Australian Sisters

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  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Yup I'm excited!!.....lol......it's a whole week of happy things starting Wednesday with my birthday!!!! I will spend the morning with DH then I'll head to Clare for hydrotherapy and the straight to the city after that to spend the late afternoon and evening with DD's and grandchildren before heading to the airport on Thursday AM to get the flight to Brizzy. There I will be met by my niece that I haven't seen for almost four years!! I will spend a few hours with her before I meet up with Sue after she finishes work.

    It is all so exciting and wonderful!!! I'm happy to be like a kid waiting for Christmas!!!!! Yippeeeee!!!!!

  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 1,422
    edited December 2012

    Chrissy - got your bed made up yesterday and cleaned the upstairs bathroom - all ready for you to arrive. You won't beleive it - they scheduled a meeting ending at 4:30 on Thursday - but the good news is I can leave early at 4

  • vanstrada54
    vanstrada54 Member Posts: 66
    edited December 2012

    Trish I agree with your friends ! Stop the googling  and  enjoy your life  .   You have faith in your Dr   and  get your peace from that .  We all know  that  Cancer  is the uninvited that stays  and   refuses  to leave . So we kick it out of one room  and  it just finds another room  .  It is a cliche  but so true Life is so incredibly short  anyway  we are all searching for those things that  will give us  peace  and  hopefully  more    painfree time with our  precious loved ones . The girls that are having their free time in Brisbane  have a ball ! The rest of us that  can't be there physically we  will be with you   in the spirit !  I love the song  changing the title for me   I f we can't be with you  we will enjoy our time with the ones we are with  I am grateful I have found this   site .

  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Marie did you get my PM?



    No probs Sue I shall be waiting out front for whenever you finish....... My niece will drop me off with time to spare.



    Live n hugs all!!! Chrissy

  • vanstrada54
    vanstrada54 Member Posts: 66
    edited December 2012

    Chrisssy ? The one about Facebook ? Yes     and i think I found you  and have sent you  a add friend  !

  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 1,422
    edited December 2012

    Chrissy - I'll be there on time - I'm only consulting on that project, so I should have had my input out of the way by 4.

  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 1,661
    edited December 2012

    Hello everyone

    Well saw my gp yesterday and we are still trying to find a dr that can fit me in for a colonoscopy before Xmas!  I'll be ringing Cooma hospital this morning to see if they can do it.  Cooma is a small NSW country town only half an hour south of us, so it's a bit closer than the bigger Canberra hospitals.  I have private hospital cover so also trying the Canberra drs, but it seems everyone is full up before Xmas.

    My gp says it could be polyps, hemarroids or just a small tear, but he also said (and I didn't tell him I'd been googling) that it could be mets from the ILC.  He also didn't know my brother had had bowel cancer 2 years ago - the same time I was going through chemo.  Ooops - I forgot to tell him, lol I had a few too many things on my mind at the time.  He said he would have ordered a colonoscopy as soon as I was over chemo anyway as a sibling with bowel cancer has to be screened.

    So - just waiting until I can call the hospital in Cooma or call back one of the lovely ladies I spoke to in a Canberra practice yesterday to see where I'll go, and keeping my fingers crossed that it can be done before Xmas.  If (against all the odds) it turns out to be bowel cancer then it's very slow growing so a delay until after Xmas isn't so bad - except for my emotional well being. If it's mets then it would need to be seen to a bit quicker.  It's all very trying.  

    But I'm trying to focus on the good times we'll have this weekend and not let this get to me.  It will be what it is, and there's not a lot I can do to change anything at this point.  I'm actually feeling fairly good, which is a little surprising, not the emotional wreck I was on Thursday afternoon lol.

    Trish

    xoxox

  • vanstrada54
    vanstrada54 Member Posts: 66
    edited December 2012

    Hugs to Trish . 

  • Angela-R
    Angela-R Member Posts: 109
    edited December 2012

    Yes Trish. We are with you during this frustrating wait.

    We know the feeling of helplessness, of being at the mercy of others' timetables when this is our life!. but we also know the positive energy we get when we finally have a plan! i love a plan. the holiday timing sucks, but i will think of you often. Enjoy your family.

    Love Angela

  • Trisha-Anne
    Trisha-Anne Member Posts: 1,661
    edited December 2012

    The specialist here in Canberra has been absolutely wonderful and put me in for the colonoscopy Thursday of next week.  So that's a huge relief that it will be done before Christmas.

    Trish

    xoxo

  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Yay Trish!!! Now you can relax a little......hopefully!! I'm so glad the Canberra Specialist has been able to fit you in next week.



    Roll on the weekend!!!!



    Love n hugs. Chrissy

  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 523
    edited December 2012

    thats a relief trish. im sure youwill get good news and youll really enjoy christmas without worry. thewaiting is just awful though for you. big hugs fromme too. paul is home tonight for until as long as it takes to find another job as the project he was working on has finished and they dont have another one in the pipeworks. there wont be much anywhere until the new year so he will have a good break at home. looking forward to the weekend girls :)

  • Kazzie61
    Kazzie61 Member Posts: 418
    edited December 2012

    Great news Trisha.....as all the other girls have said, the waiting or not knowing is the worst..



    Kate....here's hoping hubby finds another job in the not too distant future :)

    I see the onc tonight & will find out then what time my chemo will be on Thursday, so I will let you know & if I'm up for it we can meet for a coffee....I have your mobile.



    Chrissy.......3 more sleeps....LOL



    Karen x

  • midnight1327
    midnight1327 Member Posts: 1,331
    edited December 2012

    Yay Trish, i am very happy they are are able to see you for that appointment b4 Christmas, now you have a good time away, try and put it in the back ground, easy said than done, just remember yr time with these ladies is precious and you won't get it back. As Chrissy said, we rob ourselves of the day when we worry too much, when i was  wondering if i mets in the brain and it was nothing, just probably tamoxifen AGAIN.

    Well i lock my self out of the house a si thought i had left keys inside, SILLY SILLY, i have  to have the keys to lock up anyway. i was going down the road to the lunch bar and the keys fell out of my pocket. well i just got ready to cross the road and there was a beep and they were alerting me i had a follower. little white cat BJ, she is deaf, i had to walk back with her and was going to lock her inside and found my keys were gone,  i climbed in window, surprised my self and found they were not in door on tuther side and i had to climb out window as i was locked in. GOSH what an egg i am, i finally found the keys  in the rabbit hutch as i shifted them b4 i went to shop. i never did make it back to get my lunch, had toast and salmon on it, hubby was surprised i got im ther window and even more surprised i climbed out again.  GEEZ WOMAN he says. you have to concentrate more.   lol what a day. oh well.

  • racy
    racy Member Posts: 976
    edited December 2012

    Praying for you Trish.



    (Your ILC was very small).

  • Kazzie61
    Kazzie61 Member Posts: 418
    edited December 2012

    Midnight.......thanks for the laugh....:)



    Karen x

  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Karen my time away starts tomorrow as I head for the city after my hydro. I celebrate my birthday with all the kidlings and then stay over at DD2's house before heading to the airport on Thursday so really it's only ONE MORE SLEEP!!!!!! Yippeeeee!!!!!!



    Midnight girl you had me kacking myself!!! So funny!!! I'm glad someone warned you that you were being followed.



    Just finished my lymph massage and grocery shopping for DH and am now enjoying a leisurely lunch and coffee while my packing list runs through my head........again.......lol.....I think I've got things organized but the back pack idea has flown the coup as my meds box took up too much room. I'm now back to a suitcase......oh well I guess I'll have some extra room in case of shopping.......hahahaha!!!!!



    Love n hugs all!! Chrissy

  • Jennt28
    Jennt28 Member Posts: 1,095
    edited December 2012

    Excellent news that they can fit you in next week Trish! All done nice and quickly and still well before Christmas :-)



    I'm going with the tear theory for you...



    Jenn

  • midnight1327
    midnight1327 Member Posts: 1,331
    edited December 2012

    lol that little cat always follows us and ifact you almost have to sneak out without her knowledge, and i did not see her b4 i left. she probably hid the little tart and thought ah ha i will sneak up when she does not realise i am there. trouble i have a very busy road to cross and would not trust the tart to cross it with me and get hit. she is very sociable and with all the other animals too. like the popular kid, what ever they are she will make friends with them. rabbit, dog what ever. her mother is  cat that is little handicaped physically. quite small, we surprised she had BJ. her name is bubba, and we named BJ after her as Bubba junior. to just BJ.  Bubba mostly blind and very deaf, hubby rescued her, she was almost dead and we nursed her to health. she is lovely.

  • vanstrada54
    vanstrada54 Member Posts: 66
    edited December 2012

    Being a very raw   newbie here  I read your posts  with  interest  and  it is incredibly sad  that you are   going through this  In the olden days    The spanish Inquisition seems to be a piece of cake in  comparison .. I have read your diagnosis   and would appreciate if you could help me understand  something .  Doesn't surgery take  away the cancer  ?  What exactly is   chemo /radiation./ and the likes for   if you  no longer have   the cancer in your body  ? I guess the oncologist  will  explain to this   muddled brain here tomorrow   but  asking  you tonight !

  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 1,422
    edited December 2012

    Vanstrada - After your surgery, you get a pathology report - this will detail the type of cancer you had and the size. They take some lymph nodes from under your arm, if any of these lymph nodes have cancer in them, then it's possible there are stray cancer cells in your body. Even if you have clean lymph nodes, you are still at risk of spread as cancer does not always spread via the lymph nodes. Positive lymph nodes indicate treatment with chemo to try and kill any stray cells.

    The pathology report will detail the characteristics of the cancer - in my case I was triple positive HER2+ve ER+ve and PR+ve - that means my cancer was receptive to hormones both progesterone and oestrogen. The HER2 reading indicates if the cancer overexpresses the HER2 gene - this is the nasty bit and even node negative women are recommmended to have chemo and herceptin. The report also details the stage and grade of the cancer. Grade 3 is the worst - that means the cancer reproduces faster. Grade 1 means it is slow growing.

    Stage 1 is the best - that is worked out by size and nodal involvement.

    If you are hormone recpetive, then you will probably be required to take a drug to stop your body producing those hormones. I take an aromatose inhibitor - this is given if you are past menopause. I will take it every day for 5 years.

    Having chemo can halve the chance of a distant recurrence. In my case I had a 23% chance of the cancer metastasizing elsewhere in the body -having chemo and the hormone drug halved that chance.

    I hope I have explained this in a way you can understand - any questions please ask.

    Sue

  • Kazzie61
    Kazzie61 Member Posts: 418
    edited December 2012

    Very well explained Sue....:)



    Karen x

  • vanstrada54
    vanstrada54 Member Posts: 66
    edited December 2012

    Thanks  Sue   for that .  It really does come down to the individual doesn't it ?   Thanks  for everything .

  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 523
    edited December 2012

    Hi Karen. Lets leave our meeting until a time where you really feel up to it? you dont know how your day will pan out and you dont need the extra pressure og meeting up. There will be other times, and in fact I can make the time on a non-work day to come up to Perth for the day and also maybe get in some decent retail therapy - so that could work out well for us both. I will be thinking of you especially on Thursday - I think you need to just surround yourself with your support crew a.k.a loved ones.



    We have our 'thank a volunteer' function tomorrow night and I just did all the shopping for it - I got everything and only 83cents over budget. I even managed to buy enought lollies and celophane wrap to make up 80 pretty lollie bags. Hopefully I havnt skimped on the dinks etc, my boss said there wasnt enough in the budget for pressies. Id better get cracking and start making them now. xxxxxx

  • suzieq60
    suzieq60 Member Posts: 1,422
    edited December 2012

    Vanstrada - given your age - close to mine when diagnosed, you are unlikely triple negative (I didn't talk about that type before) - seems to be a characteristic of cancer in younger women. This type is not so good as there are no targeted treatments. My oncologist was glad I was triple positive, as there are treatments for the HER2 factor and the hormone recpetive factor.

    Did you get your pathology report yet? If not, ask for a copy.

  • Kazzie61
    Kazzie61 Member Posts: 418
    edited December 2012

    Kate....no worries, being the first one I could be there quite awhile too.

    The nurse will be taking the dressing off my port & that will all need to be cleaned up before they can put the Emla patch on & then wait for it to kick in before I even get started on the chemo!! Could be a long day.....



    Suzie.......I'm triple negative & it bloody sucks.....it's defiantly the worst! Very aggressive & the only treatment available at this point is chemo.......hence my wonderful plans for Thursday!! I was 49 when diagnosed.



    Off to the Look Good Feel Better tomorrow ......hope it's as much fun as everyone says it is.......I need some cheering up :):)



    Chrissy......have a fabulous birthday & a wonderful catch up with the girls :)



    Karen x

  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 523
    edited December 2012

    karen, youll love the LGFB course and all the freebies thrown in. you already look such a pretty lady but even more so after tomorrow. pls keep us posted on how you are feeling after thursday. youre allowed to use the crap word, but lets hope that chemo round two is kinder to you. xxxx

  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Thanks Karen! You are very sweet to think if me when you are facing the chemo chair. Sure hope you enjoy your look good feel good session tomorrow!! Have a little fun with it and try some way out new stuff........surprise yourself!.....lol.



    Well I got a text from DD2 earlier this evening asking if I would be in town on the 16th. I said I would as it is my youngest GS's birthday the next day and I wouldn't miss that ......why? I got this message back saying



    Something 😃........you will just have to wait and see.



    Mmmm.......something fishy going on here I says to my self so I texted back and said that the 16th was also my 9th anniversary of my mastectomy did she remember?.......oh by the way, what are you girls cooking up?



    The answer?...... Well you'll just have to hang out with your girls on the 16th and wait until tomorrow.......,.



    Now I ask you, is that fair that your kids can do that to you??........lol......I always knew pay backs were a bitch!........hahahaha!



    Almost packed!! The finishing touches to go in in the morning and even though I'm tired I probably won't sleep tonight due to the excitement ............do we ever grow out of this stuff?!........mmmm ......maybe not!



    Love n hugs girls!!! Chrissy

  • Kate60
    Kate60 Member Posts: 523
    edited December 2012

    not packed! and not ready!!! but I'll be there Friday come what may!

  • chrissyb
    chrissyb Member Posts: 11,438
    edited December 2012

    Lol Kate!!