August 2010...anyone starting chemo besides me?!
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Lizzy: I couldn't see two of the pictures, it told me they are private? But I could see the one with your hair and your halo. Hmmm, angels among us??0
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Lady: I made them public again! I am kind of a private person and don't really like to leave stuff like that public. I will leave them open for a little while longer. Deb wanted to see body building photos and there is one where I am flexing but I am still getting through the basement so I am sure I will find more!
Sptmm: I hope you have sun there, woman! We have some overcast skies and I am getting nervous...I was looking forward to another beautiful day!!! However, my greediness over wanting more nice days is tempered as soon as I see what the rest of the country has been through. I will politely shut up now!
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BTW, I committed a URL typo (omg!) on my way to flickr and ended up at clickr where you can watch TV online for free! Thought I would share that!
Omaz: it has color but it is still about 20% gray...I will be coloring soon!
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For you NYC ladies---we are planning on taking a trip to NYC this summer. I was supposed to do it for my 40th last year (but clearly that got derailed). I was there before with girlfriends and stayed at the W Times Square. However....any suggestions on good place to stay with the family (two young boys) that is close to things. We don't mind walking. Not to use this as a place for travel advice but.....you always hear about the best stuff from people who know!
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Rachel: because I have friends and I live so close, I usually don't do hotels but one company put me up a number of times at the Omni Midtown and, because it was around the corner from Arcade Bar (long since closed!), I thought it was a great location as I could drink and play air hockey!!!!! In any case, here is the link: http://www.omnihotels.com/FindAHotel/NewYorkOmniBerkshire.aspx.
The only reason I offer the Omni because it is right in the center of it all. They don't have particular stuff for kids, I don't think.
There is also the tourist fav, the Marriot on Times Square with the glass elevators but be forewarned, because of the elevator situation, it takes some time to get from your room to the lobby!
I hope you have fun!
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Angel or zombie!!! (c:
Lizzie- we have twin heads of hair. BTW, I don't mind being petted, I per myself, so soft and fuzzy. Wait... that didn't sound right!
Peace and healing to those that especially need it right now.
Debbi- I graduated in 80 also.
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Adey - Since I adopted your cute smiley face I sent it to my daughter while chatting yesterday. She was in the living room and I was at the computer in the kitchen. I was 'suggesting' that she brush her teeth and ended with that smiley and she bounds over to tell me the fat-nosed smiley is the cutest she has ever seen!!0
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Adey-Good to know compadre! Now you, me, and Lady can be ancient together!! LOL!!
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Hello---I am no spring chicken, girls!!!!! 41 and counting...!
Adey: that smiley is way cute!
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I'm ancienter - graduated '77 - seems like a looooong time ago!
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So then Omaz you must remember that Born to be Alive song too!! You win..you are the ancientest...so far. For me it seems like yesterday. Where has all the time gone?? Funny but you know how you have that internal vision of yourself, for me, when I think of myself I see the same person I was when I was around 20. Now only if I could get the rest of me to look the same on the outside...LOL!
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Great pictures Lizzy!
Omaz & Debbi: I'm the oldest. My HS graduation was 1975!
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I just wanted to say that next month I will not have had any alcohol for a year. That means I haven't had a real beer in a year. I drank 1 or 2 beers a day. No beer, not for a year. Can't believe it.
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Me Too Omaz!!! I had my last beer the night before my first surgery, so that would be May 6 last year. I used to love to have a couple of beers on the weekend. But with what I have read about alcohol and recurrence, it just isn't worth it so I too have sworn off alcohol.
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Omaz and Debbie: I used to joke with my friends that bc is sponsored by the Catholic religion(please don't anyone get upset...it is a joke) in that if you don't have a kid, you will be having bc! Now I think it is just sponsored by satan!!!! Of all the things we have to be afraid to drink now?!! After all we have been through, now we must abstain from liquor when some would argue we need it most!
More to this point, I was having lunch with a friend in Stamford a few weeks ago and she asked about marijuana and if I had been given any!!!! She said people can score it medicinally here when on chemo. I was appalled. First I thought she was trying to get some from me and second, I was stunned to hear that was happening in CT!!! In any case, I would not want it anyway. But liquor?! How dare these crappy studies try to scare us away from that?!??!
I hate the fact that all those studies were done about bc, drinking and recurrence. I honestly think I am going to take my chances. I don't know how I got it and I probably never will. I am going to be wicked pissed if this crap kills me without partying my way right til the end!!!!! I just have to take my chances. I will let you all know how it goes!!!! Of course, if I get recurrence/mets, I will never know if drinking caused it but honestly, it just seems they don't know anything about this disease and I am not going to let fear mongering keep me from my wine...and other spirits!!!!!
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Lizzy: That's the funny thing about breast cancer. Because they don't know what actually causes it there are many different studies about many different things out there. You could change you entire life out of fear of recurrence. The way I look at it, I am very happy to be alive and cancer free but I want to enjoy my life. So, I will make adjustments to my lifestyle as I see fit. Alcohol is one thing that I looked at that I could do without so I am. Not to say I may not have a beer at a BBQ or some Friday night, but overall I have chosen to abstain from alcohol. I have to say too, that I had hormone positive ILC, which is different from most of you guys, and there is a study I read about a while ago that points to a strong correlation between drinking 3+ drinks a week and hormone positive ILC recurrence, so I had to factor this into my decision too. I have decided to add exercise to my daily routine. That is a change I was willing to make that I have read will help prevent recurrence. You have made some changes to your diet (i.e. Kale), that I would never even consider as I am very picky about food. Bottom line is we will all make changes that we are comfortable with and everyone is willing to change different things, it all depends on what is important to you.
You know, that is one of the great things about this thread for me. We are all so different here and everyone leads a different type of lifestyle that it gives me a wealth of new perspectives through which to look at things. If it had not been for you, I would never have even thought to get Body Confidence and read it or your tips on exercise and stretching would be things that I would not know and I find them very valuable. But through this media, my eyes are opened to a variety of different things that I would not have been exposed to and that is a very good thing. So, we all share this information, take it in, process it, and come to our own conclusions.
So, you party on girlfriend this Memorial Day weekend, maybe I will join you for a virtual beer!
Enjoy this lovely weather!! But don't forget the sunscreen...LOL!
Debbi
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Deb: I appreciate your words but to be honest, I am afraid to drink. I really am. I am all talk and no action. The few times I have had a drink since bc, I am nervous the next day. Going out and having some drinks with friends, especially in NY, was something I really looked forward to and it was fun. In my Wall St days, I did happy hour 3 times a week. I just really lament the fact that I will now be afraid to drink. It just seems so macabre, and such a paradox, that bc just seems to take a lot of things away. For instance, I was planning to go to the shore with my sister this weekend and then I realized I can't go in the water because of the massive hole in my chest, I can't drink because I am nervous about that, I would be afraid to go in the water because forbid I get a cut from floating debris (!!!!!!!!!) or a jelly fish attaches to my affected arm (more on this in August, however!) and nevermind the SPF 4000 that I will now have to wear! Add to it that every time I have a drink I won't be able to sleep from worry, life, as it were, is anew for me.
I was really being silly in that post last night. I have had 2 drinks in 16 months and those were quite recent. In the end, Deb, I will adjust but right now, I am hating all these studies and nonsense connected to drinking. There, I have dropped my brave face!!!!!!!
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Lizzy: Okay, so the entire office thinks I have gone off my rocker now!! The image of a jellyfish attached to the affected arm and the panic that would ensue caused me to laugh out loud just now!! Everyone turned around to look at me...LOL! I had a feeling you were being sarcastic in your post, but I felt the need to reply anyway. This is a scary new world we live in, huh. But you were right, we can't let BC take away everything, we just have to pick and choose! I will be outside a lot this weekend, where exactly can I find that SPF 4000, is that prescription, LOL??!!
P.S. It was a pleasure seeing your "not brave" face, feel free to expose it anytime.
Debbi
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Hi all, just want to wish everybody a nice Memorial Day weekend. This is a mixed bag for me. I met my DH for the first time Memorial Day weekend 2009; but then the next year on 5/27/10, I was on the phone with the radiologist being told I had BC.
BUT here we all are a year later, still going strong despite all the crap we've been through this past year, so hooray for all of us. Have a beer, eat some bbq, get out in the sun, do whatever makes you happy this weekend. Love you ladies.
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Lizzy My neighbor and I were talking last summer about how we rarely drank since having kids (our kids are very close in age).I was telling her that dh and I used to spend the weekends at the beach and one of our friends made awesome watermelon margaritas. She said and weren't we all happier then:-) Drinking (heavily) and smoking are risk factors in head and neck cancers. When I was at SK there was a woman in her 30's with a tumor that was inoperable . It was resting on her carotid artery so if she moved her head a certain way she'd cut off the blood flow and faint. This woman was a violinist who had never drank or smoke. The NP said that's it I am going out to get a case of beer and a carton of cigarettes (jokingly).I don't know what to make of these studies. I don't think a drink here and there could hurt. Isn't stress reduction supposed to boost our immune systems:-)
Carolyn
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Carolyn: it is so funny you mention that about cigarettes and cancer as the link for bc does not seem to be clear with cigarette smoking. In any case, there is a woman from my town who I saw at Yale a few times and who I then subsequently saw in Stop and Shop and then at the first PS I interviewed. In any case, she was on chemo and had lost all hair including eyebrows, lashes etc.. when I saw her at the PS office. I was so startled to find her smoking outside when I left his office! I was appalled. I don't know how someone could continue smoking with bc even if the connection is not clear.
I was just reminiscing with my sister about a house I had by the beach and how I really had no backyard so what I would do is I had a blow up pool and an old speed boat tube (from when I owned a speed boat with a friend) and I would lay in the blow up pool and the tube barely fit! I would just lay there and drink throughout the day then my neighbor would head down to the beach, margaritas in hand in those big, 7-11 cups!!!!! Fun times, woman, fun times!!!!
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Happy long weekend to all my American friends
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Lady: You hit the nail right on the head. This time last year most of us had or were about to have our worlds turned upside down...but we are still here, feeling good and living life. For that we will celebrate this weekend! You going to the lake house?
Lizzy: You have certainly lived a storied life, I am jealous!!! Maybe you could go to the beach for a little while this weekend, just don't swim. The beach is my absolute favorite place in the world.
Rachel: Thanks! You have a great weekend too!
I will be taking my son to a soccer tournament outside Philly this weekend. I bought the sunscreen and made sure to put a huge note by the door so I don't forget my meds. It's just going to be me and him...will be fun. I hope everyone has a great weekend!
Debbi
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Anyone else notice that when it's cold in a store or whereever it seems colder than it used to? Less tolerant of cold?
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Good day, warriors!
Happy Memorial Day weekend, girls! I hope we all have some nice weather also. I think I am *still* stunned from this past winter that it can't get too hot for me (and I will escape to the AC if it does!).
Sptmm: I might give it a whirl...not sure yet because the hot flashes are so awful, all I can think is there I will be, seconds from relief, dying of a hot flash and unable to help myself!!!!!!! As for a storied life, I always considered myself a late bloomer as I did not hit Wall St until I was nearly 28 and had been engaged, living with my fiance and working in CT when my father was dx'd with lung cancer when I was 26 and my mother had a massive stroke a month later. I always thought my getting going later was so I could have more time with my parents as they would both be, for all intents and purposes, snapped out of my life at a young age. My father died 3 years later and my mother never fully recovered. She is in a full care facility now and there is hardly even a trace of the woman she once was left. In any case, I tell you this because I have lived an awful lot and done a lot and if I apply the same math of my late blooming to my doing a lot of living in a short period of time, I hope that does not translate to I won't be here for too long!!! I think I am going to toss the abacus! BTW, I would gladly take you around Manhattan on a tour. I know you mentioned that recently. No problem but it would have to be the Fall as I don't trek Manhattan in the summer! I forget you grew up in FL and are on the island via marriage. I always think of LIs as being an extension of Manhattan anyway so I just assumed...!
In any case, I hope you have a great time at the game this weeekend.
Lady: get out to that lake house and forget about life for a while...totally disengage and enjoy yourself
Omaz: I am not sure I can concur as last night I slept with my a/c on full blast and snuggled under my comforter and LOVED IT! Plus it was the first night with no hot flashes or, if I had one the room was too cold and I did not wake from it! I am also sad to say that I find myself, much like these menopause commercials, standing in the frozen foods section with the doors open pretending to look for something aka cooling off!!! I guess we are in different places on this one. I hope you have a good holiday weekend and oh, btw, a new word for you (at least maybe it will be!): pilose: covered with hair, especially soft hair; furry. I learned it in the crossword a few days ago and as your family is petting you, it seemed rather appropriate to share!
Is anyone else box-dying their hair and, if so, any reco's on brands? I am seriously considering it as it is so short right now an it might be fun to experiment with some box coloring for the first time in my life!
I was just watching MSNBC as I enjoy Alexis Witt on Saturday mornings. In any case, through Twitter etc... they usually poll to find out what people are doing this weekend. Well, although *they* say things are getting better, the responses this morning sure did not sound like it! One guy said he is staying home watching car racing, another was working in her garden, another was going to a child's athletic game etc.. and all I could think was how many of those people, like me, were heading to MA, RI or NJ beaches on this weekend in years past and now the econ has squeezed everyone so much that those plans are no longer as feasible as they once were.
Ok well, I promised a few appearances even though I would much rather stay home! I have to go to some back yard events, not drink, not eat, avoid bugs and/or eating a bug, hope it does not rain and then try to extricate myself as quickly as possible so I can come home and watch baseball!!!!!!!!!!!
I hope everyone has a nice weekend-
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Happy Memorial Day weekend!!!
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Lizzy I am using semi permanent in case ther is some unpleasantness with my color choice. I have been using a dark ash blonde.
The mr and I went outlet shopping today. The cold water creek gods smiled upon me with 80percent off. A large time was had. And ladies before BC I was Had gained so much weight. That coupled with the chemo bloat was not pretty. I have lost 20 lbs. Still have a ways to go but what a difference. Libraylil0 -
lil- 20 pounds is great!!!0
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Hi Lizzy, I was thinking maybe you could go swimming if you had some of that sticky film they put on us after port surgery. You could seal off the open wound area. Maybe?
Hair color. L'oreal Preference is a good one step colour. Remember you can only go a couple shades lighter than your natural color without an additional bleaching step. If you want to play a little, and are interested in red, you could do that quite easily. I would advise that you stay away from any of the purple reds. They tend to age the wearer even if they are young like you are. Back when I had red hair I would mix Flame and Sun Bronze half and half. It worked well on my medium dark brown hair giving me a believable red. This is much lighter than you probably want but because you have dark hair it is necessary to bring you up to a good red.
You put it on the ends first and then go to the roots putting it all over. Putting a plastic bag on (not over haha) your head helps keep it warm and bring the color up a little faster. A rinse well and then shampoo with a colour conserving shampoo like Aveda or other. Your hair is currently so short that you could just put it all over and let it work for about 35 minutes.
Have great fun with this. You can color over it easily to go back dark and with hair cuts it will be a fun summer memory. I was tempted to try some pink. I was last pink when I was 20 years old.
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I am so glad to be showering again. Drains are all out and I shwered again, 2 days in a row. I have been getting along good, I really don't need help with anything. I have been doing chores around the house except running the vacuum. I even have been doing the cooking last night I grilled pork chops, hash browns and baked beans. DH was cleaning out the camper because were were going to go to the lake this am and spend the night. The weather decided to stay crappy cool and rainy so we didn't go this am. At my follow up last Wed. I told ps I was have difficulty sleeping on my back and she gave me ambiem and I took one Fri, and had a good 8 hrs. of sleep took one Sat and I slept 10hr. woke up once for restroom. Wow I was amazed. I hope everyone is doing good.
If it were for the achy bones from herceptin I'd feel like a new woman.
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