You know youre a cancer patient when....
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Ah Lena...{{{{{{{{{{{{{{ hugs! }}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
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I plant flowers and tell them that if God wants them to do well, He'll water them. I don't water the ones I plant or hang (might as well use a noose!). I can kill the hardiest breeds....sigh.
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When you clip a baseball cap to the dog's leash so you remember not to leave the house topless when you walk her and scare the kids in the neighborhood.
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YKYACPW you leave your house to do something and at some point you have a panic attack thinking you didn't wear your wig even though you stopped wearing it 2 wks. ago.
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When you listen to your employees complain about each other, their minor aches and pains and all I can think is I bet you are not wearing a piece of foam rubber in place of a breast right now. I am having little tolerance for these people right now. I watched a minute of "women in prison" last night. One of the inmates said that being in jail is like being in high school, so much drama. I feel the same way about my office. They are driving me crazy.
Elizabeth
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{{Lena}} that was in ref to being a slothful hermit.
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Thanks Badger.
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…when you get the same "Thinking of You" card three times in one week from three different people. (Really!)
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YKYACPWhen you get a new, stronger, pain med, read the instruction label take one, then spend the rest of the day, head and rse down doing technicolour yawns, wondering if your number is up already!
Then you read the other 'instruction sheet' the pharmacist gave you.
Sheila.
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YKYACPW you peruse a fall calendar of events at work, see a BC awareness event in October, and curse (silently, remember you're at work) because you hate Pinktober. Then you wonder if you should volunteer to participate and educate people, and if you did, what would you say, and could you get through it without crying? (very emotional these days)
I got the fateful mammo in October '09 and they entered me into a drawing for a gift basket. Oh, the irony ...
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YKYACPW you show up for lab, appt and chemo.... Not really wanting to be there but knowing only one more after today... Feeling like the damn could burst if ONE more person asks, "how are you feeling?" from the receptionist to nurse drawing labs, another receptionist, the tech doing vitals, the tech reviewing meds and the PA. Each and every one asked. No joke, I know it's part of the routine and social courtesy, but really?
I answered, don't really want to be here...
Responses included, oh I know... Only two left- one after today! You're so close! And more.
Today starts my second last cycle of chemo SE. Ugh.
YKYACPW you can come here to vent and it's totally ok with the others cause they've been there.
Thanks, -m0 -
mebmarj, it's better than if no one asks. I had rads and with 25 tx and the same techs, 1 tech asked 1 time how I was feeling - and that was I think to make conversation since we were both waiting together outside the room. If I said "Good morning" when I came in then they would answer but if I didn't say it then no one did. I was just a piece of the equipment.
I'm not saying it's not annoying but it sure beats the alternative.
YKYACPW someone vents about what's going on with her and you vent about the opposite happening and you're both right.
Leah
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Mebmarj, my answer to oncology medical staff who ask me how I'm feeling is, "If I was feeling GOOD, I wouldn't have to be HERE now, would I?" Believe it or not, that actually gets a chuckle out of most of 'em.
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This happened this morning. My SO told me to post it:
YKYACPW - The light in the table lamp in our living room blew out, so I went to change it. I thought the bulb was stuck because I was having a hard time getting the bulb out until I realized I was turning it the wrong way!
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amonto - I've done that but I'm better known for turning it the wrong way when putting in a new bulb. Does being dyslexic account for this problem? lol
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YKYACPW you say to your husband,
"Honey, can you shut the door? That light is right in my eyes."
And when he says, "Which door?" your brain freezes up and for the life of you you can't remember what to call that room.
So you say, "The, uh, the room with the toilet in it."
Yeah, that actuoally happened to me. I couldn't remember the word "bathroom."
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Windlass---------dear one------------word loss is an issue with chemo--------------it's also a word loss with constant stress an loss and grief..........L&H&P's sas
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... when you go to a support group meeting and a woman there for the first time asks about mastectomy scars and reconstruction-versus-no-reconstruction and you just pull up your shirt to show your scars and prosthesis. (You REALLY know when you do that at a cocktail party and it's not just because you've had a few glasses of wine,,,)
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Hi, Sas: Do the words come back after treatment? This is happening to me more and more, that I have to describe things because I can't remember their names. My onc says word retrieval problems are caused by the lack of estrogen and hormones, since the chemo shut down my pre-menopausal ovaries.
I can usually get the word I am looking for after a few seconds of brain searching time, but when you're speaking to people at a normal pace, there isn't time to ask people to wait.
My other cancer patient complaint tonight is that my entire right arm and shoulder and hand are numb and tingling so badly I cannot feel the keyboard as I type. It's a pinched nerve in my neck or back says my chiropractor, but I have no clue how to fix it, and the adjustment I got today from him didn't help. I am off to bed now with an ativan in hopes of getting some sleep. Tomorrow will dawn brighter. (At least til the hurricane hits.) :P
Nite!
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Windlass - I'm having trouble with word retrieval, too. I'm 11 weeks PFC and it drives me NUTS! No Tamoxifen yet - that comes this week...*sigh*
YKYACPW...you have to look up you own zipcode to address a thank you note. Seriously?!0 -
windlass, hope you got some sleep. The loss of nouns thing started happening when I was in my late 40's, pre-BC. I could not retrieve the word for the four round black rubber things on my car, ya know, the tires? <sigh> Then I saw an episode of Oprah on peri-menopause and I felt SO much better because I thought, oh it's just a normal part of the aging process. Then I had chemo, and fuggedaboutit. Now I'm 52 and 14 mos PFC and don't stress about memory anymore because I expect to not remember jack and it pleases me when I do. ;-)
LOL pejkug3, for me it's my phone number at work.
YKYACPW you have to keep one of your own business cards handy, so when you leave a voice mail message, you recite the right call-back number.
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I had a business card taped to my phone at work since I moved locations last year in July. I couldn't tell you that number right now if you put a gun to my head!!! I recite it only by looking at it, so it seems I've never 'learned' it!
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I was struggling with memory and processing a lot before diagnosis due to extremely high stress levels at work and legal situation with a house fire. I went to my doctor for some help with it and she suggested CoQ10, fish oil and vitamin B complex. It started helping tremendously within a couple of days. It doesn't fix it all, but it is better. When things got worse with those situations, about a month later, I approached her for something for anti-anxiety. (I have always been a high anxiety person anyway and was on Lexapro years ago for it.) She gave me Celexa and that felt like the last missing piece that I needed. Now my roughest times with memory just fluctuate with treatments.
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Anybody else having succes with Celexa? I'm afraid to add it to the mix.
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My word retrieval did get better after chemo. My menopause apears permanent, so I don't think the word problems were all hormones, or maybe I just got used to doing without them. I called HER2 "HR Puffinstuff" once not as a joke but because I just could not remember "HER2."
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HAhaha, it is sort of like a puffinstuff, given how fast it grows and how fat the tumors can be.
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Hi, jenn., new to this group. I was dx with stage 3 breast ductal and lobular carcinoma in june, 3 days after my 38th bday. I have always had issues with anxiety as well. I take Effexor XR 150mg. Used to be 75 but with the dx of breast cancer, my doctor increased it. I love it. It keeps me calm and not so easy to jump off the handle! I also take ativan at bedtime. (Sleep issues)
Ykyacpw--when your dad has more hair then u (he started going bald in his 20's) got a picture side by side.
Ykyacpw--you look forward to tasting food again since your last treatment. Why gaining weight when you're not even eating. I eat a ton of grapes, cherries, cucumbers for the first 5 days after treatment. No chocolate, no chips, no sugar, no coffee!! Nothing that causes undue calories?? I don't get it!
People keep asking, How are you doing? You're such a strong person, to be going through this. I know they mean well, but I cry everytime I hear oh, how are you doing? I am an emotional person.
Jennifer0 -
Windlass, I had a pinched nerve in my neck that caused numbness & weakness in my arm. I had chiropractic treatments for it but it took a lot of sessions until I felt relief. The good thing was that, even though it took time, I was fine for over 10 years and even then I only had mild weakness problems occasionally. It's now almost 18 years and the only numbness I've had in my fingers was from Taxol (now, 2 1/2 years later better but not completely gone). For me the pinched nerve wasn't connected to BC.
Leah
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hi Jennifer, welcome to a great club that no one wanted to join. I don't mind if people ask how I'm doing but not when accompanied by that sad-eyed long-faced look of pity. I DO mind hearing "you're so strong" because I believe that means, "I'm so glad that I'm not you."
The weight gain could be from the steroids, ya know, the stuff they give athletes to bulk up. They give it to chemo patients to manage side effects.
I didn't worry about what I ate during chemo, just ate what tasted good and what settled my stomach. It took six months but I did lose the weight I'd gained from chemo. I started a walking program when I started chemo (six weeks post-bmx) and the exercise really helped. Tried to get out every day, even if all I did was walk slowly around the block.
Now I'm working on the fat that was there before.
In fact, it's time to go walk! {{hugs}}0 -
...when your 5 year old son finds the sissors and cuts his hair down to the scalp. Reason his 1/2" hair was too long. So we had to shave his head to 1/8". The next week he is upset he needs a haircut - REALLY it is only 1/8" long. He then asks why does his hair have to keep growing if mine isn't.
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