Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Luvmygoats, only 2 of my 6 remembered our anniversary, and I do not bother reminding them...they have enough to remember with all the siblings and nieces and nephews.
Carole, hey, I'm used to giving grades, but thanks for the A+
The program you attended sounds very inspirational. The best stories are true....and we learn from them. Wow, a birthday party...wish I could sneak a piece of that DBC cake! Hope you had a great time.Sorry to hear it's been gloomy in the midwest. Whatever your weather is, I should be getting soon. I just hope it clears for some comet viewing this week.
I do thank the Lord for giving us such beauty in this world. Today DH and I were hiking in a state park, and there was a little snow left on the north facing hills. The sun came out, lit up trees with their dusting of snow, and I about cried. I had to stop...and of course, DH didn't really get it.
Chevy, I will put some pics of the beach on the web and send a link.
Jackie, the California beaches are beautiful. You must miss the shore after all those years. There's something about the endless water, the smells and sounds. Since my dx, I've tried to use all my senses to experience the simple things. Ritajean, the Florida beaches have their own beauty..and I love warm water! And Ducky, I know you love the NJ shore.Back to work tomorrow, but after the warmer and relaxing week end, I'm ready.
Nite all,
Joan0 -
Did you guys see this?
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Do we spread loving kindness? There are many who say that
this is our ultimate goal on this planet--to spread loving kindness
to our fellow human beings. And when we are able to accomplish
this goal, we find that our lives are transformed in the process.
We're no longer so strongly focused on things and negative
thoughts and feelings, but we've become truly happy,
content human beings who love life and living.0 -
Good Morning.....oh, and it is great here despite being pretty damp yet. Our deck looked quite wet this morning. Weather says we will be dry today though, so I'll be happy.
Golly, your link Chevy was amazing. We all know that in medicine there is a lot of impreciseness and that just as mentioned we are taking medicines that could well give us side effects that will cause a need to "take" something else. Hats off to this Dr. Topol who would like to treat people for what is really wrong and prescribe based on that information.
Joan, you are an inspiration. There is so much that is all around us that we never see, and not only did you see it, you felt it. I think it is part of a mechanism we all have ( but men use it so very much less ) that helps us stay in touch with all of our senses. I think there is a quote ( faulty brain ) or maybe several about seeing heaven in many different things. Well, that is being truly in touch with your surroundings.....whatever they may be and where ever you are. We are really a part of everything there is in the world.....and when we can feel the spirit and energy that resides in a tree, a patch of grass, a little stream, then we are accepting the wholeness of ourselves and our ability to be harmonious with things outside of ourselves.
Ok....I'm not exactly sure just what I said, but I felt it, so I said it.
I hope you all have a wonderful Monday. Today will be simply the best.
Peace and love,
Jackie
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Chevy,
I saw this and reposted the link also on Facebook. Having just had KIDNEY SONO, HAVING APPTS FOR STRESS CARDIAC SONO, A KIDNEY CT , Mammo amd bone density, I'm thinking how many different appointments could avoid with this technology! Sure wud save money and all the running around. Amazing.
No kidney stone, surprise, as I only passed 1 of the 2 I had some years ago, so he's doing a CT to make sure. What wud the drs do without us to keep them solvent! Onward, wed is Mammo and bone density.
Gloomy , but fairly warm here, Lots of rain again tomorrow. Thinking about taking off the flannel sheets soon. AAAAh , spring!
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Hi everyone, just been hanging out in the shadows. I was on the statin drugs for a very long time and then my liver enzymes were elevated and they took me off of them and put me on fish oil.
I got my COBRA package, it will be $477.00 a month, that includes my drug benefit also.
Guess DH and I will talk about it this evening. He has shoulder surgery on March 20th and I do not look forward to that. This week is spring break in Texas so he is pretty busy at the broom shop. I have a recipe for an italian sausage and pasta soup that I was going to make but just cant get the energy. Maybe tomorrow.
Been using my time trying to get some things done around the house a little at a time. It is to warm up here the next few days, we were at 18 this morning.
Take Care
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Mommarch.... is it Rotator cuff surgery? Let me know....
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Mommarch, I hope something good happens to brighten up your life. That's a lot of $$ for insurance coverage. The combined monthly cost for Medicare premiums, 2nd insurance, and long term care insurance for dh and me is $700.
Joan, you have a talent for description. I enjoyed that striking view of the snow on the hills you saw during your hike.
We had rain this morning that washed the pollen out of the air. This afternoon the sun popped out and the weather turned beautiful. The rest of the week will be sunny and a little cooler than normal but still quite comfortable to be outdoors.
Exciting day today. WW meeting this morning and appointment to have my teeth cleaned this afternoon.
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Hi Ladies,
Thanks for your support again. I am taking my mom to Sloan Kettering on Thursday for another opinion. Our assigned nurse from the first hospital called today to see when we were coming back. I'm guessing the records department communicated that a courier came today to pick up all the images and path. slides. I told her what the dr. told me. She asked me if I had lost confidence in the surgeon - that's a good way to put it. I also quoted one of you, ladies, and used the term 'wishy-washy'!
My mom's cardiologist said to do "whatever the surgeon says is necessary for a 'cure'." The opposite of the hesitancy the surgeon expressed. Who to believe! (Sorry if I wrote that already.)
I hate waiting longer to get something done. If I am asked why I want a second opinion by the new surgeon, I guess I should tell them the other dr's concerns but I hope I can wait to hear her opinion first.
Thanks for being on the other end.
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Reg most people go for 2 opinions it's not a rare thing--u want to be with whomever u feel good with and u have every right to do that. So don't worry about that at all.
And Joan we were right with u on that hike--like Carole the weatherlady said.
My dr. called I do not have cancer in my spine---I knew it but I'm glad that that test os over--All I have is 2 deteriorting discs and lower vertabrae and I'm in a lot of pain so she's upping my pain meds--I'm not ready to see another Dr. yet, I still have more tests. I thought I was just imagining all this pain but I wasn't I'm so happy and when I really realize how much pain I'm in I will come off this high of no cancer. LOL
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(((Camille))) so glad to hear there is no cancer ... but having the deteriorating discs is not fun. At least you know what you are dealing with. So sorry about the pain.
Jackie, what you wrote earlier in the morning should be your next quote! So much truth in there...Carole, it sounds like you've got some wonderful golf weather moving in. We have another rain day tomorrow...I hope it clears for Wednesday.
Regbeach, I think it is good to tell the first hospital what your experience has been and to be clear about whether you'll be back. I hope you get answers at Sloan. I was very happy with my experience there (Long Island and NYC)
More tomorrow...it's late and I have to get up extra early.
Have a good day to come,Joan
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https://www.youtube.com/embed/auSo1MyWf8g?rel=0
Morning gals........Camille, I know about back pain.... But my problem was about 20 years ago... Finally had it "fixed"... Wish I had done it sooner, but you hate to go through that.... Mine was 2 herniated disks...the pain finally went down my leg into my foot, so I could barely walk... The Sciatica will drive you up a wall.
I was advised physical therapy, several times... and 600 mg of Ibuprofen every few hours... But after a year, I HAD to have it taken care of.
Soooo glad you don't have cancer! Yes, be thankful....
It snowed, and IS snowing!!! WTH? Didn't call for THIS one! Did I mention before I am tired of this? Oh well... it's a heavy wet snow this time, because the temps are in the 30's.
Regbeach... Yes, I think we ALL want different, or "more" opinions! It just makes sense. If something doesn't look right, or sound right, STOP and think it over... Then get your records, or reports and go somewhere else. I did this... I didn't like that the place who did the ultra-sound, and biopsy, were ready to take care of it all, with their team and hospital...
So I called my PC and told her I wanted HER to recommend a surgeon, with the hospital we are familiar with... Then the surgeon recommended the radiologist... I couldn't have been happier! I was scared, and then not knowing ANY of them, made it worse. So they ALSO used a courier to send my records, (mammograms, ultrasound) to the hospital by our house.... The biopsy came back positive, and then it all fell into place.
Mommarch.... I've heard how expensive insurance is... Are you guys too young for AARP and Medicare? Ours is great...! Have had it probably ever since DH's insurance stopped, about a year after he retired! My SIL has Cobra, through the bank where she works.... don't know about the cost... She used to have it through Kaiser... That's where my folks had theirs through.
Okay... have a good day !
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Yay, Camille! No cancer in the spine!!
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Time mellows people as it mellows wine, as long as the grapes are good. You may set out to be a businesswoman or businessman but in the course of time end up caring for a dying parent, orphaned niece, or disabled brother. You may encounter illness yourself and end up being a writer, touching the heartstrings, not the purse strings of other people. That’s why it’s best to always be true to yourself and God and to be flexible within his will. He will use you.
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Good morning....on what looks to be a day that will have some sun. I don't know how much but I don't think it will rain either and that is what I don't want. I am tired of the color gray that tends to drop wet stuff on me.
Camille....yea. You will come down from the NO cancer high --- I did find out what back pain feels like and it is certainly something that will have you reckoning in no time and mine was only a muscle. One of the not so good parts of getting seasoned it seems, is that the spine which takes a beating from having kids and working hard and can make itself known just when it seems time to relax a bit and catch up with yourself. Hoping when the time comes you will find a good fix for it.
See you all later,
Peace and love
Jackie
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Thanks Mods/Melissa for getting me un-wonked.
Peace and love
Jackie
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Thanks for asking Chevy,
They are going to do arthoscopy and go from there, he said it is possible they might have to replace the rotor cuff. He seperated his shoulder probably 20 years ago or more and that is part of the problem, it never healed correctly.
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It's quiet on here today. Camille is probably busy celebrating.
I dislocated my right shoulder years ago, when I was in my 20's. Uh huh, a LOT of years ago. It was a skiing accident and I got to experience being transported down the slopes by the ski patrol, then off to the hospital where my shoulder was popped back into place. Fortunately I've never had any trouble with the shoulder since then.
Today was a fun day on the golf course. I played unusually well and won a women's golf event. On the way home I learned that my niece, whom I've mentioned before, was being admitted to a mental hospital. So that news was a bit of a downer. I hope she can get her medication adjusted.
Hope everybody had a nice Tuesday.
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If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power,
but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever
young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility
never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so
intoxicating, as possibility! ~~~~Soren Kierkegaard0 -
Pretty morning here but we are back to be cooler again. It's that little dance that starts around spring-time that cements your longing into place. I'm so looking forward to the 'new' beginnings that come with the new clothing of Spring. One of our first indicators are that the bushes that line the ravine areas next to us start filling out leaves, first thinnish and then all of a sudden full as can be.
regbeach....good for you. It is hard to wait when you feel there is a 'time' bomb of a sorts going on inside your Mom, but I think of how glorious and fun or if not that, at least fairly peaceful my outlook was right before I was diagnosed. Then later to find out that I had likely had my cancer for many years prior. It is a matter of how you let yourself regard it. I will say though that the month I waited for my lumpectomy to take place did feel odd to me. I did not want to wait....just wanted the darn stuff out of me.
I had the good fortune and I certainly hope this for you, to have been able to feel connected almost instantly to my surgeon. Both my hubby and I looked at each other and whispered the same thing when she left the room ---- she has the healer's aura -- and we never looked back at that point. Obviously I had total faith. Hoping you are able to find this at Soan tomorrow.
Peace and love,
Jackie
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Good morning Ladies,
Jackie I agree with you after I was diagnosed I didn't want to wait either. I did the genetic testing, since my daughter hadn't, and that took additional time. Happily, the results were neg. Waiting is always soo hard. I know they say that by the time the cancer is found, it has usually been there for 5 years!
Have my first mammo at lunch time, and bone density. Ouch, as I'm still a little tender on that side!
Colder and gloomy here. At least it's not pouring like yesterday.
Carole, sometimes those OLD injuries can come back to haunt you. I tore up my knee in Highschool gymmnastics , it slips sometimes and bothers me when I stand for a long time! and thats 50 years later!
Not much else here today. Tomorrow the tax man! Have a good day , everyone. Jean
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You are right I think about the cancers being around awhile before being found. I faithfully had mammos every year from the age of forty on. The last three years before my diagnosis they called me back for additional views but always said they are okay. I found my cancer eight months after t he last mammo. Told them something is not right. Sure enough its BC.
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Dreamer,
Right, I too had my yearly mammos. Also had had a biopsy several years ago, neg, had a cyst aspirated. Figured I'm older , my hormones have gone South, no worry. Surprise, annual mammo, sono, biopsy= BC. No other family history , as far as we know and no BC gene for me. I know people who have done everything you're supposed to, non smokers, thin, active, vegetarian etc, still the beast reared its ugly head. Some things make us more susceptale, otherwise I figure it's a roulette game!
Anyway, after turning blue from holding my breath, thru mammo, extra shot, sono today, radiologist walks in, I think, Oh NO! then she says don't panic, everything looks good! So I breathe, til the next one in 6 mos!:) Jean
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You know, I was just wondering this, and I think I found a good answer....
I wondered how long I had cancer before it showed up on a mammogram. I have had one every year, and like most of you, was really surprised when a routine mammogram did show a small tumor!
So congratulations Jean! I just go back once a year now....
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Just to add my little story.....My first diagnosed cancer was something that my previous Dr. had been watching. Now most of my Dr's, in California as well as here were usually fairly cautious because I had dense fibrocystic breast tissue. So when i got to Illinois they started doing an US --- just on the left breast. A couple of years I actually watched this area....hate to say but it looked like a faucit with a really slow drip.
Anyway....bout' the time for my next yearly mammo the next year ( after three or four of watching the drip ) we lost our insurance so when I got the letter from the Dr. that it was time I called his nurse to say I wouldn't be coming.....that we had lost our insurance. Should have known something was wrong --- I heard a little quiet gaspy intate of breath. Master that I am.....I convinced myself I was mistaken and the sound I heard on the other end of the line meant nothing.
A few months after that --- while getting something out of the back of my Blazer ( anyone not familiar....you can leave the tailgate up and only open the window back there ) I pulled hard on a box and pulled it along with a sharp corner accidentally right into my lt. breast. Got a good sized bruise.
Three months later the bruise was still threre -- looking better, but far from gone. I knew that was not right and at that time I began checking into things......having a mammo, us, and that erupted into a biopsy for both breasts. Turned out....rt. breast was fine.
A pappillary cancer was detected on the left breast....most of it came out in the biopsy tube......it is in fact, a very lazy slow growing cancer. The problem came in after my great surgeon removed the bruised tissue ( which was mainly dead anyway ) and she kept feeling around there and lo and behold found a second tumor....it was ductal which is fast growing and aggressive.
That being the case....and because I have studied spiritual works for quite a long while.....I feel losing my Ins. was probably the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Reason being.....the V.A. took over my care at that point and they farmed women out pretty much for something like cancer. I in fact, never saw any other women at the time. So I was sent to a fantastic Breast Center Clinic and just happened to get a great Dr. who obviously does not go half way and does not take short-cuts. I sort of thought....many other surgeons would have taken the first slow-growing pappillary cancer ( recalling here that it was the only one known about as far as my original biopsy went ) and sewed me up and said what a wonderful thing. I would have till have a very fast-growing aggressive cancer still inside......and who knows what might have happened.
So, I do not believe in luck, co-incidence, happenstances, fate, or anything that has a rather nebulous sound to it. I believe we are all on this Earth to glorify our souls and in doing so a lot of us will get a disease called cancer. Along this road, we will have things happen ( like the loss of Ins. ) which may remove us from one area ( my primary care group at that time ) and get us into a totally different area........and hopefully, we get treatment that fully handles the problem.
Well, I still don't know just why I needed THOSE lessons, but when I look back on my life I see these sorts of things all along the way. Who'd have thought that when I went into the WAC in 1964, that it was the very thing ( Ability to use V.A. hosp. and Dr. services ) that I would need in 2007 because I would no longer be able to use the Dr's I had seen for several years due to losing my insurance.
That is just one of the things I clearly saw.....which obviously spanned many years before it bore fruit which changed my life. There are many others and so when I look back ( mainly for reference, certainly not for what if's or regrets ) I can see a chain of things.....and each had to occur to get me here sitting at a computer telling everyone else what a grand design our whole life has.
Some won't believe it and some won't care --- some may think that I'm talking about something religious, but to me it is much more spiritual than religious. It is why everything in life has some importance and the more things that I can sense outside of myself and find reverence for, than the better my soul will be for having been here.
Ok.....that is a lot.....a real earful so to speak. I mainly went through that for the fact that bonnets talked about no matter what you do or don't do......we may or may not get diagnosed. It is sort of a crap-shoot just due to no one being able to know. There are no tests and a good deal of the time it does not make sense.
Hope it has been a good day for everyone. Mine was swell.
Peace and love,
Jackie
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Yay, Bonnets (Jean) on a clear mammogram! I know you must be feeling very relieved.
The azaleas are popping into bloom everywhere. Swept the carport this afternoon and created a cloud of pollen in the process.
Played golf again today--regular Wed. women's game--and played like dog poop. Bet you didn't know dog poop played golf, huh?
Thinking of you mommarch and hoping things are going well for you down in TX.
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Jackie,
I understand what you are saying. Many things in my life can only be explained by God being in control. I won't go into them all, but last fall we were schedualed for a trip to Switzerland. Now my DH had had open heart in Feb and when we went to Crater Lake in Aug had difficulty breathing. We ended up cancelling the swiss trip, as he felt it wud be too much in high altitude fr 2 weeks. Little did I know I wud need that time to start on my BC journey. It was planned!
Have had other instances in which , as I look back someone, not me, was in control!
Yes, Carole, doing a happy dance today!
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Well hello again. You know before my cancer was found by me, for about a year or more I really did not feel good, hurt all over all the time. DH and I were out in Feb. of 2011 gathering yucca and the next day I had alot of pain and noticed the lump. I thought well maybe I got stuck by a cactus leaf, they do have poison in them. I went to the Dr. about a week later, and bang it all began. I feel lucky. I guess I will take out the Cobra as long as we can afford it.
I guess we will take our little camper to Odessa and park it in the hospital parking lot on Tues. the 19th. The hotel rooms in Odessa are out of site, because of all the oil field work. Motel 6, and it is not a nice motel 6, $90.00 + tax. LaQuinta $189 + tax.
At least this way we will be right there the next morning. It is small enough I don't think I will have any problems pulling it with our little Ford Ranger Pickup. Just hope the tires on the trailer are OK.
Take care
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Wow I didn't realize I missed so much, just been doing not much. And honestly I never worried about having cancer I just thought if I had it I had it, if not, good, but I know why I have pain. that was it. But I didn't worry the first time either. I don't really worry about things I can not change---but I do worry about being operated on because of the anethesia (sp) cuz each time it was harder and harder to get me out of it and the last one I was in the hospital much longer than planned and unless they can operate without putting me out it's not going to happen. LOL That is my only worry about all this stuff. cuz if they said we have to go in--I'd be out the door.I told u I think weird.
And it was sunny and warmish out today Jackie.
Carole good for u with u'r golf u must really be good cuz I know u enjoy it so.
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Jackie, I do understand what you are saying. I had missed at least 5 years of mammos...I had a prolapsed bladder and I ended up going back to a gyn who delivered my son ~ 30 years ago. He gave me a mammos Rx and I waited from April until July to get it done...it was suspicious, and a biopsy followed with a dx. So, the annoying bladder problem "saved my life" ... my BC was not palpable and would never have been detected. I was meant to find and deal with this BC. I cannot explain any of it. I try to live a grateful life...for all the beautiful things I see and get to do each day, and for my health...
Spring is just 6 days away...0
