surgery!
If you trust anyone of your "team"....(and I use that word loosely).... You might ask for one of the Hormone suppresants, or Blockers, like Femara, Arimidex or Tamoxifen..... Because with your ER+/PR+.... You would be prescribed one of those, just for further after-care.
It's probably good that you had a Mastectomy, and it's a wonder those Doc's didn't take off your arm or something! I mean Holy Connoli, you must have been under the care of the 3 Stooges! It's a wonder you survived so much rinky-dink blatherings that day! Are you SURE you were at a medical facility and not at Jake's garage that day?
Yes, Vit. D3 is important.... At least your Primary has HEARD of that! But honestly, sounds like you should do well.... and no thanks to your comedy of errors Docs! We could all just shoot them, and put them out of their misery........
Let's get one of those stuffed dolls, and poke needles into them, to punish those guys! Oh well.... glad you are doing as well as you are!
Mommarch! Be careful of that Ambien! I've heard lots of women, (on this thread) talking about the wild and crazy things they do, while under the influence of that drug! Have you tried Melatonin instead??? If you go to "search" at the top of this page, and type in Ambien, you will come up with lots of stuff on that. Tamoxifen is another sleep robber! But I took Melatonin, and THEN had to take truck-loads of those anti-diarrhea tablets. So THEN I quit everything, and gradually went back to normal. WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!! It's the Tamoxifen that is bothering your sleep... (I re-read your post!) I think if you take it for about 50 years, you should get your sleeping back in order.
Termite! Sounds like you are doing better!!!! See? We CAN do it! Just takes time. And lots of pills, and chocolate cokes!
And BETH....I don't know anything about Mastectomies or tissue expanders...but go to search and type in those words, and a lot of threads will come up! I've read some of them, but it's been a long time.
Okay kids..... gotta get busy.......... I'll be back later.......
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