MIDDLE-AGED WOMEN 40-60ish

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  • brazos58
    brazos58 Member Posts: 109

    Meece! SNARF!! Thanks for those pix...

    Marlegal.. OH YEAH, I hope I can find you. It would be GRATE to meet you, and an honor as well. I can find my way to New Hope ( Peddlers Villiage esp...) and Doylestown. Both great places to shop.... but I love to talk and eat more than shop.

    You know I was thinking when I see my BS next month that HE NEEDS TO BE READING THESE THREADS..... and I will advise him of that and suggest they add it to Med Schools Awareness of what women IN REAL LIFE deal with. I also want to ask him how many minutes he spent studying AWS and LE!  he he he.....

    Having coffee

    Happy Saturday.... may you all not be aggrivated by your familly and not want to lock yourself away in your rooms!

    Peace

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 7,605

    I know LE cause I have it, but what's AWS????

  • brazos58
    brazos58 Member Posts: 109

    Barb .... its Axillary Web Syndrome... a lovely post op complication of the Lymphatic System being damaged by lumpectomys/ Rads/ Mastectomys/ Recon....lymphatic vessels turn into CORDS....you can feel them running along  next to the veins ( felt like hard veins in my arm ). Mine started in my armpit ( felt like a piano wire ) and wound down my bicep into my forearm....down my incision headed to my drain scar. IT TOTALLY FREAKED ME OUT!

    But I am calmer now.....

    It affected my shoulder/ arm range of motion greatly. Had to have LE/ PT for it. Myofasial Release broke up some of the cording. So this AWS puts me at risk even further for the LE I have. Which my BS feels is just a vein....and its not cording nor is it AWS. What is with these BS and non awareness of these issues? My 2 Visiting Nurses and Moi picked it up as well as LE/ PT.

  • barbe1958
    barbe1958 Member Posts: 7,605

    My surgeon doesn't "believe" in LE!! hehehehehehee

  • OG56
    OG56 Member Posts: 377

    F'ing cancer, hugs and healing light for you P-Mom. The male nurse should be the one taking care of her as she deserves only the best!!! Do you think he is a visiting nurse?

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885

    OG, you would be the one to ask about visiting nurses.  Didn't we send naked Gerry Butler over to you to help with the laundry, and he has not been seen since!

    (Newbies, that comment goes back to a photo posted back maybe 80 pages or so, but I can vouch that it is worth searching for.  I think he kind of kicked off the virtual Hunky Handyman service, that is just one of the perks of our thread.)

  • dawney
    dawney Member Posts: 136

    Meece - rolling on the ceiling made me ROFL!  lol  And, I think I might like Mr Steamy, I never iron, just throw it in the dryer with a damp wash cloth.  He could come in handy!

  • PauldingMom
    PauldingMom Member Posts: 392

    I'm Back!!!!! 

    Okay, have a vidalia onion slicer. Great product but do not loss the little cleaner fork thing that comes with it.

    Set it and forget it- I set it on top of the freezer in the garage and forgot it. We just don't cook much big pieces of meat around here even though we have half a cow (in the freezer, smart asses)

    I did buy the under wear that you can wear your regular bra with. It's very very tight when you first get it but then it gets lose. I wear it mostly with sweaters to hid the un-lady like bumps.

    Thank you all for the prayers, good thoughts, half naked nurses, and cheetos. You will all forgive me please if I write things that make no sense. Besides the heavy drugs, the cancer cells in my brain lay on my memory section. I forget very simple things and say things that make no sense at all. I just told my daughter to put navy beans in the pink lemonade. I meant ice cubes. Where the hell navy beans came from I do not know.

    I'm home now and had a major crying fit when I got here. I wanted roll around on the carpet but was afraid I wouldn't get back up. We should have video taped my  big black goofy dog. She went crazy when she saw Mommy was home.   

    gotta run. be back soon

    XXXOOOO

    Lisa 

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885
    Welcome back P-Mom!  Keep in mind that some of the Mid-Age classic posts were written from a "medicated" standpoint.  Half of us are reading them that was too!  Aha-ha-ha!  Just kidding.  Maybe.
  • 3jaysmom
    3jaysmom Member Posts: 2,604

    PM welcome home.. when your' finished with the nurse, please send him my way. im in need of LOTS OF TLC lol..our goofy dogsmake us feel so loved, don't they?  you'll get used to searching for the right words. from my past strokes, i've learned to just wait.. most times they'll show up. at times, i just stare at the keyboard, and try to figure out what i was trying to say... Are you done for now, or is there more to do?  I met with Barb and Marybe today.. what a cool thing, to see each other in real life.. poor Marybe, i'm a "touchy feely" kinda persomn, and i think at least 1/2 of the time; i was sitting, stroking her..back, arm. i knew when i left i had to go back to virtual life.. i'm grateful for meeting ALL you ladies here. My mind is a seive, what with MS, BC a

    et al. and you have saved my life, literally by just being here for me..

  • 3jaysmom
    3jaysmom Member Posts: 2,604
    ps Mr. steamy is a godsend. i don't iron anymore, and my DH doesn't look (too much) like he slept in the woods..hehe
  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    Rock The Ribbon, a celebration of BCO's 10th Anniversary (this will be several posts long)

    Several months ago I was fortunate enough to participate in a video shoot which was being done as part of Rock the Ribbon, the celebration of BCO's 10th anniversary. That experience alone was one of the coolest things I'd ever done in my life and something I'll always treasure. There were about 15 to 20 survivors from the Phila, PA area who were interviewed one on one, separately, by a professional film company. A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to learn that I was one of the lucky women who made the final cut and would be in the video shown on October 30th at the Academy of Music in Phila where Harry Connick, Jr. and his orchestra would be performing. I was given two front row tickets for the event, and for the after party which was going to be held at the Bellevue Stratford Hotel, next door to the Academy of Music. I invited a good friend/co-worker to go with me and she in turned asked her brother, a hotel employee, if he could get us a room in Center City Phila for the night at cost, which he did.

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    Last Saturday was a gorgeous fall day. Joan and I met up at the hotel and had drinks in our room as we were getting ready - little black dresses for us both - for the event. We then took ourselves to a swanky restaurant for a drink and appetizers before the show. Since it was Halloween weekend, the streets of Center City were filled with partygoers and costumed adults just out and about having fun. We arrived at the Academy of Music to find the Philadelphia Boys Choir performing as the "opening act". What a treat that was - those boys are unbelievable. A local celebrity and cancer survivor, Lauren Hart, opened the festivities by giving the background of BCO and just relaxing everyone and getting us ready for a good night. Next up was Amanda Ratcliffe, whose title with BCO I forget but she's one of the directors. She gave more background info, and a lot of info about Dr. Marisa Weiss, and then introduced the survivor video. I can't even say how weird it was to see myself on a giant movie screen. Granted, my part was 5 seconds tops, but man it felt long to me!! The whole video is about 5 minutes long I guess, with Dr. Weiss interspersed among the survivors, telling how she is now a survivor as well. Chills for sure. Amanda then introduced Marisa, complete with the superhero cape they made her with BCO across the front!

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    Marisa is such a great speaker. She detailed many of the advances BCO has made over the last 10 yrs, and talked of their planned improvements and new features for the coming years, like a lot of Spanish translations for many pages. I wish I remembered the numbers - they were staggering. Something like how in their first two years, they had 9,000 visitors to the site, and last year there were more than 9 million, worldwide. I mean, we all know this already, but it still was mind boggling to listen to it all. And then Marisa introduced our headliner - Harry Connick, Jr. and the orchestra. Now don't get me wrong, I like his singing and he's not bad to look at, but when he came out onto stage, a mere few feet away from me, I was instantly 13 yrs old and a screaming teenager! How does that happen to us? Ha! What really surprised me about him was his humor - in between songs he'd just talk as if there were 10 of us in the room instead of 3,000! Yes, it was a sellout. The concert was just awesome - so much more than I'd expected.

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    So after two hours of great music, ranging from Sinatra classics to New Orleans hot jazz, we moved next door to the after party. I was thinking it would be about 100 people, and they had said open bar and light refreshments. Okay - so how about going to the Grand Ballroom at the Bellevue, with many hundreds if not a thousand people, about 10 bar stations, a pasta station, a stir fry station, a slider and carving station, a roasted veggie/munchie station, a dessert station ... this is light refreshments??? And another live band - Philadelphia Funk Authority - very Earth, Wind & Fire style. They were awesome and got people up and dancing all over the place! The table settings were gorgeous with their glass and floral creations. And I've just never seen so many little black dresses in one place before! When Marisa got up on the stage to again thank every for coming, I seized the opportunity and ran over to the stairs and caught her when she came down. I told her that I had a little something for her from the chatters and boarders and handed her the envelope. She asked if she could open it then, and I said I hoped she would. So she opened the note I wrote, saying how so many of us just don't know how we would have gotten through all this without BCO, and she read it, and made an "aawwww" type sound and gave me a hug - without realilzing there was anything else in the envelope!!! I told her to keep opening and reading, and when she saw the spa gift certificate, she just got all wide eyed and stared at me with a questioning look, it was so cute :) Another hug and she was kind of lost for words for a minute - obviously touched. I was a happy camper, on behalf of every single one of us.

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    Someone commented on how she seemed tall in the picture - I was very surprised also at her height! I'm just under 5'6" and she was several inches taller than me. And pretty? Very, very pretty, and a great shape! She had on a gorgeous purple gown at the event, and then changed into a little black dress - with leather and boots - for the after party. She'd obviously had her natural curly hair done for the night, and seemed to enjoy the evening every bit as much as all the guests. Everyone was just so friendly, and I met many BCO staffers who recognized me because they had worked on the video for months doing editing and whatnot, so that was kind of funny to hear people just say "Hi Mary - are you having a good time?" and I had no idea who they were! And every single one of them asked that - was I having a good time - when I felt like Cinderella and just wanted to kiss all their asses for all the hard work they'd put into the night. But their main goal was to make sure everyone else had fun. And don't forget - we're talking about a global company that is essentially run by less than 20 people. Just amazing. So that's my story. A wonderful, wonderful night that gave me memories that - I hope - will stay with me forever (little chemobrain humor there!) I am honored and blessed to have been a part of it, and I swear to you all - I really did feel like I was a representative ... a very lucky representative ... for all of us. Love and hugs kids.   I'll be posting a link to Snapfish pics in a few minutes

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    here's the link to some pics on Snapfish - if you don't already have an account, trust me - they don't send spam mail and I've used them for years without problem - it's free and just needs an email addy.

    http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5993429013/a=113703729_113703729/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

  • navymom
    navymom Member Posts: 842

    Welcome back Paulding mom.  Praying for you and sending healing hugs your way.    Navymom

  • elimar
    elimar Member Posts: 5,885

    Marlegal:  Enjoyed reading your account of Rock The Ribbon.  Almost felt like I was there in my very own little black dress.  Sounds like it was an incredible evening.

    Dr. Weiss sounds very lovely and gracious in person.  Previously, I had only seen her the one time on television when she was going head to head with Dr. Susan Love over those new mammogram guidelines, and that was only a glimpse of her when she was all business and serious about defending a position.  Thanks for the glimpse of another side...Marisa Weiss, "the patient doctor," in party mode. 

  • eph3_12
    eph3_12 Member Posts: 2,704

    my mickey mouse sweatshirt & jeans have transformed into a little black dress & I'm stuck @ the stir fry station.  Thank you Marlegal-what an awesome party!

  • JMW
    JMW Member Posts: 33

    I guess I don't fit in either!!!! 51 yrs. old with 2 sons aged 13 and 9. Don't even know where to begin to tell them about this! So not telling them for now. Have sisters living nearby and good friends to help me out. I can count my blessings.

  • raeinnz
    raeinnz Member Posts: 553

    Marlegal - Wonderful account of your fantastic night and thanks again for including us in your generous gift to Marisa.

  • eph3_12
    eph3_12 Member Posts: 2,704

    JMW-count those blessings!  So sorry you are here, but we're a pretty good group of gals if I say so myself!  I'd suggest a family pow-wow with you, aunties & boys or something along those lines to break the news.  Good luck.

  • cookiegal
    cookiegal Member Posts: 527

    Hi all!

    1-st  P-Mom....I hope treatment is effective and you feel as well as possible. It is always sobering when one of "our people" gets bad news.

    2-Mar...that sounds like a magical nite in Philly. 

    3- Steamy Ball????? Does it work??? Need to know!!!

    I am obsessed with Pumpkin Pop-Tarts BTW

    Fall hugs to all. 

    Cookie

  • raeinnz
    raeinnz Member Posts: 553
    JMW - Welcome. This is an overwhelming and terrifying time for you.  Try to take one day at a time for a while - the big picture is just too much to handle at the moment - and educate yourself so you are able to make the right decisions when you need to. Between the ladies here we've pretty much seen it all and done it all so you have come to the right place for information and support. Feel free to ask questions - you will get honest, experienced answers - or just have a good old rant if that's what you need.  We understand and care.  IMHO it is better to tell you boys sooner than later, keep it pretty general and then let them guide you as to how much info they want. 
  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482
    raeinnz, your advice is very wise IMHO.  JMW, no matter how you try, you will be acting differently and if you don't tell the boys, they might imagine things worse than the truth.  Point to the statistics of survivorship - they're rising every day and I for one intend to keep that trend going!
  • eph3_12
    eph3_12 Member Posts: 2,704

    cookie-good to c you!

  • marlegal
    marlegal Member Posts: 1,482

    Joni, I'm so glad you could put yourself into the story ... that was my hope :)    Cookie, did you get the email too?  I think you're in my bco group, yes?  was in chat earlier and a woman came in, just dx'd thursday, and lives really close to me.  she's seeing a second surgeon on monday and we're going to try to hook up for lunch.  hate that more are being dx'd, but glad they're still coming in here to our lifelline.

  • Gingerbrew
    Gingerbrew Member Posts: 1,997

    Welcome JMW, you certainly do fit in. You are exactly where you belong. There are lots of other topics to post in too. I think most of us post three or four different topics.  Be sure to look in the stage three folder for the You know you have cancer when topic. It is funny and we all need a laugh.

    Hugs

    Ginger

  • valjean
    valjean Member Posts: 1,110

    Thanks, Mary, for the "ride along" to the wonderful party. I really did feel like I was there, esp when you became 13 years old again at the sight of Harry Connick, Jr.  Wink Thank you so much for including us! And, again, thank you for your generous gift to Marisa Weiss.

    But I must send my little black dress to the cleaners now because while in the limo on the way to the party, I dropped some Cheetos dust on it. I'm always so messy!  Tongue out

    Another {{{{{hug}}}}} to Lisa. ♥