Class of 2009 - Sisters in the same time frame
Comments
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juanelle,
no wonder you are so tired! Hope things turn around with treatment and time. only on e more!!!!
pam
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pam, it will all be over soon and I will be like you. Going on with life and not worrying about this anymore. Or at least that is what I am hoping. Do you ever really stop worring about this or is it there in the back of your mind every time you go to the doctor?
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juanelle,
Even though I already knew my PET scan results, I was nervous as a cat when I went to see him this AM. He did not bring up the PET right away and my mind was already spinning a scenario in which my PCP who read the report to me had got it wrong! I never used to would have imagined something like that. So, I think it will never go back to the way it was.
Are you having radiation after chemo?
Pam
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Juanelle ~ so sorry your WBC it low and you are once again home bound. I have TX#4 on Monday I am fearful my blood count may be low. I am just completely wiped out. While I know I am over doing it a bit... I still feel way to tired. Hoping your counts come up soon. Hang in there Juanelle.
Pam ~ I am imagining we will always be worrying about recurrance. Hopefully in time it will subside a bit and not be our first thought with each ache and pain. My back hurts now and I am making myself worry a bit... grrrr...
Too tired to keep up with everyone. Just know I think of you all each day and you are always in my prayers.
Hugs !
Alicia
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Pam, yes I will start radiation sometime in January, 5 or 6 weeks. I hope I am through sometime around the first of March. It will have been a long 8 months and I know it could have been so much worse. I am lucky in so many ways, if you can call it luck. But in the grand scheme of things, it will be over soon.
Alicia, good to hear from you. Good luck with TX 4 and wishing you mild SEs.
Juannelle
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Alicia - I am sorry that you aren't feeling well. I hope that your counts are not down. I know with it being the holidays it makes it hard to feel badly. Hope your treatment #4 goes well on Monday.
Juanelle - I hope your counts come up soon and you are able to get your FINAL treatment and put chemo behind you once and for all. Here is to feeling better soon!
I started radiation today... So one down and 37 (or so... as my Onc says, to go)!!!! I am so glad to finally be on my way to the end of the radiation journey and being 100% healthy again with NED. I long for the day when we all can say that. Who knows... maybe this time next year we can all get together and meet somewhere and have a party just because we are survivors!!
Take Care
Renee
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Renee, I am wishing you mild SEs with the radiation. You probably will be finishing up as I am going to start my journey. I like the idea of a party, we will all need it by then.
Sending Hugs to everyone.
Juannelle
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Juanelle - Sounds good to me... :=) I got #2 this morning. I know some may think I'm crazy but my breast burned all night long and I ended up sleeping with it uncovered and unclothed. :=( Don't know if this is unusual or not. I will see how today goes. I have the weekend off. Next week will be full I will go every day, have Saturday off and then go Sunday through Weds. and have the next 4 days off because of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day being on Thurs and Fri. :=) I may be blazing red like Rudolph, but I hope not. LOL!!
Hug to you all
Renee
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Good AM Renee,
The bad news is you will miss several days due to holidays. The good news is that those breaks allow for a whole lot of healing. It always amazed me how quickly things could turn around with just a weekend off.
And the naked breast pose is the best thing you can do!
Good vibes.
pam
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Renee ~ Hoping your burning boobie feels better.........
Hugs girls !
Alicia
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Hi Ladies,
Alicia~ Hoping your feeling better each day from your last TX
Renee~ Glad you are under way with rads. Once you start them, it will go quickly. I actually got a little attached to my techs
I got a therma-pack, the kind you can heat up or freeze and propped that on my chest at night, or whenever it felt burned. It helped a lot!Juannelle~ Sorry to hear your WBC is down, I hope you get to feeling better really soon! I love the idea of getting together with you guys. Hopefully this time next year we are all up for it
Pam~ Hope you are doing well, and so happy for you on your good test results. And your right, I don't think we will ever be the same again after dealing with this. Waiting for test results is always going to bring on anxiety, paranoia and doubt. But we just have to stay strong and know that we can and will deal with whatever gets thrown at us!
To anyone I may have missed~ have a blessed day
Hugs to all,
Have a great weekend!
Jen
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Hi Jen,
It is cold here so I bet it is frigid in Illinois! Sitting, shivering, in the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville right now. DH has his semiannual appt. I considered coming here for BC treatment but when I realized how frequently I would be going to the DR I chose to stay local. It's a 70 mile drive one-way. But I now know how many of you have to make such a trip. I think the clinic setting is wonderful. Love the idea of a panel of experts making the decisions. Going mano y mano puts a burden on the family and patient. I asked my PCP if he would kind of be my overseer and that worked out great. He often made my appt for the next step and I would be seeing a specialist the very next day! He is a jewel and I am just realizing that I need to do something special for him for Christmas. Also... the radiation therapist who doggedly kept after the finance dept who was billing me for "investigational" work done during rads. I haven't done one bit of Christmas shopping so better get busy!!!
Stay warm!!!
pam
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I will be better soon, my son is on the way with my granddaughter and there is nothing that can lift the spirits like a sweet 8 month old baby.
Sophia is her name and she is our special delivery Christmas present this year. Her adoption will be final on Dec 22 and we will all go to the court house and then have a big celebration. They did get to bring her home from the hospital, so this day will be just like her birthday. Maybe even more special, because she will be legal. We are so excited.
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What a wonderful and loving family and how lucky Sophie is to be part of it.
pam
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Juanelle how wonderful!!! many congrats to you and your family.
Jen where did you get the therma packs?
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Juanelle, Congratulations on the new addition to your wonderful family. How beautiful and exciting for you all.
Blessings,
Alicia
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We just lucked into her. My son and his wife can not get pregnant, so they were going to try invetro. My DIL is bipolar and we were very worried about her and the cocktails of drugs they would give her. She is doing very well and has not been depressed since she and my son married in 2001. Anyway it was one of those cases, where they knew someone, that knew someone, that knew someone. Anyway they found this girl and she agreed to give them the baby and of course we went through several months of anticipation, but she did what she promised and gave the baby up. Sophia is such a good baby and she has never been sick, maybe because she hasn't been placed in day care, but she is sweet natured and always has a smile for everyone. She is a blessing and I am so glad that the kids received this opportunity.
It is always sad with a young mother finds herself in a situation like this, cares enough not to have an abortion and gives the baby a chance. I will always be grateful to the birth mother, because she didn't do this because she didn't love Sophia, she did it because she did love her. I hope as Sophia grows older, that I do get a chance to at least write the birth mother and let her know how we do appreciate her act of unselfish love. She stayed drug and alcohol free during the pregnancy and did so many things right to give Sophia the best chance possible, you just have to admire someone like that.
Have a good weekend everyone, I know I am.
Juannelle
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Juanelle that is the most wonderful act of selflessness from a young girl I have heard in a while. In a world so full of problems, diseases like BC and economic issues like we have today it is amazing to know that there are still wonderful kids out there that are still interested in putting someone else ahead of themselves. So Kudos to the young lady that allowed your son and DIL the privilege of adopting your beautiful granddaughter. :=) I am sure she will be a blessing to your family.
I have a question regarding the hormone therapy after RADs or chemo: Is there anyone here that is currently taking any of the hormones like Tamox or Arimidex or Femara? If so what kind of side effects have you had if any and have they been bad. I know there is a forum for this and I have read a lot of the posts. But it seems that almost everything I read is negative. Everyone has some kind of pain side effects. I'm wondering what the statistics are real life not on the net or paper. I know that taking one of these is going to be a part of my life come FEB. Just wondering what my chances of having NO side effects will be?
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Hi Renee,
I have been on Arimidex since radiation ended in mid June. It's easy to blame every ache or pain on it. Who knows exactly why some new symptom shows up?
I have found the whole BC experience very stressful and I firmly believe stress is a major player in any complaints I have. It seems to me I am not as strong (lifting things, opening jars, etc) now but is that a result of rad therapy or Arimidex or two knee surgeries this year or getting older? I can do anything I want, just with more effort or planning.
Certainly Arimidex is the cause of hot flashes. I did not suffer much with hot flashes in menopause ,took premarin
In the first 5 months of Arimidex I had 3 or 4 or 5 serious hot flashes a day, usually in the evening. But these seem to have eased up and now I would say I just intermittently feel warm, not sweaty.I was maniacal about starting an exercise program before starting the drug. I walk 2-3 miles a day. Everyone says this really fights the stiffness and bone-muscle pain and I feel that it is a BIG help to me. Because of my second, recent knee surgery I can't exercise right now and I am very stiff and sore. I firmly believe this will improve as soon as I can walk again. I take Aleve AM and PM and that is making me fairly comfortable until I can exercise again.
I had trouble sleeping in the early stages of BC but in no way attribute insomnia to the drug. I sleep fine now.
I have not gained weight, even now when I can't exercise. We follow a modified diabetic diet (for the benefit of my husband) and I have lost a lot of weight in the last year and a half, nothing to do with BC. I have not noticed a redistribution of weight as some people say they get thicker in the waist. I have not had that happen.
I am experiencing some mild charley horse kind of cramps in my lower legs, nothing terrible. Usually in the middle of the night :-/ Annoying but not debilitating. I do think this is a SE of Arimidex, no other explanation.
I have not had any kind of brain cloud from the drug. I have not experienced any mood changes, swings, depressions, or emotional SEs. I have a calm, stable personality and am pretty much the same person as always.
For what I believe the drug is doing for me I would tolerate a lot more than my current minor complaints.
Biggest pain is in the wallet! One month supply costs $339.00!!! Because of all my medical bills this year and having met my deductible, my insurance is reimbursing for most of that. I have to pay it and then submit for them to pay me back. But in January it will be out of pocket until I meet my deductible again which I am hoping won't happen in 2010...NO more operations or scans please! Astra Zenica does have a program for people who have no insurance and can meet certain income requirements. The drug is supposed to go generic in 2010 but I am not holding my breath. We'll see.
Please let me know if there is anything else I can add. Oh, AIs are only for post menopausal women, either due to age or surgery or ovary suppression. Otherwise, you would get Tamoxifen which seems to me to be better tolerated but its side effects can be more serious. Also it is very inexpensive!!! Good news- bad news kind of thing.
At any rate, seems to me the hormonals are playing a bigger and bigger role in treatment. My doctor says Arimidex is the most important part of my treatment plan.
pam
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Hello everyone! I was diagnosed this year.... January. All treatments and surgerys are over (except nipple tattoo). I am 41 and just looking for similar situations.
Have a good weekend Girls!!
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Hi and Welcome louiebern,
So sorry you have to join us but glad you found us. We are all over the map as to our DX and treatment plans. Our common denominator is being Dx'd in 2009.. not our best year!
Everyone here is so supportive and tries to share ideas and experiences. As the year closes out more and more of us are finishing treatment and getting back to real life. Some times it is hard to move on!
Stay with us and call on us when you need to... or just join in the chatter.
pam
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Hey Mimi, I have just started on Tamoxifen and so far have not had any noticeable side effects. They say that it sometimes takes up to six months for them to arrive. I too was very wary of beginning this treatment and literally just looked at the bottle for about a month before I got up the nerve to commit.
It is hard to define what is making my body feel the way it feels these days. Being almost 4 months out from chemo and 7 weeks out from radiation, I am feeling lots of energy and the unimaginable weakness that came with that has just about completely gone away. Consequently I have become more active so any body aches I have could be from trying to push a little bit more for strength.
Regarding hot flashes and other menopause type symptoms, they were brought on by chemo and have remained the same. They are annoying but not enough to make me want anti-depressants or other meds. My sleep patterns haven't changed either......still toss and turn a bit but also get several periods of good sleep.
Hey Pam, have you tried the bar of soap trick in your bed for the leg cramps? There's a boatload of women on the Tamox pages that swear by it. I haven't had any cramping yet myself, but after reading all the positive testimonials about it I sort of wished for cramps (isn't that sick!) just so I could see if it works!
Mary
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HI Mary,
I had heard about a bar of soap and forgot it. Do you just put it under the sheet or the mattress? Any brand? I'll try it and let you know! You don't have to conjure up leg cramps!
pam
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"They" say to unwrap a regular bar of soap and put it just under the fitted sheet down by your ankles.
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I'll let you know!!! Tomorrow AM.
pam
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I have heard of the soap bar too, but haven't had any leg cramping to try it out! Very interested in the outcome Pam!
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My husband suffers from terrible leg cramps, but since I put the bar of Dove in our bed, no cramps. I just threw the bar in loose between the sheets.... maybe it's all a coincidence I dunno.
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Calcium deficiency can cause leg cramps at night.
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What is the deal with the soap?
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Ok, why haven't I ever heard of the soap deal? I often have leg cramps, so I just may have to try this.
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