August 2010...anyone starting chemo besides me?!
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IowaSue that is awesome!!!! So happy for you
Carolyn
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Fatty tumor, must be from the 15 lbs. I've gained
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So glad its good news Sue!
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Ginger - my nutritionst has me on B6 and a flax seed oil supplement with B6 in it. Also B12. I haven't had any neuropathy at all and I don't know if it's because of this or just because every person's body is different and our symptoms are all different. But it certainly can't hurt..........I hope this all gets better for you; I think once we get all this crap out of our bodies and give them a chance to heal, it will. Meanwhile it seems like some of the meds that are available might be worth exploring. Hang in there!
I just found out that DH's insurance thru work is going to cost us $600 a month, more than the $350 we were paying before. SHEESHHHH what the heck is wrong with this country. There is a cheaper plan; it is $400 a month but it has a much higher deductible. no idea where we're going to scrape up the extra $ per month. It is overwhelming and daunting........BUT I'm trying to be thankful that we have insurance at all. There was a time when he was unemployed for 2 years....... NJ is highest in the nation for health insurance.
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My last chemo TCH is scheduled for the Friday after T'giving. Please all send good vibes and mojo my way that nothing derails this. I have been wearing gloves at work, spraying keyboards,wiping doorknobs fanatically, hand sanitizing, etc. DH thinks I am turning into Howard Hughes. Beth
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Lizzy- I am totally avoiding FB- although its "cleared" up a bit LOL i deleted all mutal friends of our so she has n oway to access my page. ANd you DONT have to tell me to avoid those nut jobs LOL
Records/Sohard- So funny that you have all that, i basically remember most of it, but got this end of the year statement from my insurance that detailed EVERY appoint, how much they paid and how much I paid and also how many times i called them and what it was about. Anyhow my husbands was one charge and it was 1 page. Mine were NUMEROUS things and 18 pages! BTW i know we talked about cost earlire ands its so funny because this shows that I paid close to 8,000 in copays and such whereas i thought it was more like 6 or so. Glad they kept bdetter records!
Flu shot- my oncologist strongly suggested that i get one too- i am nervous sorta in a concpiracy theory way LOL the new shots have the H1N1 vaccine mixed in (like a combo shot)- well thats what i heard. When obama didnt let his girls get the shot i felt i shouldnt either- yes total wacko thinking LOL I guess i will discuss it with my dr again!
Ginger- Okay i'll get a flu shot! Def dont want to die!!!! I want to hear the longer story! About the numbness, is this a SE that is long lasting after chemo? It doesnt do permanet damage does it?
Whoop whoop to Wherria! Last chemo! I am so jealous!!!!!!
Omaz- as to the cause of your growth--- were you stressed at all? I see you you're in AZ we lived there in 07-09 and with the economic hit we took i KNOW i was stressed during that period! (also thats when i first felt the lump) But i agree with Lizzy- cancer WILL grow eventually and who really knows what set them into motion!
Lisa- Sorry to hear of your night! Hey do you get a lot of skipping with Netflix? like the movie doesnt line up with the vocals? I am not sure if its my stupid computer or netflix and i dont know oneone else that gets Netflix!
lago- How does the dr or whomever know when you got BC? 5.5 in 4 years is fast?!?!?! (i wonder what my 11cm in 1 year would be concidered LOL- if there was a cancer olympics i'd enter!!!)
Calamity- I think you will have grounds to fight if they play the pre-existing card on you because you didnt ASK to be switched! BTW i read front toes instead of tires LOL and i was like does she mean her big toes LOL thats how far my mind is gone, i actually thought you might be having major toe issues because of chemo! About debt- the way i see things is that Debt will be there tomorrow (or whenever we come up with the money to pay) so dont stress it, it is one of the sure things in our lives (DEATH AND TAXES) i myself am in a pickle with the IRS (got a crummy letter) we borrowed some money and may have to pay them it all back at once instead of over time- we'll see LOL it isnt worth stressing about! Tis the season to feel thankful
Iowa- SO happy to hear its probably fatty tissue!!! i bet thats one of the only times a gals happy to hear it IS fat!
Ann- sorry to hear bout the reaction- yeah if that area never sees the sun i can assume that it will burn easier. Keep us updated!
We got a kitten- Well i was watchin a movie earlier and i kept hearing a mew sound so i muted the tv and opened my door. In runs this fuzz ball and its ribs were noticible and i felt bad. I opened a can of tuna and gave it to him. I picked him up and saw massive fleas so put him out. (i have get an allergic reaction to flea and misquito bites were they swell up and leave dark scars) ANyhow, a few hours later when my daughter and i got home from school he ran in my house again! SO we went to the store and spent an unsightly amount of money to keep him flea free, fed and littered LOL or and not bored, my 5 yr old picked almost every cat toy they had for this guy! LOL Well jokes on me i think the tuna gave him diarreah! Lucky he knows where his litter box is and all poops have been in it! Monday i am gonna call a vet and get him chekced out. So i guess we got a PET!!!!! Oh my daughter named him "Smarty Marty Smarty pants" i'll just call him smarty LOL
BTW- the school gives the kids a whole week off for thanksgiving break so doubt i'll get a lot of time to get online.
HAVE A HAPPY AND SAVE THANKSGIVING!!!!!!
I AM THANKFUL TO HAVE FOUND BCO AND THE WONDERFUL MEMEBERS WHO SHARE THEIR STORIES IN MY TIME OF NEED! GOD BLESS YOU ALL!!!!
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Good evening chemosabes and radicals!
Adey: thinking of you today. Sent good vibes....hope your tx went well...we will be sludging it together now, sister!
Calamtykel: I am glad you are going to be finished and next year is follow ups. Great also that you don't need rads. I have to tell you, though, my hat goes off to you between home-schooling 4 kids, battling bc and doing it all with a smile! You are an inspiration. I can't imagine how you can get to the online store more than you do now with all that you are going through. I think you have done all you can and have done it well. There is always next year for more sales. I am very glad you nerves have been calmed with reassuring news about coverage from the new healthcare company.
The healthcare system in this country is scary especially because we are all tied to our jobs for it. Especially now, for all of us, with the scarlet "C" on our healthcare records...I mean does that ever lose it's power? Are we ever considered cured? Could any of us ever, for less than a gazillion dollars, be able to buy healthcare in the open market? Obamacare mandates they insure us but the cost of that coverage is up to the insurer. None of us did anything to get bc and now we are strapped with this dx for life relative to insurance. I mean after 5 years does it fade in the insurers perception? Bottom line is I don't think we are ever off the hook from this dx. I should have moved to IRELAND!!!!!! Sadly, all of our healthcare is going to keep going up. Anthem is jacking personal policies in CT some 30-40% I believe and now with Blumenthal going to Washington there is only a pretty good chance they are going to get away with it. CT lost the best Attorney General we ever had to that motley Senate race. I will miss him. Now it is all but open season on the residents of this state. He really fought hard for us.
Libraylil: Your Howard Hughes behavior will get you to and through that Friday tx! You will be there and you will finish that day....all done, goodbye chemo days!
The other day at chemo they said I am now a survivor....whaaaa??!?! I barely survived a trip to the grocery store tonight! But I did make it....I am tired again!
Night all
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Hi all,
First let me say I've been reading and reading and reading, holy cow are there a lot of posts to check in on. But what I have found is that it is harder and harder as you feel more well to sit down and rest. Does that sound weird? Now that I'm on Rads I have more energy, so I do more, have busier days and push myself. Then, b/c I haven't taken rests, I find myself about once a week completely crashing. Tears, chills, exhaustion etc. So anyway, I've been keeping up and lurking but sorry that I haven't been posting more.
The end of chemo- we're all so close. I say "we" b/c we're all at different stages but the end is in sight for us. And man oh man I'm telling you it just gets better and better afterwards. Your energy level will rise, you won't feel the need to sit down halfway up the stairs and your hair will grow back! I'm still baldish but it's getting there, I'll post three pics later in the wkd so you can the timing of my hair growth. The only thing I have found that HAS gotten worse is the whole nail thing. I've lost a couple of toenails and the fingernails hurt.
The beginning of something else- this is the part I'm just now grappling with. Up to this point I've been able to focus on treatment- a state almost like triage. I get diagnosed. I go through treatment. I keep my head down and focus on the task at hand. But now? Now I'm not sure what? Someone said in an earlier post (maybe wherria?) that you didn't want a post chemo celebration, that was me too. And now I'm not so sure I want a post Rads celebration. It's almost like I want to wait 5 years and then if all is good have a small piece of cake and quiet cheer. So as not to attract the universe's notice, so to speak.
I find myself thinking about how I will live from here on in. I have definintely recognized for myself that this is Phase Two of the entirety of my life. And I somehow have to define that. Has anyone else gone through these thoughts too?
Texas- when is the move?
Lizzy- you're still crackin me up with every post. And your napping schedule will most definitely improve in the coming months!
Wherria- congrats on being done!
IowaSue- thank god you're okay- i LOVE fatty tissue now. It has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Benign. Of no concern!
Calamtykel- your dolls btw are gorgeous, I love your site. I'm sorry you're having to fight with the healthcare system down there. We have to fight ours too sometimes, but I listen to your fears and frustrations and wish I could just lend you our system for a while.
Lisa- DEFINITELY keep a pixie cut for a while. YOU are gorgeous.
Sohardbnme- My goodness, I'd forgotten how long and arduous your journey was and is. I'm going to send up a little prayer for you!
SPTMM56- how are the rads for you? are you burnt?
Rads update- 6 left to go. My skin is very burnt and brown. Maybe some bubbling starting? My onco has told me several times that for two weeks AFTER rads the skin will continue to get worse. Fun.
I have found the daily grind of Rads to be verrrry tiring. I hate having to do the whole hospital/parking thing every day. I'm looking foward to it being over.
Hot Flashes seem to have gotten much worse. I think my body is trying to figure out if it's going to stay in chemopause and go straight to menopause. Has anyone else finished chemo and had a period yet? (Not that I'm begging for those to come back, but I would like to stop waking up covered in cold water!!!)
Must be off to bed. Think of you all so often. And I will post my hair pics so you can guage growth rates!
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Lizzy - in NJ it has been mandated for several years that they cannot deny anyone coverage based on pre-existing conditions. Now, I didn' t know if that meant they cannot deny you a policy, or they cannot deny you from actual benefits pertaining to that. That's what I was questioning when ours switched.
That being said, it has created a healthcare monopoly in NJ. A blue cross policy for a family of four is $2000 a MONTH out of pocket. I know this for a fact; as friends of ours carried their own insurance for a while. That's 24K a freaking YEAR for insurance! THAT is what happens once the goverment mandates that they must accept everyone.
I don' t know the answer. I do know that we just got our benefits package and for DH and I it will be $600 per month. THis is up from our current $350 per month. No clue where the $ is going to come from. Doing a lot of praying right now! The kids are covered under the state since our costs are so outrageous. But NJ just bumped off all parents from the state run program - I feel really sorry for anyone enrolled. They did it in one swoop - one month they were on, next month they cut funding and cut them off. If you were currently in treatment for a condition, too bad- they cut it off clean in March of 2010. I can't imagine! NJ has more uninsured that any other state I believe, because who can afford it? Not even the employers.
We need a some kind of national healthcare, whether that be mandates on ins. costs and subsidizing insurance companies, or reimbursing individuals who are paying outrageous costs based on income....- something needs to be done. Meanwhile, NJ is losing emergency rooms left and right -some hospitals are actually closing them because you cannot deny someone emergency care, so those without insurance just go straight to the ER and then never pay. It's a huge, tangled mess. Insurance companies pull a huge profit - at whose expense?
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Calamtykel: Here is the situation in our country, not state-by-state, relative to procuring healthcare with a pre-existing condition. If you are unemployed and without cobra or self-employed and find out you have cancer etc... you are not going to be able to purchase healthcare insurance anywhere in this country without the insurer pre-existing your condition and, as you know, thereby promising to pay nothing.
What Obamacare does is force insurers to allow people with pre-existing to buy insurance but there is no cap on what the health insurance company can charge!!!! The final leg of Obamacare is ‘Mr. Colon Cancer, sorry you could not afford the insurance companies rates when they did not pre-exist you but don't think you can just sit out there without insurance......noooo, you have to buy this *minimal* policy at this small amount just so we, the government, knows you have some type of coverage.' This is the plan currently in place in MA and that which got Romney a lot of negative attention during the election. The minimal plans that we must buy if you are uninsured and you have no spousal insurance through work etc.... is the equivalent of a state minimum car insurance plan simply designed to get you through a spot check. It is the individual buying a plan to keep themselves from NOT being fined by the US Government for NOT having insurance. It is a big, fat, costly joke but, be that as it may, I don't have a better answer.
There is a healthcare bubble and it is going to pop. How does Adriamyacin cost 22xs less than Epirubicin? Who priced that out? We had a massive mortgage bubble and we had the whole stock bubble of 2000-2001 (second leg sponsored by 9/11) and the next, and far and wide the most crushing blow to our economy, is the impending healthcare bubble. Obama, no matter where anyone stands politically, is trying to do "something." No matter who runs and wins the office in this country, they are going to be confronted with a looming and daunting healthcare bubble that has got to be fixed. How the heck can we, as chemo patients, be getting statements from insurance companies in the 10's of thousands of dollars ranges for this care? How can it be free across the pond, and north, but like monopoly-money charges here? The pharmaceuticals and healthcare companies have been allowed to get way too fat, riddled with capitalistic tendencies, and greed on the backs of our healthcare system. The US is their luscious cash cow and they fight with lobbies and all kinds of measures, every day, to avoid that tap being turned off. It has got to be, however. This is the only market in the world where they have been allowed to get so very far out-of-hand with costs.
In the end, right now, no matter what state you are in, if you work for an employer with a large enough employee base, you cannot be pre-existed. Outside of that, pre-existing is the name of the game so anyone who finds themselves uninsured because of job loss, cobra run-outs or self-employed (with a policy that was at least reasonable before their dx) are completely SOL. The uninsured cannot buy a policy in this country that will not pre-exist their condition and the self-employed are going to see their rates rise. They are forced to get a job with a company big enough to not have to deal with pre-existing. All of us cancer folk now have to try to hide, make sure they can't track our disease through our credit reports etc... because eventually they will be tracking us and we will find it harder and harder to get jobs because the employers don't want to deal with the costs of our healthcare. It is a very precarious, slippery-slope and it is happening. All of this is not happening overnight as thankfully our system is not designed for fast changes! It is happening, however.
So, in the end, those folks in NJ who could get insured for massive dollars for an individual policy were getting pre-existed anyway. It is just a moderate form of the soon-to-be healthcare minimum requirements. It will be the equivalent of uninsured motorist meaning you don't have to pay their bills but WHO IS? That is the question that looms large. Right now we have what I call "socialized-unsocialized medicine" because the insureds are grotesquely over-billed to accommodate for the shortfalls these healthcare providers are not getting from the non-payers. This is not a workable system, however. In the end, the government knew the baby boomers were the largest number in this country and they are getting older. This means the healthcare bills are going to be huge for that sector and Hillary Clinton tried back in the 90's to head off this mess to no result.
In the end, it is all greed and corruption as usual. Now I am having a hot flash and am hoping to get back to napping!!!!! Some more "Law and Order" should do the trick!!!!!!!
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Wow I'm out of breath after that one.
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Lizzy: Interesting that they called you a survivor. When exactly are we considered survivors? My husband talked me into going to the Race for the Cure as a survivor and I did, but I felt odd. Seemed like a celebration of having everything behind us and I had much left in front of me. Are we a survivor as of our last treatment?
Texas: Enjoy your whole week with kids! Mine are just off Wed-Fri.
Sweeney: Good to hear from you. Has your scalp been itchy as the hair grows back? I'm 3 weeks 4 days past my last tx. I have a little stubble on my legs but all I notice on my head is that it is itchy. I'd love to see a photo! Sorry to hear about your nails.
I have been having all sorts of thoughts about how I want my life to change. It is hard. I can't make good decisions right now. I'm doing a lot of praying.
No periods yet post chemo, and I too have the hot flashes. Will you take Tamoxifen? I've heard that the hot flashes will just get worse.
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Treatment number four down only two more. If I stay on this schedule and don't go back to Mondays I will finish this year! Instead of 1/03/11. I find that very exciting. Happy Saturday all.
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Lizzy - I always thought that was why NJ was so much more expensive - that they were forced into accepting everyone no matter what (pre-existing) and in this state we are only allowed to have two or three carriers operating which have created a monopoly. My mom worked for Cigna and they were forced out of state and had to close. I didn't know NJ has pre -existing clauses. For instance, we could get a good insurance policy over the border in PA for a fraction - FRACTION- like 1/4 of the cost, than they are here in NJ. But because we cannot shop out of state for insurance, we're screwed. When DH was unemployed, we looked into moving to PA simply because we could not afford insurance here in NJ. When you're talking $2000 a month for a family --no wonder we have so many uninsured in this state. When you take into account that we're also paying for all the goverment (state and federal) employees insurance on top of our own, it's daunting.....
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This is from the NJ State website. NJ does require that insurance companies in this state accept EVERYONE regardless of health status (that would be pre-existing.) I think we are one of the few states that do this and it's not necessarily a good thing because nobody can afford it..........
The New Jersey Legislature in 1992 created two programs to guarantee access to health coverage for individuals and small employers, regardless of health status, age, claims history, or any other risk factor.
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Calamtykel/Lizzie--Thanks for posting the info about your medical insurance. Being a Canadian, it is something so foreign to me when I hear about paying out of pocket for your healthcare. That being said, we are taxed up the *** here is Canada--Income Tax, Property Tax and Sales Tax that would make your head spin--benefits of that along with bad government spending (like every country) is socialized medicine. I would complain so much about taxes and healthcare dollars etc---but now being someone who is heavily using our system--I am extremely thankful for it. Believe me, it is not without its problems--but everyone gets healthcare regardless. Recently when Obama announced "universal healthcare" to US--I didn't understand it--now it makes sense or a least a little more. I do feel so bad for those people fighting cancer and also dealing with the financial implications of this whole thing with healthcare bills to pay. Unbelievable. I read your posts to my hubbie aswell--he couldn't believe it. I really don't think that we ever understood how the US medical insurance system works....craziness.
Sweeney--Question re: rads--How many rads have you had? I start rads on Jan 4 for 25 plus 5 boosters. I am a little concerned about my skin as I am fair skinned (have that lovely pale British skin) and am concerned about burning--I get sunburned if I look at the sun without SPF 60!!
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Calamtykel: I did not realize NJ had a hybrid MA plan. The fed is fighting to negate fragmentation and to stop states like CT with the "go die in the street plan but not before you go broke!" They may advertise options on their site but it is all about being totally broke and they are welfare based programs. That is why our ER's are so littered with critical mass folks who have no healthcare but know the ER cannot refuse them care. Perhaps that is why Yale charges ME so much for chemo!?!? I should have MOVED to Ireland! I would be going to school for free, or damn near, to become a nurse and my healthcare would be totally covered. Instead, and because I am single and live in CT, my taxes/social blah blah is around 43% of my income as it is. In Ireland I believe that number would go up by about 8%...big freakin deal!!!!!!
Sweeney: U R BAAAACK! Albeit temporarily...I know! Good to hear from you. Glad you are doing well and feeling better. Yes, the daily hospital trips must be a drag. I don't look forward to that as it will be near summer by the time I start rads and the hospital is 1 hour away, roundtrip. I am just so happy to hear, from the front lines, that ENERGY comes back! I so want to get my daily workouts in again and FEEL like I have worked out rather than 20 minutes on resistance 1 on the recumbent bike!
Ann: I think we all are going to make some changes but I don't think it is going to be a cognitive choice but rather things will fall into place differently going forward. As for the survivor comment, I did not understand it. It failed to make sense to me. I just let people talk because I don't want to get into some conversation that makes me seem like I am negative on the labels but, to be quite frank, I am not sure when/if we are ever called "survivors." I don't mean this in a negative way but I perceive myself, going forward, as living with cancer as opposed to beating it into some mythical black hole. Again, it is all perception and whatever makes you feel good about the situation. After done with txs, however, I would do a survivor march, I guess?! So weird that I am hung up on the semantics!
Rachel: Sorry Kel and I have probably scared you on this Saturday morning with our myopic view into our messy, disastrous healthcare system! Believe me, in CT I am house, car, sales and state and fed income taxed not to mention other fees etc... Sadly we are, as a nation, taxed the S out of and we still have no universal healthcare. It is a mess.
Texas: You adopted a kitty!!!!!! Good for you! Poor, poor kitty! They always break my heart. I donate to a local no-kill shelter and when I brought my donation the other day, there was a little kitten (8 weeks) who looked just like my cat with a milk mustache and white boot paws etc... but she had been promised to someone. She was nearly in my car! I am a one cat household, however, so I would have really had to think about that one. I was animal-free for a short period which was when I was thinking of moving to Ireland but as I can't take my cat with me (she would have to be quarantined for 6 mos) I had to shelf that plan for another number of years because I adopted this poor thing from her life along the highway. Good for you for adopting
Scanners: am I the only one happy I am not traveling this Thanksgiving?! Geez...of course the first person to punch a TSA agent was from CT! In addition the exposure to radiation with the scanners? I don't know....there is no way to monitor this stuff without such invasive steps. WOE IS US!!!!!!
Good day all...I am up from my latest 2 hour nap....time for some sustanance!
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Adey: Congrats on finishing four, hope you are feeling okay!
Rachel: I have done 14 radiation treatments of 37 and so far I have no redness, only swelling. But I never burn no matter how much time I spend in the sun so maybe my skin tolerates it better. But then again, that part of my skin has never seen the sun, so who knows, LOL!
Ann: My scalp has been very itchy, and I am developing some type of rash that I will have to ask the oncologist about at my appointment on Tuesday. But....my hair is growing back like crazy, yeah!!
Calam: Sorry you have to deal with the insurance thing on top of everything else. I am now officially terrified, because it never occurred to me that if I lose my insurance I will have trouble getting new insurance because I have a history of cancer. I hadn't gotten that far in my thinking yet.
Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
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sptmm62- Thanks! If that 62 is your birth year we're the same age. Anyhoo, I just realized...
I WILL NOT ONLY BE DONE WITH CHEMO THIS YEAR BUT NEXT MONTH! YOU AND ME LIZZY, GOODBYE TO TAC/TEC! WOOT.
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I briefly thought about not having insurance one day while having chemo, over heard a lady next to me, mid 50s talking with the nurse about losing her dh a couple of wk prior unexpectedly,and here she is sitting there doing chemo. I thought omg if that happened to me how would I get insurance, mine is through his work, I know kinda morbid what passes through our minds at times. Next thought was, well he is the main supporter of our house, I guess I'll be in the poor house if that happens.
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I have dealt with the pre-existing issue all my life, since I have type 1 diabetes. When I graduated from college and was dropped by my parents' insurance, I had no idea how it worked and I was literally LAUGHED at by an insurance broker about it. However, the state I lived in at the time (Minnesota) and some other states do have what they call "high-risk pools" which is a program whereby insurance companies in the state have to pay into a fund which is managed by Blue Cross. And I was able to get minimal health insurance through that program. It wasn't cheap, about $400 for an individual per month in 1991, with a $1,000 deductible, but for me it was a hell of a lot better than nothing.
I have my health insurance through my husban's work as well. I just think it is idiotic that our healthcare is dependent on the fact that we work for a large company. What does one thing have to do with another? It was originally given as a "perk" to give people an incentive to work at a particular company. But somewhere along the line it became mandatory, because health-care costs got so out of control.
OY! Don't even get me started.
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Lisa - How are you feeling?0
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Good evening chemosabes and radicals-
I think I am officially the laziest woman in the Western Hemisphere today! I got out of bed, took pills, went to the couch and got up only a handful of times and the highlights of those trips: the mailbox and Chinese food!!!!!!! PATHETIC!!!!!!
Healthcare: this is a myopic view into insurance desperation! A few years ago I was dating a guy who worked for the DOT here in CT. There was NO love connection and it just a dating thing but he really wanted to get married. Perhaps you all have already picked up on the idea I am not the marrying type, however, for a few seconds I *considered* it because I knew from another friend who had been married to a woman who worked on the DOT and when he divorced her part of his settlement was BENEFITS for life!!!!! Sadly I had, albeit not seriously and briefly, thought of marrying with the plan for divorce all for benefits for life!!!!!! That is a very sad example of this awfully desperate healthcare situation in this country and the fact that some of us don't want to suck the corporate umbilical cord so we can have some freakin' healthcare, man!!!!! I like being in business for myself....thanks to luscious bc, those days are all but over. My options now: get married, suck the corporate umbilical cord OR become destitute and get on welfare. BORN IN THE USA...I WAS BORN IN THE USA!!!! Anyone want to sing along to that little Springsteen diddy now?!?!?
I hope you all have had a decent day. I did lazing around....I do find that it is the easiest way to get by these first 10 days.
Omaz: How are YOU feeling today?
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Hi Lizzy - today I am ok. My daughter and I have been watching Bones thru Netflix instant play and I started working on a book of photos for my mom thru Costco. I made one for her a few years ago and she still looks at it, I think she misses my dad a lot. I realized I had more photos, enough to make another book so it seemed like a good present. Its really easy and a very nice product. Healthwise my muscles are so sore and fatigued, just pitiful. I have my 5th TCH on Tuesday. Weather here is terrific. Thanks for asking.0
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IowaSue44 I lost my job in January and my husband to is unemployed. We are on cobra right now but it runs out at the end of April. We have already applied for our state's high risk pool. It's pricey but cheaper than no insurance at all.
Here's some info: http://www.cobrahealth.com/statehighriskpools.html
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Hi Chemosabes. Boy, don't get me started on healthcare! But Lizzy, you have gotten me started on the TSA scans! There is another way, the old way, the more precise way, the cheaper way, the safer way -- dogs! It has been shown that they can smell out bombs, liquids, powers, drugs, better than these X-ray machines can, and they only sniff crotches, they don't pat them down!! It is unthinkable to me, that because the corporate Midases want to privatize the security industry (that's what's behind this, btw), that they will put people through known, and and not insignificant health risks, just to increase their income which is already so large that they won't even notice a difference! I keep thinking of all the people whose work depends on daily/weekly/ whatever travel, going through that much radiation, when some well-trained dogs could keep them safe just as well.
Okay, enough. I'm on day 4 of last Tx, and though I haven't been feeling great, it hasn't been as bad as I was afraid it would be... until this morning. Yesterday, I was kind of manic, and managed to get a lot of things done at home -- for God's sake not cleaning!, but organizing bills, mail, computerizing ALL of our bill payments, cleaning out old files, stuff like that. You see, my dh has hadnled the bills and related stuff for several years, since I became unable to work, and bless him, he's gotten it done. But since he's been out of town so much these past few months, I've had to take it over, and have become horrified by how disorganized everything was. So I bought the latest version of Quicken, proceeded to clean out files, sort out things that needed to be dealt with but weren't, and streamline our system. Already, our home office has about half the paperwork in it than before (a big recycling week next week!), because he was holding on to every darn piece of mail that ever came here. Anyway, I feel pretty proud of myself that I've been able to do this at all. Just six or eight months ago, when Brian was away he asked me to take care of the bills while he was gone, and I messed them all up - forgot to put stamps on them, sent a few carbons along with the checks, forgot to put account numbers on checks, things like that. My mental status just wasn't clear enough, and not b/c of bc, just Bipolar stuff. So I never thought I could do this well this time around, but look at me go! I'm turning our whole operation into one tight little ship. And now that I'm getting things so organized, I think I might not be so emotionally overwhelmed by what it takes to do it all, and I've told Brian that I'm going to take over all the bill paying and banking, insurance etc, for him again. He's thrilled. And I'm kind of encouraged.
But back to the subject. I started on all this a few days ago, but yesterday, aside from an hour-long trip to a yarn store, I worked all day of this stuff. And I think I wasn't feeling well, but was so manic that I didn't really notice, until I stopped, and then realized I could just barely carry myself up the stairs because my muscles were so weak and burning so much, and that I had been coughing all day and evening, and that my mouth and throat sores were coming back... Oh, and I had completely forgotten to do any of my Lymphedema exercises or bandaging, so my arm, hand, back, boobless and side were all completely swollen. Blah. Now this morning I feel really sick again. But my brain is still very manic, so I plan to continue my work today.
I'm sorry I haven't been posting much. I just got caught up this morning, and everyone seems to have a lot going on. Positives and negatives. I want to congratulate those who need it and say I'm so sorry to those who need that, but I've missed so much. I feel like a deadbeat poster! I'm sorry. But I hope you all know, that I am thinking about all of you and celebrating with you and sympathizing with you, even if I haven't mentioned it lately. My moods, as you might be able to tell, haven't been that stable lately, and I just haven't been myself.
But I'll echo what someone already said so nicely: "I am eternally grateful for BCO and for each and every one of you!
HUGS!
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Wherr - I have seen that dogs can sniff out cancer. I think they are AMAZING!0
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For a second I thought she was talking about dogs sniffing out cancer. My little pom use to sniff my arm very near wear the bc cancer was, and it had crossed my mind about them sniffing out cancer. I had also heard this on tv 1 x.
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Sue - Wherr was talking abouat dogs at the airports - they are just multi-talented animals!0
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I LEFT MY DECADRON IN THE CAR OVER NIGHT! It got below freezing - can i still take it??? I Have a call into the doctor, but she's not on call and the other one hasn't called me back. I need to start it tonight----not sure what to do!!
Talked to a pharmacist -Not mine, my pharma is closed Sunday; and she said it should be okay but she said as long as it wasn't totally frozen and looks different. I think it only dipped to 30 for a short time and it was in my purse, in a bag in the car......
I guess if I don't hear back I'll just proceed as usual!
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