Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Hi Ladies
I did call, and everything is o.k. Thank the Lord. About 23 years ago two of my daughters, one son and myself took taekwondo. My baby daughter, Pam, was 12 at the time. She had a lot of strength in her legs. Well, she jumped over three people and broke three boards. Her sister, Debby and I were the only ones who were brave enough or maybe crazy enough to hold boards for her. She went through those three boards and right into my chest. I couldn't breathe good for about two months. What they saw was where my ribs had been broke. Jesus is so good!
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Hi Ladies! You don't know how much I love reading your posts...I have learned so much from all of you! The natural herb way to cure yourself "Is a very bad idea!" My surgeon said. I know it is THEIR choice to stop treatment, once the surgery is over! BUT, my one friend has now had 9 surgeries in 1 1/2 years...because of bleeding, infection, & more cancer. She just wanted a lumpectomy, even tho, by the time she knew she had cancer, her nipple was bleeding...(hadn't had a mammogram in over 5 years)...She found it herself, & the Doctor (????) gave her a lumpectomy, with an expander? so she could have her breast ready for an implant.
All of this seems bizarre, & I don't know how much to believe. But she finally had to have a mastectomy anyway, because the cancer had spread! She also had radiation AND chemo later on! It has been just 2 years since all of this happened...
Then my other friend, just CHOSE to do the "natural" herb thing by herself! She (so-far) will not have radiation, even tho SHE found a large lump, and they took out 9 nodes, just last week! She is almost 80!!
Those choices really WOULD scare the "bejuzzies" out of me also! I don't over-medicate either, but I most surely would listen to the Doctors & do what THEY say, and try & prevent this from happening again. Do Doctors actually comply if the patient does not WANT further treatment?
I have another friend who belongs to a religion where certain treatments are not accepted, & with her breast cancer, she ALSO had to have a mastectomy after the lumpectomy because she wouldn't & still will not have further treatment! She is also into drinking a little "peroxide" to clarify her system....I am just baffled at these choices...
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WHEW! Mother of 7........GREAT NEWS! I'm so happy that the results showed remnants of a former injury! Now, take a deep breath and move right on with your life.
Pam...how I wish I lived closer to you! I'd take you up in a minute on the shopping and wrapping exchange. I'm great at scouring out those bargains but that wrapping....YUCK! LOL I wrapped some of them yesterday and then had to leave things out on my dining room table overnight so that I would be motivated to wrap the rest today. LOL
Jeannette, I share your opinion on the herbal treatments. I do drink the green teas and do a few other natural things now.......AFTER all my treatments are done, but to forego the standard treatments in favor of strictly herbal remedies would really scare me, too. Some people, though, are so afraid of the chemo and rads that they look diligently for other avenues of hope.
Well,I'm off to wrap some more of those packages. We'll see if I have my mission accomplished at the end of the day! LOL
Everyone enjoy the day. I'm already motivated as we didn't get the sleet and snow that they predicted for this part of Illinois yesterday!
Hugs to all of you.
Rita
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Good morning ladies. Wow !!! Rained all day yesterday and then in early evening we had snow that did not stick as there was still rain in it. Using one of my late mothers' words....it was a tiny bit slickery. My spell checker will have fun with that one.
Sun ( not super bright ) is out today and no more inclement weather for a week or so. Good. I don't like to have to spend a whole day sloshing around in the rain and then the night as well.
Hope you all have a great day. Mof7 --double yay for you. See you all later.
Jackie
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Motherof7 - what a relief - so happy for you!
Rita - my first job while still in high school was gift wrap at Montgomery Wards! I love to gift wrap - wish I was closer. Thanks for the energy vibes. I could sure use them.
Alyson - what kind of heart surgery will your husband have?
Jo - yep - just like you and then wonder why I am tired!
Jackie - I'm with you - get the heck out of the path of a speeding train. I believe there are some great properties in natural medicines (which almost all are) but as an adjunct not the main treatment.
Jeanette - like your friend, my nipple was bleeding - that's how I knew. But it was DCIS and a bilateral mastectomy took care of it for me. With my diagnosis and my other health issues my docs thought the bi mx was enough. I don't know what the statistics are for a recurrence but perhaps your 80 year old friend feels she won't be around that long - or maybe she just feels that she's had enough.
Lavendar - thanks for the heads up on BCO. Going to that site next.
Melissa - how are you feeling?
To all of you who sustain me while making my day - love and hugs!
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Hi Ladies:
I want to thank each and everyone of you for your kind and encouraging words. I feel so bad worrying you all over something that happened so long ago. I guess the Dr.'s don't know how much they worry us sometimes, but thank the good Lord that i have a Dr. who is willing to follow up on every detail.
I am going to try and remember that they are people far worse than myself, and I am going to just be grateful for each and every moment God gives me. He has blessed me to have such good friends as all you ladies are, and I want each and everyone of you to know how grateful I am that I can always count on each one of you, and I will be there for each and everyone of you.
We had rain in my part of FL yesterday, looks like the sun will shine here today, then rain for Friday and Saturday, then it's suppose to get cold.
I hope all of you lovely ladies have a great and blessed day. Rita Jean I can't wrap presents very good, my hubby does a great job, so i just let him do it.
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Morning all
Hot and sticky here again today.
DH is having the aortic valve replaced and two by-passes so quite a big op. It is happening on Tuesday- Monday your time. Even thyough he has been through the public system it is being done in one of the best private hospitals because the public hospital is unable to get him in within a certain time.
My christmas cake which I made last night smells wonderful. So that is one job out of the way. Have a couple more gifts to buy and I should be done and yesterday my daughters and I organised who was doing what for Christmas Day which is here. Can't believe that things are sorted so soon. I usually get DD1 to help wrap parcels - as a student in London she worked at Harrods and so learnt to wrap beautifully. Have all the decorations out now just have to get the tree in, we have a very nice artificial one as several of us are allergic to the real thing.
Have a wonderful day and think about us here shopping in the heat, at least it is not as hot as Australia.
Alyson
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Hi, everybody. I've been catching up on reading posts the last couple of days. Dh and I had a safe road trip to Illinois during the Thanksgiving holidays. The weather was cold and windy and sometimes dreary, but it was warm and cheerful inside my SIL's house. Thanksgiving was very nice with lots of food and the company of family members. The kids present were cute and fun. On Friday we left Decatur and drove to the Chicago area, where we visited with more family and enjoyed a get-together on Sunday. DH delivered a lovely cradle he'd built for the newest member who is less than 2 mos. old.
All in all, we were 9 days away from home, and my body suffered from the lack of exercise and from eating more fat and calories than normal.
Rita, I enjoy gift-wrapping a lot more than shopping for gifts.
Alyson, I hope your husband does well with his scheduled surgery.
Healing vibes to all those in treatment and all those recovering from surgery and treatment.
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Hi Carole,
You were missed here!
pam
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Carole....so glad you're home safely and had a great time visiting family and friends. Pam is right! We missed you!
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Hi everyone. Hope all enjoyed Thanksgiving and the weekend for everyone else.
Well, received report from lab on recent mammo. Remember I said they saw a clip in the left breast and I don't know how it got there. Report went on to say NED so that was good. Faxed copy over to BS (my med onc had ordered the mammo) and asked her to refresh my memory and she confirmed that I did indeed have a clip from stereotactic biopsy; that everything is okay and she will see me in May for the next follow-up. Everything is good!
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Patoo, excellent news! Yea
Alyson, we will all pray for your DH. It must be tough getting in the Christmas mood when the temperatures are 85 degrees or better. We have an artifical one too that is prelit (the worse part of decorating a tree). All you add is Christmas ornaments and viola - a gorgeous Christmas tree.
Carole, glad your Thanksgiving was so grand and you and DH are home safe and sound.
Motherof7, you are so sweet. BTW, nothing is too small to worry about when you have had BC.
Good night all - see you in the morning!
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Carol so glad your home safe. I bet you get yourself back in shape pretty darn fast. My son can visit me for 5 days and say he got out of shape cause he is use to working out daily and not eating stuff like cake and pie. He is fit as a fiddle.
Motherof7, so thankful your ok. God is so good.
Rita, I do all I can to get my husband to wrap because he does a much better job that me and I don't like it either.
I do have all the gifts done because I just made everyone a hat and scarf and got the kids itune cards which they asked for.
Melissa, I have been thinking about you and working so much and wondering how you are doing. It will take time to get stronger and stronger.'
JO, sorry about having to break my promise to you about staying on my feet since the dr. said stay off of them. I thought about that today when I read your card again.
Alyson, will be praying for your husband for an uneventful surgery and fast healing and you the strength to see it all through. What kind of cake did you make?
kmccrawl, hope you are doing well. Always enjoy seeing you post.
All of you lovely ladies have a good weekend coming up. Hugs and love to my sisters. Sherry
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Oh my patoo, my friend I just saw your post and thank the Lord. I have missed you and am glad your ok. Hope things at work and home are going good. God bless you.
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Glad your back Carole and that you had a nice time and great visits with your family. You were missed.
I'm running late today so can't stay....but hi to Allison too.. Yikes its nippy out of doors tonight. Oh well....no rain so it is not snowing.
See you all later....I'm thinking of all of you and wishing you all nice days, happy thoughts and great health.
Jackie
Patoo....how wonderful on your NED recent mammo....congrats. Also, forgot to say I'll be putting your dh in my prayers Alyson for an un-eventful surgery and strong, speedy recovery with excellent results. Hi to Spar as well.
See you all again.
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Mo7= Great news! I am so glad- an old injury is better than anything else and now no worries! Thank-GOD!
Sorry ladies I was out of it after (just) two days of work,. I was so tired I fell asleep with my head on my desk and laughed at how I must have looked- big ol' red spot right in the middle of my forehead! LOL all on Tuesday. Wed. I went for my LE eval and what a tremendous help!!! Can't begin to tell you the difference. I had a very large "boggy" area under my rt arm (took 20 minutes longer to get the rt ones than the left ones) and a smaller one on the left. Tuesday evening I thought to myself "maybe this is my new normal and I just need to get used to it"- NOT! YEAH- the therapist put me in a sample "thoracic compression bra" and told me to wear it 24/7. I talked her out of her sample until mine come in!!! Sorry- I got carried away with the glee of feeling hope, good, normal, YEAH!
Rita and Jeanette- I am so with you- I drink the green tea, eat my vitamins and drink lots of water, and value other treatments but see my doctor and read the research. In my bachelor portion of my nursing degree we had a weekly report on an Alternative treatment modality- Deepa Chopra wrote a huge book which is very good. Still I had a BMX.
Alyson I will be thinking of you and DH on Monday- Pray for a skilled surgeon and a quick recovery and have heard that the pain is very well controlled for these patients.
Kathleen- you asked how I am- well I did all the brain work on my CA during the 6 weeks leading up to my surgery- sobbed like a baby the day before the surgery - as in ALL DAY- and that was good for me. Now please remember that I had a BMX with a DCIS DX and a 4 month watch on my "healthy" breast. I made that decision because I never wanted to do the waiting game again, wait to see the doctor, wait for insurance to say I can go, wait for an appointment, wait for results, wait for surgery- and I did NOT want to ever do this again. I studied and studied, consulted two radiologist trying to get answers on the "healthy" breast and was never too cool with rads. NOW , my brain turned on me on Thanksgiving Day and the reality set in HARD. I know this is backwards and I know that at any given moment many people are much sicker than I, need chemo and rads, and more and more and more so what's up with my brain?- My onc says that is the way it is and that he can't "babysit my brain" as I requested but he will let me have my xanxa as long as I need it. It seems as if I should have had some emotion before but it was all intellectual up front and than WHAM! I am better, and can not explain the temporary lapse and it may well happen again. I have so much to be grateful for that I am embarrassed about my whatever it was. Then on Tuesday I really got over tired and Wed I played hookie, went to the LE place, out to lunch and then home to m nest.
We are very lucky to have each other, My DH is GREAT, but it would be understandable to think that one could get tired, bored, you know all the things we get, fed up so I try not to complain. Thanks for all of you!
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Hi and Hugs and good vibes and healing prayers and smilies and - did I say HUGS - and congrats on good reports. I have been reading but not posting much. All is good here except for some arm spasms from the brachial plexopathy. I know what I did and I will try NOT to do it again... I need a sign on my "bad" arm to keep people from slapping me and grabbing when they talk to me. Do you think " DO NOT TOUCH " will work? LOL. Hugs again, Nancy
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About xanax: My doctor gave me an RX for .25 mg Xanax twice a day, as needed. I am very spare in taking it even though I recognize it takes away my constantly jittery feelings. I may take one or two a week. Why don't I take more often when it really helps? I am afraid of becoming dependent on a drug! Am I being silly when it helps so much? What is a normal dose? Is it possible to become addicted to it? If you take it, are you comfortable with a maintenance dose? Thanks for opinions and advice.
pam
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YEAH Patoo! I'm right behind you. I go for my mammo and check-up on Tuesday and I'm nervous as always when that rolls around. They always have trouble finding my one clip which makes it more agonizing as you sit there half dressed waiting for them to finish!
Pam, I share your concern about drug dependence and that's why I don't take anything. I just muddle through. I don't know if that's smart or not but my mother did get hooked on the drugs and she had a terrible time when she finally had her heart problems and they had to get her off the drugs. I know that her situation and mine are different but that sticks in my mind and as long as I can function, I've stayed away from them.
Melissa............NEVER feel sorry about feeling hope! Where would we be without hope????
Alyson....sending thoughts and prayers your way for hubby's surgery and your peace of mind. Hang in there!
Well, I'm off to run errands and finish up some things around the house. If all goes well I might catch up on my Desperate Housewives while I iron a few things this afternoon. I will be especially careful with the ironing! LOL
Hugs to all of you.
Rita
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Patoo
It is so good to know that everything is o.k. with you. Thank the Lord that your test results turned out great.
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RitaJean
I will pray that your mamogram turns out great. The Lord hears every one of our prayers.Hugs!
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leftyAKAnan
I know what you mean about people hitting you where it hurts. When my Mother was alive for some unknown reason she would hit me on my upper left leg. That's the side I fell and crushed the ball in my hip last October. Now for some unknown reason when we are sitting in church and my hubby wants me to listen or look at something, he hits that same part of my leg. I tell him to stop that it hurts, but next time he wants me to see or hear something, he does it again. I ask him why did he do that, and he says he forgets my leg hurts there. I don't know if a "Do Not Touch" sign would work or not, but maybe it might be worth a try.
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Pam and Rita , I know what you are saying about the xanax, the normal dose is 0.25 three times daily- I don't take it unless I am at the point that prayer and meditation won't help or I can't turn my brain off to sleep. I will research the addiction rate and let you know what I find. But Pam I am very much like you and sometimes wonder "Why don't you use it sooner" at the times when I end up needing it. These traits are NOT traits of addictive personalities and I can have pain medication (narcotics), muscle relaxers etc. in the house for months and never use them. Any way- it is a valid concern and I will do the research.
Also my sisters doctor gave her an RX for xanax for menopause! I was so shocked as I muttled through that for years without help of any kind- dispite handing over a written list of complaints to my GYN. - go figure.
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Melissa,
Thank you for your personal experience and also for your medical research on addiction.
pam
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I don't understand the drug issue very well, all through surgeries and chemo the onc gave me loratab and ativan and the last chemo boom, no more drugs cause she was afraid I would get addicted. I mean I took them for months and missed them but no big issues. Am glad I don't take anything now. I am addicted to coffee and coke though. It would be hard 2 live without them. I don't have any research just life experience. I know you ladies help me through so much. 2 more weeks until the x-ray to show me all is well. Onc appt and mammo in March. Thank you ladies for being here.
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Spar2 will keep in prayer your x-ray results.
Blessings.
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Nancy & Motherof7, Yeah what's with that being hit by people on your bad side?
I have felt bruised on my bad right side ever since my mx in '95, which includes my shoulder, upper arm, my back to my spine and my ribs. If I bump any of those places accidently, even sitting back in a hard chair, I can't stop myself from making some sort of noise/groan. So why do I have to do some kind of macabre avoidance dance around people who insist on patting, prodding, poking, nudging and generally assaulting me on that side?
I have found the only way to stop it is to do the pain yell, as you would if someone has really punched you, hold the part as if it's broken or, alternatively, look at it as if you are expecting to see blood, (dredge up some tears if you can) while looking accusingly at the puncher. It seems to give them such a fright that they are more wary around you from then on.
Sheila.
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I chuckled at your "assaulting" - had not thought of it that way, but you/we know how painful it is. I did that once, grabbed my arm and bent over in pain. The person looked at me and said something like It can't be all that bad, all I did was pat your arm... Grrrrrrrr...
Very Gentle hugs for all, Nancy
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Hi All! I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!!! Had the Lumpectomy yesterday, with "clear marins" and 2 nodes removed & they were also clear! Suppose I'll be "peein" blue for awhile now, Ha! But no pain! It hurts a little, & the MammoSite tube spot is/was bleeding a little, but we put 5 # of padding under my Sports bra, so that should stop that! I am soooooo thankful to God, that it is finally over and everything went well! My throat is what's sore! I think from that tube/garden-hose they put down my throat
But the incision is just sore, & hurts a little, but I didn't need to take the Percocet...Just a Tylenol PM.......I slept on my other side, with a pillow under my arm, to hold it up. I go for the "switch" Monday, then over for Radiation seeds in the MammoSite device, twice a day for 5 days...Just waiting for the final pathology report, but I can handle anything now!It was after the surgery that..."I knew then that HE carried me in his arms." Thanks all, for getting me through this....... Jeannette
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Super news, Jeannette. Healing vibes coming your way.
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