Australian Sisters
Comments
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Another radio down, only 22 more to go! It 'only' took 4.5hrs today, but the lady bus driver was a bit of a leadfoot (scary).
Jenn, we have little lockers with our names for our gowns and cloth, and they organise the appts for the bus people so there is no waiting.
Yes, it sure is cold. Keeping the fire going all night. The down quilt sounds great but having hot flushes and spending half the night with my feet stuck out of the covers!
Well done all on the weight loss, you are all giving me future hope. x
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Ah goose feather quilts. I'm onto my second one. The first one was used by certain unnamed dogs in a game of tug-o-war when we (well that would be me) accidently forgot to shut our bedroom door when we went to work. Although it was infuriating because of the cost of them (yep, not cheap) I don't think I have ever laughed so hard in my life. I mean there were feathers floating right down the hall way and out the back door. You can imagine the dogs. They looked like abominable snowmen. The offending dog was frantic to gain our approval so was jumping up on the bed to try to interact with us, and everytime she moved, whoosh, up would go mini volcanoes of feathers out of all the holes! It took days to get rid of all the feathers and even a week later I was still plucking them out of my hair, despite washing and brushing it daily.
As it was the best ever quilt we'd ever had I went and got another one the next day. Luckily it was during the sales so I got it half price. I always remember to shut the door now
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Hi ladies. You got me curious so I googled goose down quilts and found Pillow Talk having a sale. db $169, kb 229 so I think I will be trundling along to the one near me and getting one in the next few days. Thanks for the tip, its freezing here at present
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You won't be sorry Lyndal. The are so light but toasty warm
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hello Ladies, hope everybody ok. i got my results back from repeat mamo and i can breath again, everything appears ok for now. there was a time there a couple of weeks ago they thought i had calcifications in r breast and it prooved to be not the case. so i guess its just follow up mamograms and appointments. its very hard to get hold of anyone in the oncology team. so i will take that i am discharged. i was supposed to have six month checks on everything, but they appear to have gone by the wayside. i got at my diagnosis, we will take care of you and check on you six months like a warrent of fittness thing, still waiting. oh well guess they will be in touch.
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OH Midnight, that is the BEST news. I'm so happy for you and you must feel so relieved. Yep, time to put it on the back-burner and just do your check-ups as normal. xxx
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Woohoo Midnight! That's great news! Time to live life to the fullest and just do the check ups as Kate says. That's the kind of news we all like to hear!
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Congratz midnight. Only thing, if Im following your story correctly, keep contacting the onc dept till you have a firm appointment for the 6 months checkup. Dont let yourself slip through the cracks. I know Im still on 6 monthly checkups and before I leave from each appointment, they issue me with the next appointment date. Last I heard, its 6 monthly for at least 5 years with both the onc and the BS so Im seeing one of them every 3 months which is safer and makes a hell of a lot more sense than seeing them both at the same time every 6 months lol.
Jenn I hope your having a better day today and enjoying the gym. Your dedication amazes me, even now I couldnt be bothered to take off to the gym, even though I probably should.0 -
Midnight you should be having checkups every six months for 5 years. You must jump up and dept until they do so something. I get sent time and date about a month prior to appt. As you have just had a mammo you should see them again in six months been time. If you had been discharged they would have told you. Like Lyndal I have been seeing BS and oncs six monthly, from now on it will be yearly but means I still see some-one every six months.
Trisha well done with the weight loss, I will have to get back on track from Friday as there has been no way I could have control over food this week.
I head home tomorrow. Do hope its warmer as it has been extremely cold in Nelson -today was freezing literally.
Big hugs
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Aly have a good trip home and do stay warm.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Hi girls, yes i will keep up the appointments, i will try and get hold of the oncology nurse, well the Breast cancer nurse, but she is a hard one to get hold of, either she is out, or she is not avaiable and she does not call back. i will get in touch again, i am not a confronter, i donot like to bother them, but hey this is my life, so i will just have be assertive and make sure i don't fall thru the cracks.
Alyson, the docs are sending out my pathology form, funny thing is i asked her what my cancer status was, like to check up so i was not telling you the wrong details, re herceptin, and i said, does it say i am her2positive and she replied, what does that mean?, and i told her and she said, oh yea, hang on, yes her2+ she said, it was a invasive ductal carcinoma grade 3. this is the GP nurse i am talking about, and i think she did not know or could not understand the form. she is the nurse. i was quite dumbfounded at her lack of knowledge, anyway she sending me the form.
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Midnight, it's always a good practice to ask for and get a copy of all of your path reports even for your regular blood tests. I have been doing this for years and my GP now has it ready for me when I go to see him. Even the BS is catching on and usually gets his receptionist to copy them for me at the end of an appointment.
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Probably a bit late to tell you all, 8:07pm, but you ladies might enjoy Mrs Browns Boys on 7 at 9pm!
You need to be quite broadminded, if you know what I mean, to watch it, but I hope some of you, as I surely will, get a good belly laugh out of it.
Sheila.
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Congratulations on your weight loss Trish. It wouldn't be easy to lose as much as you have. I hope you get to your goal and sustain it. You will feel extra good about your appearance and health.
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We're home!!!! The first dozen wine was waiting for us - 5 to go I think
Spent the morning cuddling baby Nicholas - will post a pic when I get around to it - for the moment washing is the priority and it's raining!!
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Lyndal, the treadmill isn't at a gym - it's about 3 steps from my bed in our large bedroom :-) Tony bought it online second hand - $2000 original price for $350 :-)
I am copying here what I wrote in the Jan chemo group just now. I don't have the emotional energy to write it again. Crap day today and life just seems to keep getting crappier...
2nd day of rads today for me and the bad news is that my skin is already feeling really sensitive. I have marker clips left in my breast by the BS to mark the tumour bed and I can actually feel needle like pain where they are. Oh, and I met with the RO today and finally got to see my plan. She said only 8% of my lung volume is in the field and she was really happy about that but on the picture it looked big to me - it wasn't till I was walking back to my car I realised that's because 8% of total lung volume actually means 16% of my right lung is being damaged!!!!!! So not happy...
Went for 3 month ultrasound follow-up also this morning for a paraovarian cyst that showed up back in March. According to the report it hasn't gotten any bigger but the report now says that the 1.8mm nodule in the cyst is a mural nodule. Dr Google tells me that could be a significant indicator for ovarian cancer! My gynae was already favouring an oopherectomy (although my MO is NOT in favour) so I can just see that at my appt next Friday we will be talking timing for that. July and early August is written off with rads so I guess Sep/Oct...
I have just enrolled back into my uni course for the July-Nov semester, and my mother lives in New Zealand and isn't well and I need to at least fly over there for a weekend after rads. Plus I work full time as you all know and have already taken so much leave during chemo... I work on rolling annual contracts - I am wondering why anyone would keep me since I'm taking so much time off.
I feel so broken tonight. I apologised to my hubby for him getting stuck with such a defective wife...
Jenn0 -
((((((Jenn)))))) - things will get better sweetie
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Jenn I know at this time you cannot see an end to feeling crappy and it seems like you deal with one thing and another crops up. It will not always be that way. Your job has to make allowances for your illness and give you all the time you need to get your treatments etc.......you did not ask to be affected by cancer and given a choice would not have chosen to have it. Never give up and never give in just live day to day as that right now is all you can cope with.
Large gentle (((((((hugs))))))) and a large shoulder when you need it.
Love n more hugs. Chrissy
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hi boobytrap
when you say young how young are the ladies there? i have heard about one but most of them are all married with kids 30+ (could be wrong but thats what ive heard). I do go to one through BCNA website but all of the ladies there are older but its a good group despite that. Have done the encore program for the first time (finished that a few weeks ago).
thanks for the welcomes everyone! depending on what my PS says i will be having some version of the tram flap or the lat dorsi flap. he says it will look closer to natural than having an implant although i did hear some people had the lat dorsi and an implant also. i would rather avoid the constant inflation that you need with implants. Chrissy my surgeon is at the RAH where is yours? mine is Dr Kollias he is apparently one of the best surgeons in adelaide so I feel very lucky. not looking forward to going on the waiting list for surgery.
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Melp I went private for mine and had and still have Mr Robert Parkyn. I was treated at St Andrews but I haven't had recon........long story but that is the way it is. Hope you don't have to wait too long for yours but I have heard that recon for cancer patients go to the top of the list. Assuming that is right it shouldn't be too long.
I think I'm the oldest of our little group at 61 and heading for 62.........but that's yearsyoung not old........lol
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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Chrissy, I'm 61 too. I turn 62 in November. I had my family late so might seem to be younger. My youngest turns 20 in a few weeks.
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Joy you are about a month older than I......lol......my birthday is 5th December. My youngest is 39 and my eldest is 42. I will have been married 43 years on the 12th July.......I have always been called the child bride.......lol......I was only 16 when I met my DH and he was 21. We convinced my parents that marrying him was indeed what I wanted and so we were married on his 22nd birthday and I was 17. Still with him so it must have been right.
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I'm exactly a week older than you Chrissy. Oh well, that's close enough so I won't feel too old. My eldest is 24. I only have the two though there was another boy in the middle who didn't survive birth. It seems our reproductive functions can be troublesome for so many reasons.
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My two surviving children are girls but my son who was the youngest died at age 23 but he left a little bit of himself in my youngest GS. He was only 8 months old when his dad died so we now get lots of questions about him as his son tries to get to know his dad.
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That must have hurt so bad. That was young for him to have a child, you must love your GS to bits. I always told myself that my baby may have been ill and suffered had he survived, so it was the kindest thing to leave when he did.
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Joy it was hard in the beginning but that was almost thirteen years ago. I have had a lot of time for the hurt to diminish and yes my GS is wonderful. The older he gets the more like my son he looks although there is enough of his mum to temper that so it doesn't hurt everytime I look at him. When I was doing the clear out, I put a trunk full of gear away for his son so when it is time and I mean he is old enough to really appreciate the things, I will pass them on. He will turn 14 the week before Christmas but he has Asperges and in some ways is a very young almost 14 year old. If I'm not around when he is responsible, I have left instructions with my eldest daughter on what I want done.
No matter at what age we lose children it's always hard to say good bye and it's only time that makes the acceptance easier.
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Oh Jenn, feeling for you. Yes it really does seem one thing after another with this crappy disease. Sending you big (((hugs))) And you aren't defective! And I'm sure your DH told you that, we are all special ladies, after what we've been through. One of life's really tough learning experiences that I'd rather have not had, but it all adds up and makes us stronger, more resiliant and .. well ... just special :-)
Chrissy - I remember you saying your DS had passed away, it's so lovely that his son can give you joy.
Midnight - great news for you - and yes - you need to make sure you stay in their radar and get the checkups. Maybe they are busy - but they should never be too busy to make time for appointments for follow ups on cancer patients.
I turn 55 in August, but don't have kids (unfortunately) just two four legged boys who I love more than anything :-)
Lyndal - don't forget if you get a quilt - make sure it's goose down and not goose feather - much warmer.
Kate - I laughed and laughed at your story about the dogs with the quilt. We have to buy cheap cushions for the sofa, otherwise if both of us are out and they are left alone we come home to cushion padding strewn around the loungeroom floor. Nowhere near as bad as feathers though. That would have been funny and OMG at the same time
Trish
xoxo
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Hi Chrissy, yes i will start asking for copies of reports, i never have really thought about asking. til the girls on the kiwi sight said, why didn't i get one, well don't know, they never offered me any. and i really did not know the questions to ask about things like that. I got a terrible chest infection after my surgery and when i went to see the oncology radiation doc, i was coughing so much and hubby asked all the questions but did not know what to ask either when i came to what we can have. BIL is a pain in the bum, but he is also a micro biologist PHD and able to comprehend some of what it would of said. on his good days, he is quite caring and often asked my hubby, who is managing her care as there i not enough info been given to you. so there you are. i learn heaps on here.
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Hi Girls, this is just a general queation really, for any mets to show up like the lungs, liver, or bones, does it have to show up in the breast first for them to do further assessment , like recurrance, will it show in the breast or can it already be present in other places and not show in breast. could you get symptons of mets without it been a recurrence first in breast? as they say, recurence in the bones or liver is not bone or liver cancer, but breast cancer that mastised to those places. was just reading somebodys thread and thought about it. she had bad coughing and chest pain etc and she was thinking it had gone to her lungs, but their was no recurrance in breast, just wondering really. will it still show in your breast or can it go straight into other areas and be nothing in breast yet come from there in first place.? i hope you are getting my drift here, its about three questions here, trying to word so no confusion of what i am asking?
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Hi Midnight. My understanding is that it goes elsewhere and not back in the breast once it becomes a secondary cancer (metastis). Probably why there is so much concern if the lymph nodes are affected because that indicates that it might have left the breast and travelled elsewhere. But thats not a medical opionion, just what I've been led to believe.
Mel I'm 51. I getta laugh when Dr's say I'm still young for this crap. I can only imagine how you must feel being so very young and having to deal with it all.
Trish, are your furkids Border Collies or Rough, I can't remember. I think it must be something in the genes, my BC's have chewed or torn an entire sofa of cushions, let alone the nice scatter cushions. This was in canberra and we had a big open plan house, so couldn't really block them from the family room - and we had to let them have access inside as they wouldn't bark so much when we were away if they were inside. We even got an doggy-whisperer to come and although he said the dogs looked to us as 'top-dog' when we were home, and therefore very obediant, when we were gone that was another matter. We tried all his suggestions re the cushion chewing but apart from putting all the cushions up out of reach, nothing worked. We had to catch them in the act for any punishment to be effective and for them to learn not to do it and of course we were never home to see it. They sure as heck never put a foot wrong when we were around.
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