August 2010...anyone starting chemo besides me?!
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Texas - we do it Christmas morning! I love hearing everybody's different traditions and methods! We totally missed Christmas Eve service - the pizza took longer than i thought and I threw in a batch of cranberry bread for my brother's house tomorrow and that's still cooking.......
We get one Christmas Eve present and it's always something for bed (PJ's or a blanket - this year the younger kids are getting snuggies I got at Five Below and the older kids are getting a plush throw). Christmas AM there is always a stuffed animal next to the kids' beds when they wake up. Then we somehow got into the tradition of hiding their stockings. We used to tell them that Santa brought a naughty elf with him and that the elf hid the stockings once they were filled! Then they get to open them. This is a CRUCIAL part of Christmas morning because it is then that I can get my coffee!
The kids know, no "regular" presents until I get my coffee......Then they get their under the tree stuff.
Most of these traditions were started by my parents when we were kids and I just carried them on. DH was raised Jewish, so he's just along for the ride on Christmas.....
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Happy Holidays All...
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We dont have any traditions I guess LOL we wing it every year- i was raised jehovahs witness so didnt do holidays growing up...
Okay so just thought i'd share:
Who in the right mind would trust someone with no taste (me) to make christmas eve dinner? Okay so i had what i thought was a wonderful idea for a dinner- left over turkey from thanksgiving made into a soup with potato carrort and onions (didnt have celery and def not about to make a trip to the store today lol) I used chicken broth undiluted for the base so it was full of flavor (or so i thought) Hubby took a break from work and tried it and wasnt a fan LOL- he said it lacked flavor, just tasted like turkey water: HELLO I CANT TASTE ANYTHING!!!! so after he left i seperated it into 2 pots (just in case i messed up lol) i added more salt and OOPS sage instead of rosemary.... okay now i can taste the freakin sage- so i put it through a strainer lol rinsed off all the sage added another thing of broth (glad they were on sale cuz i bought 4 yesterday) searched high and low for my rosemary but cant find it!
So i added mrs dash LOL okay i couldnt think of what the heck to add!!!!
Hubby is on his way back for dinner, this is a holiday to remember!!!! (i can just see us in 10 years "remember when mommy messed up dinner and and to rinse it off LOL")
Anyhow got to get the rolls into the oven so they're ready when he gets back LOL
Totally just thought i'd take a breather and share my hectic night!!!!
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sitting here with my popcorn waiting for the kids to fall asleep so I can put out presents! Yikes! First, they want to go to bed then they don't fall asleep............
I've never seen a kid as excited as my 6 yr old - he talked all day long about my present he was giving me - carrying it around, etc. When I went to finally open it, after we finished dinner, etc., he was dancing around freaking out. It's 2 homemade candles covered in glitter that he made at my mom's house. He kept saying "they're homemade!" He was SO CUTE and funny! The kids all exchanged things - my 8 year old took a pair of her stockings and CUT THE FEET out of them and gave the feet to my 6 yr old for Christmas for socks. LOL!! The ideas they come up with!! When he opened it up, he says 'WOW VERITY, THANK YOU!!!!" and gives her a huge hug. I was so mad I missed it with the camera -- too cute!
Well, going to go check on everybody and see if they're asleep!
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Hope everyone is having an good Christmas! Since my taste buds are out of whack we're just doing a deli tray at my mom's with plenty of citrus and yogurt for me! We don't decorate for the holidays anymore as we are not Christian but used to when the kids were young. We used to go out for chinese on xmas eve and then through the park lights and when we got home "Santa" had already been to our house! Mom decorates and gets into the spirit. TEXAS - how did the soup eventually turn out? I know I couldn't cook anything and know how it actually tasted right now. Made chicken salads yesterday and guys ate them - seemed to like them but for me the chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, dressing, croutons all tasted weird. Oh well, I am planning a night out to a good restaurant in about 3 weeks!
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Merry Christmas everyone! Here is my Granddaughter Zoe, she is already in the spirit of the day.
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Merry Christmas Everyone!
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Merry Christmas Everyone!!!
Ginger: She is ADORABLE!!!
Lizzy: Hope you are home feeling better.
I tried to post a picture for everyone of the tree at Rockefeller Center but I can't get it to paste. I will try again later.
Have a great day everyone!!
Debbi
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Ahh, Ginger, she's a doll.
We are having a white Christmas! Yes, Alabama, believe it or not, has 2 to 4 inches of snow all over right now. It's pretty and everybody is all excited about it, but I hate it because it screws up travel for the day. I won't get to see my oldest stepsons or my in-laws today, boo! But it is pretty. If I could figure out how to post a pic, I'd show you my crazy dogs in the snow. They don't know what to think. Hope everyone is having a good Christmas.
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HAHAHA the SOUP! okay so it was a compleat wash lol, it turned out TOO salty! i do have 1/2 i set aside that i will just eat on my own LOL
Ginger- what a cutie!
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any of you who are done with chemo still having trouble staying asleep! I wake up at 2 or 3 am every morning and I'm up for at least an hour. If I take benadryl around midnight I'm okay for the night.
Last night I took one and a half benadryl at 11 when I went to bed. I was up all night!! I woke up every half hour or less - it was insane!
I'm totally exhausted today. I think I got maybe two full hours of sleep last night and then the rest was cat naps on and off.Of course today I countered it with too much coffee -first here and then at my brother's house. I'm seriuosly considering an Ambien tonight. I only took one once, ever....and wasn't crazy about how it made me feel but I really need to sleep............
don't know what's going on -I've tried making sure I exercise outside every day figuring that would help, but even that isn't helping.
ANyhow I still had a nice Christmas - hope everybody else did too! I'm a bit overwhelmed right now - but headed for bed soon!
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Hi Cal - I am up a lot too. Mostly because I have hot flashes. Some nights I just want to go ahead and start my day at 2am. I sympathize - ! I will say though, that often I think I am awake but am really sleeping because I get nudged for snoring. So maybe we are getting more sleep than we realize, I'd like to think that!0
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omaz- yeah, the hot flashes. still getting them even without chemo....they've sorta become a way of life.
But my arms were sore too - both hands kept falling asleep --bizarre. Four weeks of taxol and now this. Anyway, I'm hoping for a better night. I ate badly today and I'm sure that will NOT help.
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Happy Holidays, all.
I had my surgery last Monday 12/20 and I must say the boobies look absolutely amazing. They are a perfect match, neither too big nor too small. They were reconstructed using Alloderm which is supposed to give them support. The trick now is making sure they stay that way and don't droop, fall, flop or fail in some way.
My drains will come out on Tuesday. Then there's the long wait until I start rads which should be late Jan/early Feb.
My first tumor marker test is 1/3 and I'm terrified. I know it seems unlikely that there would be a problem so soon after finishing chemo, it just gives me the creeps. Anyone else going to be doing that?
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We are actually having snow here in NC. Probably about 3 inches. Just on the trees and ground. The best kind. Roads are clear. I arrived early at Macy's to get the 29.99 steam cleaner to play with .
Calam I've actually weaned myself off the Ativan for sleep, but still wake up. If I run the humidfier the white noise seems to keep me sleeping. I think we all have so much going on that our minds are racing. I just love it when I can forget for a small moment in time that I have BC. When I wake up I think about it. Beth
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Cal & Omaz: Ditto on the hot flashes. I sleep fine, but wake up several times a night throwing cover off, then wake again to pull cover back on because I'm cold! I'm 3 weeks PFC but at my age (53), I think the hot flashes are here to stay for a while.
It is still snowing here! It's the most snow Alabama has had at Christmas ever (or at least since they've been keeping weather records).
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Lizzy - did you dodge that flu?
Lady - I just turned 52 and the hot flashes are most likely here to stay for me too.
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Well, it's snowing hard here. They're predicting 8-12 inches for our area, 10-14 for the area where DH works, east of us. Yikes! Praying his office is closed tomorrow!
He's got a big gash on his back where the dermatologist took off a mole - I swear it''s about 2" long and his wicked looking stitches in it! I can't believe how archaic this is - I mean, they took off a breast for me and I only had those clear dissolvable stitches and steri strips! So he can't shovel -- it will be just me and the kids and we have a HUGE driveway!NOT looking forward to this! Snow might be pretty but I hate it as far as trying to get the cars out. My mom had to cancel the Christmas get together at her house tomorrow. Bummer.
Hope everyone had a great day yesterday. I did sleep last night but still woke up at 4 am for about 45 minutes . I tried one of the last two xanax I have left and I think it did help.
Well, going to take an after church nap for a while before the shoveling has to begin tonight!
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We had a nice Christmas with our DD, DSIL and GD. Everyone else cooked and liked the food. I only enjoyed the Yams and smome mulled wine. It turns out my taster is still off. I received a few pieces of jewely and that was nice. he baby tooked so cute in her Santa suit and Christmas dress. When she is happy and smiling her entire body smiles with her. Wiggle wiggle.
This AM I better understood this neuropathy. As I began to turn around to sit on the sofa I stepped on the toe of one slipper with the other. I could not recover from this simple misstep and continued turnng and fell face first onto the sofa. I am glad it wasn't the floor. I can feel pain in my feet but not the bottoms of them. I hope it goes away soon.
I hope you are all enjoying a peaceful day after Christmas or Boxing Day.
Jingle jingle Ginger
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Good very early morning chemosabes and radicals-
4AM update! My temp never went down all over Christmas and the on-call said take Tylenol and monitor your temp. Well, when my temp hit 103.2, I opened my window, put the box fan in and cooled myself down with an 18 degree breeze. Then something weird happened. I use an ear thermometer. It started registering wicked low temps in my right ear and high in my left. Of course I thought it was going but someone else tried it and confirmed it was not. Well, all I can say is ethereal forces work in mysterious ways. I got to thinking this infection might be on the left side of my body when sure enough, I looked at my left breast and it totally looks like a cranberry colored eggplant. It is badly infected again. This has been an ongoing issue and not the fault of my PS. In any case, after 3 days of laying in bed on a steady diet of Boost and Gatorade, I thought I was going to die. The on-call told me not to go back on Cipro but I went against his advice, as soon as I know that left breast was infected again, and put myself back on cipro at 2AM the morning of the 26th. If God came to me on Christmas Day and offered for me to bail, I would have gladly gone! I felt like I was dying and the only way I could control that fever is with the cold night air. It was the worst Christmas I have ever had in my life. I have been so sick and all because this thing was infected ah-gain. What I don't understand is I saw my BS on the 20th and she did not notice this thing was so infected? That I don't understand. in retrospect, all th waking up, burning up, night after night, I think was the infection in this breast starting again and not hot flashes. I think if I did not put myself back on cipro I may have checked-out this weekend. I could not get control of that temp.
In any case, holidays are over, docs are back so hopefully I can get some answers and make a plan. For now, however, my last chemo is definitely cancelled this week. All I can say is this BC road is long and arduous. The infection, putting off my last chemo and the impending TE swaps and not for the permanent but simply for replacements as the other one has failed completely, is easily going to tack 3 months onto my completion timeline. Oh well...going to try to go back to bed.
Ginger: That baby is so adorably you wish you could hug her through the screen!
I hope you all had beautiful holidays -
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Question: I hate to be so God awful gross but does anyone know a medically appropriate term for "eye crispies?" My eyes, Christmas morning were shut and I could not open them because of this business. I had to feel my way to the bathroom and use a cloth hot compress to open my eyes. That lovely eye crispy term I picked up from the old sitcom with John Stamos and the Olsen twins. In any case, I would really like to know if anyone knows what "it" is called?
Thanks-
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Lizzy I'm so sorry you're sick!!!! I don't think there's a medical term for the crust but conjuctivitis or pink eye is the infection. Oops, kids yelling, I'll be back:-)
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Lizzy - I am SO sorry to hear about the infection. I had an infection with the armpit incision that was persistent. It made the whole area swollen and after the antibiotics there was still a spot that had an undisolved stich or something. It kept oozing like a zit when I squeezed it. Finally the little piece of something came out. Maybe you have an undisolved stich somewhere under the skin? I was closed with glue but they used stitches underneath.
I am almost 5 weeks out from last tx and STILL have eye crusties each morning. Not so bad as you describe but still there. I have heard them called TAXOTEARS. Apparently tax can come out in the tears.
Good for you to keep hydrated and keep consuming calories. Please let us know what the dr says today!!!
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Kel- yeah i find it hard to sleep as well, not sure if its due to the hot flashes or the pain in my hip, eor tingling in fingers and toes, or prob just a combo of all those things. Does your husband have to go in today? Hopefully not! Glad you got some sleep!
Although my chemoangel sent me some aveneo anti-stress body wash which i used the other day when i took a long soak and after i got out of the tub i thought i'd just lie down a sec before getting dressed and i woke up a few hours later! I felt AMAZING! So maybe its stress LOL
Zachsmom- Glad the surgery went well. Tumor markers, no my dr doesnt do them.
Libraylil- OOOH sounds fun, great deal on a steamer. we didnt do xmas til yesterday with the inlaws so we bought all their presents (or most of them cuz i did buy a few before) til yesterday. Walmart had a lot of stuff on sale! i bought my brother in law a massager that goes on a chair for only 24 bucks! (i wanna go back and get one for myself today lol)
we woke up to frost on our cars and my 5 year old was excited cuz she thought it was snow!
Ginger- when did your nuropathy first pop up? appy to hear you had a good holiday with the fam!
Aw Lizzy i feel so bad that you had to go through that! What a pain in the neck! (btw infections can be tricky for drs- or maybe theyre dumb- i took my son in when he was a little over a yr old cuz i swore he had an ear infection, dr checked him and and said no he's fine- we went home next day he was acting the same and mothers intuition i KNEW it was an ear infection- took him back in and they say the ear was BRIGHT red and looking really infected. i complained cuz we didnt have health coverage and i was paying out of pocket for these visits and the 2nd dr said sometimes the infection doesnt show til a while after you have it. Anyhow so maybe although you had the infection signs werent visible for your dr)
Do you have an appointment with your dr today?
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Lizzy Let us know how you are. Are you still running fevers? I'm wondering if you can get someone to take you into the hospital; maybe you need some IV antibiotics? I'm so sorry about your implant. that must be so frustrating.
Carolyn
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I am thinking the same thing Lizzy, maybe you need to be at the hospital. I love Cipro but sometimes we need another med. My crispie eyes came with Taxol. I hoep you feel better soon.
Texas, I began to get neuropathy during the course of AC, it worsened with the taxo. That is why I was taken off of Taxol after two treatments. I am still numb. I fell over thrying to sitdown on the couch yeasterday. I stepped on the toe of one slipper with the other and couldn't get free so I spun around and fell on my face. I am glad it wasn't onto the floor. It felt totally stupid!
It is still dark here, we are so far north in the Seattle area. No snow though, I wish we could have what we had early in the month. I am told it is a very rare event here.
Ginger
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Ginger What a beautiful baby girl, that smile is sooo contagious:-) she must bring you so much joy.
Carolyn
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Lizzie---Sorry to hear you are not feeling well--hopefully you got to see Doc. When I had my chest cold--taking an ear temp was sometimes different in each ear--to the point that one ear registered a temp and the other did not. I didn't have any infection on that side so I'm not sure why the temp registers differently. Also, I am getting some of those eye crusties -- they are not bad enough to seal my eye shut but they do appear throughout the day. I also was told that it was the chemo.
Both my boys are in holiday hockey tournaments this week--so busy shuttling them to and from. Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday!
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Good day all-
A blizzard has hampered in the northeast and I cannot even reach someone at the Yale Smilow Cancer hospital!
Ginger: If my temp was still way up there, I would go to Yale. Cipro got it back to 98.7 and it goes up a little like maybe to 100.0 so I am ok until the roads are more passable and I can actually reach someone at the hospital! Hope you had a nice holiday.
Omaz: You might be onto something with that undissolved stitch. I never thought of that but when the JP drain got infected (I broke the fall of an elderly woman and the no-good-deed-goes-unpunished theme has been a part of my life since) there were stitches where the drain went in. I don't remember them taking those stitches out. This is a long and winding road, my friend!
Texas: That sucked about having to go back and forth, paying for each visit with your child, waiting for an infection to show. I just remember when she was touching it it felt really full, weird full, like too full! I remember thinking that. Yeah, maybe it was not all red like it is today. I don't know. All I know it needs to be aspirated and I don't care if the TE gets ruptured. This thing has been infected since JULY. Swimming around in infected fluid masked by a perpetual of Cipro (on an off since July and on for txs 1,2 and 4 of chemo) so this has got to stop. Honestly, the right TE is flat like a pancake (it failed...go figure!) and the left one is ready to explode out of my chest it is so swollen, I would like both gone. My health is way more important and I am not going to continuing a lingering infection with perpetual doses of cipro and cephalexin. They put me on both when it gets bad and why? Because they were afraid the almighty TE would pop if they aspirate....oh yeah...keep the infection in my body and let's just be sure we maintain the integrity of the TE. JOKERS! I love my GP because he is smart and he has a heart...that is very, very hard to find with doctors. IN any case, Tex, I am so glad you are back and you are settled in your new place. Good for you
I hope Santa was good to you.Calamtykel: Are you out snowboarding with the kids? You probably have an EZ Bake oven on the sled behind you as your whipping up some healthy grass bread they can eat when they get to the bottom of the hill! I hope you are having a good day-
Sweeney - have you left for the DR?! I hope red dawn is leaving you soon. How did it go with the relatives over Christmas? Hope you are well-
Well, I am going to go dial Yale another 20 times and see if anyone got there yet!
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Lizzy: Get your butt to the doctor! A 103 temp is nothing to mess around with on chemo. Mine was lower than that when they stuck me in the hospital. My breast was red/rashy/infected too. The last IV med I was on (the one that cleared it up) was Telavancin. Cipro won't get it if it's a recurring infection.
And all with eye problems: Please get them checked out. My ophthamologist says it can get worse if left untreated. I'm on steriod eye drops for mine now. The drops are cheap, so it won't be an expensive doctor visit.
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