August 2010...anyone starting chemo besides me?!
Comments
-
Tex: your hip popped out?! I can't believe that/ did not think it was possible but then again, you probably did not either! The chimpanzee movie looks great and I would go see that. I also go to as many of the Imax nature films at the Norwalk Maritime Center as I can. I am going to see the polar bears in the next few weeks. They are always great shows!
I did not realize you went to a gym to do zumba. Good for you;)
Hot flashes are extra special tonight thus this post!0 -
Oh my gosh Texas! I have seen a ballerina's knee blow out in class and that involved an ambulance! You poor thing, it must have been awful for you! I hope everything stays where it belongs from here on out!
I still can't get on the kale bandwagon but I did have broccoli with dinner tonight.
Congratulations on the 5K race!
I am on aromasin in stead of arimidex and I have far far fewer SE of any kind. Doc says it is as effective and is chemically different thus the fewer SE's.
Hugs Ginger
0 -
I am on letrozole (generic femara). I started with one brand and it upset my stomach. I looked them all up to see which ingredients they had (the one I had was full of dyes!) and then asked the pharmacist what other generic brands they had. They offered another one and according to my list it had less fillers and no dyes and so far it has worked out alright as far as the tummy goes. yay!
0 -
Good day warriors!
I totally forgot to share with you all 2 very exciting developments!! First, my hair is long enough to make the smallest of ponytails and as I spend the preponderance of my time in NY Yankee baseball caps, this makes me very happy! It is also long enough to be getting curly hair knots in the back! My hair is wicked thick and curly so it is prone to knotting, especially at this length, overnight!
Also, after almost 2 years, I finally feel comfortable "touching" and "poking around" under the arm on my affected side! I did not realize until I did a "node check" that for a long time, I had been all but petrified to touch under that arm.
Hair tip: more Dr. Oz! Drinking "horsetail tea" will strengthen hair (and nails) as it contains silica. I just love Dr. Oz!
Omaz: good for you on the letrozole! I just don't understand why there would be "dyes" in a pill? What necessitates such a thing? I am sure I don't want the real answer from the pharmas, however!
Ginger: as for kale, surely it is an acquired taste. I already loved arugula. As the bitter greens go, it was easy for me to incorporate chard and kale. If you chop kale up into small pieces and add craisins as well as kale to your salad and perhaps try a raspberry walnut vinaigrette, might work. Clearly it is not imperative you have kale, however. It is a nutritional bargain, though, as it is also rich in omega-3 fatty acids which is a little-known fact.
Good for you on the broccoli as sulforaphane and the molecules called isothiocyanates are mentioned as much with broccoli as they are with kale. They are all cruciferous vegetables!
Here is a link for kale soup: http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-easy-kal-13802Here is a kale smoothie recipe:
Creamy Greens Smoothie
This smoothie surprises everyone because it tastes so good. You really don't taste the kale at all. This is an excellent snack while breastfeeding because the greens help to increase milk production. Use nutritional yeast flakes fortified with vitamin B12.1 cup pineapple-coconut juice
1 banana, sliced and frozen
2 to 3 kale leaves
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast flakes (optional)I am going to do more research on this today but I think eating it raw, as I do, is not the greatest catalyst for activating the anti-cancer properties. Some of the information I have read refers to moderate steaming to activate certain benefits. Perhaps I will start a kale blog!
Good day, girls!
0 -
I wonder if you could steam the kale and then add it to the smoothie?
0 -
Hi ladies, I've got to remember to check this thread every day, I miss so much if I'm gone a few days! I've been busy though, which is good.
Lizzy: On the army doctor, Dr. Peoples, I had heard about this, sorry I didn't think to post it. He's been working on this a while. His sister was an accountant at a company I worked for about 15 years ago, but I still keep in touch with the folks there because my sister-in-law still works there. Anyway, his sister had told my sister-in-law about the work he was doing because she knew about me and they had sent me several links to articles. I don't mean to be a downer, but guess what the impetus for this research was? MONEY, just like with everything else. It was costing the U.S. military a fortune to treat all the women soldiers and military wives who had breast cancer, so they told their doctors to get their butts in gear and come up with something. Oh well, I'm just naturally cynical. I guess it doesn't matter the motive, so long as we get something to help us!
My new avatar is a picture I took tonight. A lady in my OvCa group suggested we buy a teal candle (their color) and light it and pray each Sunday night for a cure, and for those having recurrences or other problems. So when I bought my teal candle today, I knew I had to get a pink one too and light it and pray for all my BC sisters too. Love you guys!
Ginger and Omaz: interesting about fewer side effects with the other drug. My hot flashes are awful. I think I'll ask my onc at my next appt. about switching from Arimidex. I don't think he'd have a problem with me switching to Aromasin or Femara.
0 -
Lady - I am on the Accord healthcare version of letrozole now, the one before that bothered my stomach was made by mylan. I posted a table of the ingredients for many of the generic brands on the femara thread.0
-
Thanks Omaz, I'll check that out.
0 -
Lady: I don't care what gets these capitalistic monsters to start coughing up some relief for us cancer victims as long as they do!!! I find it absolutely enthralling that the costs of this disease is choking our govt so that they are pushing for some solutions! I say wonderful! Just wonderful! They built this mess now it is appropriate the medical industrial complex should implode in short order!!
I love the avi! I don't know what faith we all are on this thread as that has no place here and I am about to cross this line!! St. Peregrine is the patron of cancer patients and if anyone wants the prayer, I will PM it.
A Dr. Oz trick for getting to sleep...when you are not burning up from hot flashes! Repeat, aloud and then bring to a whisper and finally silently a single word that brings you calm and pleasant thoughts. For me that word is yoga! My house is very peaceful and quiet as is my neighborhood because there are no kids and I am the last house on a dead end. In long, when I sit and do yoga, it is so peaceful I just go to a different plane almost. Ok, so perhaps it is the wine...! JK! So if anyone is having trouble sleeping, there is a trick from Dr. Oz!
Finally I saw a great quote today, as follows:
Now matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.
-Buddha
We can all begin again and forever relegate bc to the dustbin of our own personal histories!
Tex: I hope you went to "Chimpanzees" and loved it! I just want to squeeze the one at the end of the commercial!
Celebrity Apprentice time!
0 -
Another article compliments of Twitter!! Interesting ..more exciting developments!
http://www.webmd.com/cancer/news/20120418/breast-cancer-study-could-change-treatment
0 -
oh great i typed this long reply and then it disappeared!!!!
loved the chimps movie and cant wait to see the polar bears
Ginger glad to hear that that medicine is with less SE
omaz- i didnt know that generis could vary like that. i will keep that in mind
had my scans so now the waiting begins!
0 -
Texas- Good vibes, prayers, and crossed fingers and toes.
0 -
Good day, warriors!
Ok, so I am addicted to Dr. Oz!!!!! As you all know, I have a thyroid problem and it has been not doing so well since chemo. My synthroid was increased but it so slow to come back etc... In any case, I am watching him just now and it turns out that cabbage, kale, broccoli, peaches and a few others all have "goiterogens." What these do is work *against* the thyroid by sucking up the iodine which is what the thyroid needs to live! I was stunned...here I am chowing up this kale, broccoli, cabbage and I love peaches and NONE of it is good for me!!! Here is the solution: he said to steam for 10 minutes any of those foods and you will negate the "iodine eating properties" of those vegetables! Sometimes I feel like a nutritional buffoon when I watch his show! I mean I could not be doing anything more wrong than eating broccoli, kale and cabbage raw! Also, and oddly enough, he says it is imperative to get "Vitamin D" to help the sluggish thyroid. Between the speculation about D and it's connection to bc and now for me, the thyroid connection, it seems there is something to it all.
He was not talking to us bc girls when he discusses this but it helps us anyway: parabens can be found in shampoo, conditioner, soaps, lotions etc... and it might say "methylparabens" or some other kind of parabens but if you see that word, parabens, it is a synthetic product which causes estrogen activity. Therefore when you put it on your skin, wash your hair, it is getting into your body and igniting the estrogen machine! What Dr. Oz suggested, and he was talking to women regarding their menstrual cycle, was progesterone cream to balance out the estrogen. Of course, we would have to consult docs etc... but I found it very interesting that the "parabens" in almost every lotion, are estrogen igniters. Again, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, I guess she will die!
It is just amazing, and perhaps I am strictly for myself here, how much we "do not" know! My final analysis: chow up all the Vitamin D you can get!
Oh, and one more thing: as for the thyroid business, he said even though he is a western-trained doctor this would not have occurred to him necessarily but if you hum and "tap" your thyroid it motivates the thyroid to make and secrete more hormone! Every day is a health education with the magical Dr. Oz!!
If anyone knows those with thyroid problems, pass this information on, please! It can really benefit someone.
Tex: type your response in Word and then cut-n-paste as I have lost so many posts because of the "disappearing" trick in the post box! "The Arctic" is Imax about the polar bears and Meryl Streep narrated. I am going to check it out in Norwalk in a few weeks. My friend took her daughter, who is 5, to "Chimpanzee" and that child LOVED that movie! Glad you had a good time.
I will be VERY PATIENTLY AWAITING the results of your scans! More to this point, I will be waiting with you
Back to Dr. Oz! I actually, as often as possible, sit in front of my computer and make notes in OneNote as I watch Dr. Oz and then I review my notes later! I really feel like I am becoming a nutritionist under his tutelage!!
Good day, girls!
0 -
i hardly get the chance to watch OZ but the few occations i have got a clip here and there he is very knowledgable.
Parabeans if i am not mistaken they are also found in soft plastic items like shower curtains. i may have just made that up lol, i had watched a show on date line or something about a chemical that was in our lotions, shampoos, almost everything really that triggers estrogen and they linked it not only to cancer but also the feminization of boys, really their testostrone levels plummeted and their estrogen levels went through the roof. We slather our babies with lotion and other things. Oh also it was found in soft plastic toys like the rubber ducky and other things like that.... think about it, boys are becoming very feminine- not all but an alarming number
0 -
Tex: yesterday I went to my eye doc who is a wonderful guy. He just lost like 60 lbs pretty much eating tuna (Harvard diet) for weeks, perhaps months! In any case, he was talking about this and you know where else they are found? In *car* seats and not the children's seats but the ones we sit on. There were a few other places also and I had heard that elsewhere, perhaps I caught a piece of the show you saw, regarding boys and estrogen levels going out of whack. Also, if you think about it, all young men do now is play video games and those video rockers are all pleather (paraben filled junk) and that stuffing (paraben filled junk) so no wonder. You are correct, it is in shower curtains. What are we doing?
OMG...he is now rubbing a tomato with sugar on his face as an exfoliator and in this way the lycopene gets right in your skin (wrinkle battles but also helps us cancer girls!)Wasn't Oprah instrumental in bringing Dr. Oz to the masses?! What a treat! Forget the cars and her favorite things, Dr. Oz is the best!!!!!!!
Adey: what is up, woman!?
0 -
Lizzy- Taking the summer off from surgery, woot. The tapping you mentioned was part of the morning ritual at "the commune" that I go to sporadically (Creative Health Institute). Gyn onc and med onc and post op next week. Just like old times! Take care.
0 -
Adey- SOmehow i skipped over your post! Thanks!
Sounds like you're a busy woman! I like to schedule all my appointments round the same so i only have brief period of craziness!
0 -
Humming: everyone is supposed to hum for 1 minute upon waking as it is good for the heart. Just FYI while we are on the humming topic! With chemo in mind, we should probably all be doing that.0
-
k gonna wake up every morning humming!
got results, i need to get a PET b/c there is something in my abdomen... not really the answers i wanted and def no where near where i felt the lumps so hmmmm
funny i called the nurse and said instead of waiting for the approval for the PET can i just get a biopsy. No go LOL
That might actually explain some of my downtown problems depending on where in the abdomen it is, like lower....
0 -
So sorry to hear that Tex. : ( I hope it turns out to be benign. I will be sending tons of positive vibes your way!
Debbi
0 -
Tex: I am sorry to hear this and will be sending the most positive vibes. Of course, this mass is still in my chest and I am a wreck because that breast is so itchy, it is driving me crazy. Of course, off next week to the onc to try to figure out next, best steps. BTW, if the SUV on the PET is below 2.5, you have nothing to worry about. If it is above, there could be something. Gadzooks, Tex! My friend in NY has been in touch a lot as she is just finishing up chemo and had to have a PET recently. She is struggling to deal with the "waiting." It only took me a few days to get my PET results, though.
Best of luck, keep us posted and I will do the same. I am going to all but flip if a biopsy is in order....I WILL FLIP!!!! I am so tired of this drag out.
0 -
thanks all!
So that was quick i just got a call that my insurance approved it and so i have an appointment tomorrow!!!!
So no zumba tonight, no sugar either LOL- yummy just a pork chop for dinner!
oh and so funny cuz i was all dressed to get into the pool- it sucked to sit out on the side lines watching the kids... we are gonna head back after dinner (to the pool)
0 -
Tex....sorry to hear you are back waiting again....will be sending good vibes and hugs your way.
Hope everyone is doing well. Things are good here..busy with that everyday stuff but also taking time for myself! Today is the 2nd year anniversary of my aunts death. She was diagnosed with breast cancer over 20 years ago--treated and all good. Unfortunately in 2010, her cancer came back with a vengeance and she passed away in 6 weeks. It was right at the same time I was going into surgery for my cervical cancer. Little did I know at that point, I had breast cancer---found out in June 2010. My aunt was the only person in our family ever to deal with cancer...when I was first diagnosed with cervical cancer and surely thought that was it---she reminded me to keep the faith. Days like today make me frustrated that cancer is so prevalent and that there doesn't seem that movement in finding a cure. I hope in my lifetime...there will be something.0 -
Lizzy: The second story at this link is about being alkaline (I thought of you when I read it).
http://www.1uponcancer.com/integrative-cancer-care/
Hope everybody is doing well.
0 -
Good luck tomorrow Tex - will be thinking of you!!0
-
Tex - why can't you have sugar or do zumba before the test?0
-
Omaz: because cancer cells eat sugar twice as fast as any other cells. The PET scan basically scouts for cells that are eating too much sugar. If you have sugar w/in 12 hours of the taste, innocuous cells might be eating sugar and cause a false read.0
-
Working out: inflammation of muscles will also cause a false-positive on a PET0
-
Omaz- yup Lizzy is right. the PET scan involves being injected with a radioactive glucose (sugar) and then waiting an hr before scanning to see what is utilizing the sugar. And because carbs break down into sugar none of those either. Or vitamins and steroids.... i am assuming for the same reason.
So its 3am i woke up with a headache and not sure if pain meds were something i couldnt take LOL just to be on the safe side i wont... but i will be bring them with so i can take them as soon as my test is done.
0 -
Tex: whenever you are up in the middle of the night, look northeast in the sky and know you have a friend who, too, is awake just a few stars away!! Definitely bring the pills with you and take them as soon as the test is over. I am sending you the most positive of vibes....perhaps that is why I am up!!! Nah...just another night in hot flashville!
0
