August 2010...anyone starting chemo besides me?!
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Tex: as soon as you can, go to Verizon and get unlimited minutes and text for like 89.99 a month. It is the best network in the country and they have the best service. Even if they want a deposit, when you can just pay it and start with them. It builds your credit and I have such good service. After 9/11 I had one of their competitors and my family, who was largely living in FL, and I was living on wireless, could not reach me for almost 24 hours so, naturally, they were thinking the worst. It was then that I decided I must switch carriers. My friends with Verizon in NYC got their service back in like 4 hours after 9/11 b/c they have these special mobile towers they bring to the site of any disaster so customers will have service. Crickett is not such a great company. They are very challenged when it comes to tower coverage. In any case, I am glad your phone is back on and you are in business!0
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I pay only $35 for unlimited minutes, ld, text and internet access which is affordable... at one point i had att and liked them but it was $175 a month for 700 sharded minutes and internet access... Cricket sucks but its an affordable plan
I may go to verizon when i am done with these heaping bills!
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Cal - That blood draw sounded AWFUL. You are correct, that tech is not ready for the public yet.
Lizzy - You have had dizzy spells before. Could it be orthostatic hypotension?
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Texas: I know, everyone has made choices in this econ, especially us in a bad econ and having bc, so I totally understand. I just hate to think of you without phone service.
Omaz: I never had dizzy or fainting spells before chemo. Well, on the occassional bender perhaps I had self-inflicted dizzy spells!!! I don't know but it happened again today only I was in public, at a grocery store, waiting in line at the customer service area. I did not faint but got that dizziness. We shall see.
Have you been back to the pool? Did you book and/or have your session with the trainer? Just wondering how you liked it.
Well, I am tired and, after all, Mother Nature will be coming to turn up my thermostat from 2AM-5AM so I better go grab a few hours sleep now!! I have been contemplating a 2 fan system! Thank god for Chelsea Lately or I would have nothing to watch in the wee hours of the morning. Actually, I should not be ungrateful for the swell programming my over-priced cable delivers as I could become a millionaire in real estate, lose all my body fat by taking some drug, order my med supplies from the guy on the horse, spend thousands on crap on the home shopping networks and learn how to make a 7 course meal using the Magic Bullet!!!!! The infomercials are just fab! You know what the Magic Bullet is good for? Making protein shakes and frozen Mojitos!
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Lizzy - I haven't been back to the pool for a week because for some darn reason the morning after my herceptin infusion last week I woke up with a backache. Can't bend over. Still have it after a week, slowly getting better (the mantra of BC treatment). This weekend will head back to the pool again. It cooled off today, we got a little rain. It was so nice. I don't know what to make of your dizzy spells.0
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Tex, I hope by now your headache is gone, but if not, or if you get another one, be careful about taking too much Tylenol or taking it too often. It's easy to get acetominophen poisening, which can cause sever liver damage or worse. But here's something you can do, but don't do it for more than a day or two without talking to your doc: take 800 mg of ibuprofin (Advil), then two hours later you can take 500 mg of acetominophen (Tylenol), then two hours later take the Advil again, and rotate as needed every two hours. That way you won't take either one too close together, but since they are very different drugs, having both on board might help. I learned this method from a close friend who happens to be a nurse. HOWEVER, you should not take more than 4000 mg of acetominophen within 24 hours. Also, if your are on any other pain medications, read what's in it, because a lot of pain meds have acetominophen in them, like Vicodin, Lortab, Tylox, and Percocet, and I believe Tramadol. Also over the counter meds like allergy meds and cold remedies. So if you take any of those, don't take Tylenol. Hope that helps.
Cal: SO sorry about your horrible blood draw. Did it make you feel light-headed at all? Maybe next time you can specifically ask for that guy.
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lizzy sorry about the dizzy spells, that must have been frightening when you were out of the house. I had some lightheadedness and blurred vision that is better now that I'm off it , so I hope that's it and it gets better as you're on it longer. Also sorry that you and Texas are dealing with headaches! I did some crazy fall last month, I was carrying my daughter and I tripped. I did one of those running falls and tried to make it to the bed so I could drop her there but ended up falling to my knees. I managed to hold her but really hit the floor hard and felt a jolt in my neck. Now it hurts and even though I know how I did it there's that little voice that wonders about the bc. The best part is dh saw the whole thing - he does not have quick reaction times -I know this b/c I'm clumsy and he's "watched" me fall before:-)
cal That sounds awful. Next time just tell them about this awful experience and say you need someone more seasoned.
uggh , just burned a bag of microwave popcorn and the whole first floor is smoky and smells. I'd better air this place out. Our smoke alorm didn't go off and the batteries are ok so I'll have to figure it out or get a new one.
Carolyn
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Cal Sorry to hear about your horrible blood draw experience. I agree with you about not wanting to complain about people but it sounds like that woman really does need some additional training!
Lizzy and Debbi Thanks for asking about my painting/packing. My painting turned out pretty well I think and the packing is going well so far. I have already taken 4 carloads of stuff to our storage unit! My realtor said to make the home look as much like a model home as possible so I'm trying to clear out as much as I can. I'm hoping to have the house ready to go on the market by next weekend, so far it looks like I will be able to meet that goal. Right now there are 3 other houses for sale on my street so I want to do everything I can to make my house look the most enticing to potential buyers.
9 rads down, 25 to go! I still don't see any changes to my skin, my onc must have x-ray vision or something to have seen my skin getting pink already!
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jsw - Glad to hear that rads are going well for your skin!0
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Good day, girls:
My port is coming out Tuesday...YAY!
Omaz: I am sorry that the herceptin-caused backache is keeping you out of the pool. That is a shame. I don't know what to make of these dizzy spells either and I certainly drink plenty of water so I shall just wait and see. Perhaps I really should not pay much attn to any of this until I am 4-6 months post-chemo.
Kel: biting your neck might have been faster and less painful! BTW, of course the band was slowing it down! I had an inept phlebotomist once when I was like 18...left a huge bruise like the size of a baseball on my arm.
Texas: tamox does cause headaches. You should call the onc just to let them know you are getting the headaches and try to keep track of the time of day/night you are getting them and if the Tylenol or Advil is helping. Keep a journal as you onc should want to know these things.
Sptmm: Deb, they won't/can't collect from your husband but they love to make an issue of people who owe them just a few bucks....watch out woman!!!! We will do a "Thelma and Louise" and head for the border!!! Our movie will not end that way, however!!
Ckptry: that sounds like an awful fall. Geez, I am really glad your dd is ok and that you did not get really hurt. As for my headaches and dizziness, the dizziness could be because I am getting up too quickly but since when does getting up fast at 41 make you ready to faint?! The headaches could be ocular as I just started reading again and am on "Team of Rivals" as well as Joe Torre's book and "Straight from the Gut" also. In any case, I am hoping it all adds up to nothing much...that would be nice! Make sure you get those fire alarms straightened out and pick up a CO2 monitor while you are at it!
Chelsea Lately: I think I have told you all how much I love her show! In any case, she was talking about liking to drink and how at one point she ate very sparingly to accommodate her drinking (not joking!) and so she brought on her personal trainer and he wrote a book. He really got her to the point where she could still enjoy her Belvedere and eat correctly. In any case, she said her body is in better shape than ever and swears by this trainer. The one thing I love about Chelsea is she REFUSES to arbitrarily plug products so when she makes a reco it is based on empirical data and not lining her pockets! The book is "Body Confidence" by Mark Macdonald. It sounds like he is on to something....I mean just look at Chelsea!
JSW: good luck with getting the house on the market. It is kind of fun getting it to "model home" status, however! A lot of work also. As for the rads and your pink skin, perhaps the tech has pink eyes!!!!!!!! Maybe they see everything in pink!
I went to the PT: very nice, said I probably do have tennis elbow and all the other aches, and neck pain, we will work on. He gave me some helpful tips on some stretches I can do daily. He was very nice and very helpful. I will probably head back to him in a month or so and what a nice guy he is.
I went to the PS: We are going to get TE reinsertion plans going soon...YAY!!!! I can't wait to get this show on the road!
Anyone do yoga? I am having such wrist pains post-chemo when attempting down dog. I know it is probably just going to take some getting used to again but also wondering if anyone else is having this type of problem.
Hair: so glad it is coming back in! It is actually getting long enough so that it no longer stands up when I get out of the shower and it is actually flat against my skull when it is wet now....big developments!
Have a good night, all-0 -
BTW, I asked about saunas again today and it seems as if I will be able to go back to the sauna after my final implants are in!!!!!!! YAY! I really thought the sauna was off the menu permanently. I am so happy!0
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Here is my hair at 17 weeks PFC. My husband takes strange pics but you get the idea. Still have areas around crown and front that seem to be slow-growing....patience...I guess.
Lizzie--I watch Chelsea Lately every night before I fall asleep--sometimes I watch the whole thing--sometimes I fall asleep mid-way but I enjoy that show for sure. Makes me laugh out loud.
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Lookin Good Rachel!! You have a little stylin going on there with that sweep to the side.0
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Rachel and Omaz: My hair parts naturally too. When I had hair, I parted it on the left side. But it is growing in with a natural part on the right side.
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Rachel: I LOVE Chelsea Lately! She is hysterical as is her staff. "After Lately" is very entertaining also. Your hair looks good. That is about where mine is at.0
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Rachel you look great. Omaz is right you've got a little sweep going on now!
My hair looks very much like PeeWee Herman right now. Also I have been hit on ( very politely, I might add:) by two women! My BFF says, "well, at least you're getting hit on!"
Anyone have exciting weekend plans?0 -
Lizzy, I think I left out in my post that I had lightheadedness and blurred vision while on the Tamoxifen, so that may be giving you those symptoms. I'm glad they're able to move on with the tissue expanders. When is your MRI?
Rachel your hair looks nice. I have crazy cowlicks that I never had before. When I wake up in the morning I have a little mohawk! I try to use some smoothing creme to flatten it but I've accepted it'll look a little crazy for a while. I'm actually going to have my husband buzz the back of my neck tomorrow b/c it's getting pretty hairy . Oh, and the hair directly above my ears sticks out as well as curls upwards, so I'll have a bozo thing going for a while too. but I'm happy to have it! It seems to be coming in faster now, I'm 12 weeks out. I'll try to post a pic later.
I saw the psych at Sloan Kettering. She was very helpful. She said it really sounds like Tamoxifen is not the medcine for me. I told her I was thinking of starting a lower dose or splitting it but she said when women have a reaction like that the same thing usually happens and why put myself through that again. She said we are treating your breast cancer but you are not just breast cancer, you have moods and feelings and we need to address the whole person. I'm going to try the lupron/arimidex. I asked her if she'd had other women who had to stop the antihormonals. She said absolutely; she's had women like me who had severe mood changes and she's had women on arimidex who've had to stop because the had terrible joint pain or other reasons. But there are women who take the meds without any problems, they just don't know until they try and i may be ok on the lupron/arimidex. I said my fear was that if I couldn't take the antihormonals and it came back I'd feel guilty. She asked do women on tamoxifen recur? I said yes. She asked the same about arimidex. Then she said we treated women before tamoxifen was even around who did fine. Sometimes it comes back and sometimes it doesn't regardless so I should just do what is tolerable and let go of the guilt. (I'm realizing I have alot of guilt, I feel like like I've burdened my family with this. Dh gets upset and says you're just sick and you didn't choose this. I think it's time for me to work on an atttitude change:-)
She also gave me a list of which antidepressants are least likely to inhibit the tamoxifen. She said there have been conflicting studies but the latest show that some antidepressants should be avoided. If anyone would like more info about the specific meds I can pm them.
I hope everyone has a good night sweat/hot flash free sleep.
Carolyn
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sweeney too funny about being hit on! I'm glad they were polite. My daughter today said "you look like a boy" as I put on a baseball cap to go for a walk. I didn't take it too hard as she was wearing her birthday tiara, little pink clip on hair braids, a pink and purple velour sweat suit with a magenta satin princess costume over it, a sparkly beaded necklace, pink easter gloves and hello kitty sunglasses with pink lenses .I dress her in the morning and she adds skirts/ hats /accesories as the day goes on, lol. I told dh she was girl enough for both of us;-) He said he's amazed at how many shades of pink she manages to wear at once.
Carolyn
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Carolyn - I bet your daughter looks adorable in all that pink!0
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Ckptry- I can totally picture that! My seven year old is the same. But I find myself longingly staring at her hair. It's thick, straight as a pin and the colour of wheat with golden streaks. She let's me play with it though! So I guess I'm living vicariously through her hair...
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My daughter says I look like a dandilion that has gone to seed since my hair came back basically white in front and if I don't plaster it down it sticks striaght out from my head now the longer it gets.
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Dandelion! That's so funny, sweet...
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Thanks for the comments on my hair. It has a life of it's own and I'm trying to smooth it down with gel without looking like some 50's movie star (ahhhhh boy movie star). My oldest son is sick with bronchitis ..... He was sick since Monday and I took him to doc and now on medicine. He is more upset of potentially missing his year end hockey party and first football practice. Nice quiet weekend....kids have more plans than us!
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Good day chemosabes and radicals-
I thought I would let you know that, thanks to CKPTRY mentioning some antidepressants could have an inhibitory effect on tamox, I did some research. At this site http://harvardpartnersinternational.staywellsolutionsonline.com/HealthNewsLetters/69,W0310c
I found this out:Antidepressants categorized by their inhibitory effect on tamoxifen
By level of risk and drug name:
Minimal
venlafaxine (Effexor), desvenlafaxine (Pristiq),* mirtazapine (Remeron)*
Mild
citalopram (Celexa), escitalopram (Lexapro)*
Moderate
sertraline (Zoloft), fluvoxamine (Luvox),* duloxetine (Cymbalta)*
Severe
paroxetine (Paxil), fluoxetine (Prozac), bupropion (Wellbutrin)
Perhaps this will help some of you. I had NO idea this was the case. The Harvard study goes on to explain exactly what is going wrong with the antidepressants and tamox. Unbelievable. It is unfortunate as well b/c a lot of women take antidepressants for help with bc and not for depression. Good to know and thanks CKPTRY for bringing that to our attention. This is very good to know.
Rachel: I can only imagine how your son feels! His year-end hockey dinner and football practice...that is awful. He should enjoy the dinner with his friends after all their hard work...I feel bad for him. In any case, on the kids and their plans, I asked my SIL if they were still planning a trip to New England this summer and she said that one of my nephews already had his whole summer planned out!
Omaz: you must make a lovely dandelion!
Good day, people-
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I get all the way to the MRI center, am in the room and about to get on the table when this nice man there asked me about my port which led to a brief discussion about bc. That nice man reminded me that a person with a TE cannot get an MRI! This is yet another case for delayed recon! I so wish I waited. That is one regret about this whole thing. These things have been infected, deflated, an itchy nuisance and now are negating me from getting what my doc believes is a pretty necessary MRI. It totally sucks that this deflated water balloon in my chest is stopping me from getting an MRI of my head. I guess they are going to CT scan me now but that doesn't show all the stuff that the MRI does. Damn foobs! I am so embarrassed that, never mind my docs, even I forgot I could not get an MRI!
Lady: I was thinking about you today. I hope you are doing well. Perhaps some lake action this weekend? How is the house coming? Let me know how you are feeling.
A cancer drug received FDA approval today. It is one that deals with a rare thyroid cancer. At least something got approved.
As we are on the precipice of a partial govt shut-down, the talk of medicare, and on the state level medicaid, costs has come up a number of times. Well if someone could please find a cure for some of these super expensive diseases getting treated, present company included, our medicare would not be so high. One of my hopes is that I do live to see the cure of at least one type of cancer. That, in and of itself, would be a huge step toward curing others.
Have a nice weekend, women-
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Lizzy - so you just had to go home? that sucks.0
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Carolyn I'm so sorry you're having to deal with this. It's not fair - once you do the surgery and the chemo, the tamoxifen is just something they tack on and you don't give it a second thought. You think you're done except for this little pill you take for five years. Unfortunately for some of us that's not true. I totally understand what you're feeling; I went through all the same feelings. Yes, women on tamoxifen CAN and DO recur -that is why we don't have a cure for breast cancer. Even on tamox, I have a 15% chance of dying of BC over the next `15 years. With tamox it is 10%. I have a feeling that so many of our oncologlists don't look at the entire picture, unfortunately. If tamoxifen was the magic bullet that they try to make it out to be, we wouldn't have women dying of this disease. Yes, it does show some benefit, but if it's taking your body down the way it took mine down, then what is the point. The stress it puts on the body when you have a reaction like you and I did is very dangerous for setting up the body for future disease and cancer also, so you have to weigh that in as well.
I hope you are able to find a place of peace in all of this. I think you will. I didn't think I ever would but I am at peace with my decision and I'm not looking back at all. 70% of women never complete their five years anyway on the drug and this is why..........
Anyhow - I'm still going around with the tax ordeal. I hope DH and I can figure it out tonight and be done with it - get the final numbers to the accountant and whatever. It's going to be a busy weekend otherwise too!
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Lizzy that is too bad about the MRI. I thought if you had something that couldn't go into an MRI in another body part you were okay?
Carolyn your daughter sounds like so much fun! Someday she will begin to edit and iuntil then she will be a glory of swirling color.
I have another toe nail coming off. It is still partially attached so I got out a bandaid to put on it. My husband had to have purchased them, they are silver sparkle. Carolyns daughter would love them! This will be nail number three and I finished chemo in November! I can see two more that are showing the early signs of not being fully attached. I wonder if I will lose them all now? This will not be a summer for sandals.
My fingernails each have a line across them that must denote when I started or stopped chemo. I surely hope that is all it means. The nailbeds just don't look right either, more white than pink.
I had this bright idea yesterday to put Emu oil on my toenails and feet. My 2 cats came running to me and trying to lick my feet. They have never, ever done anything like this before. It finally dawned on me that Emu's are birds and I might as well have smeared chicken fat on my feet.
I see my MO next wednesday and then get my port removed next thursday. I look forward to it being gone. I am probably going to get the Arimidex RX then. I pray I can take it with no big SE's. I already have knee pain, sport injuries as a kid and some arthritis now.
I hope you all have a good weekend. We actually have SUN here today!
Hugs GInger
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LIZZY- what a bummer! I'm so sorry you had that happento you. I wouldn't worry too much about forgetting about that though....just chalk it up to chemotherapy brain hangover:)
So do you know when your cat scan is?0 -
Rachel Your hair looks great! I hope mine looks that good at week 17. I am still in the phase where it sticks straight up all the time and doesn't cover my scalp.
Carolyn I'm glad you got in to see the psychiatrist, it sounds like that was a helpful visit for you. Also I love the story about your daughter's wardrobe! She sounds adorable!
Lizzy That is so disappointing that you couldn't get the MRI. What is it about TEs that you can't get an MRI? Do they have metal in them? I hope you are able to get the CT soon so that you can get some answers about these headaches and dizzy spells.
Ginger I love the story of your cats licking the emu oil off your feet! So cute!
Well I survived my double treatment Friday and saw my med onc, got herceptin, then got rads all before 10am today! Then I was ready for a nap but unfortunately I had to go to work. I had a busy day at work but then enjoyed a happy hour with friends and dinner with DH. Then I did a bit more packing up, I'm hoping this weekend to get the last of the "clutter" out of the house and into the storage unit. Then next week I can focus on getting the house super clean and hopefully next weekend get it put on the market! Anyway, I'm pooped now so it is bedtime for me!
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