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Comments

  • TonLee
    TonLee Member Posts: 1,589

    Well said Lago.

    Of your list of 4...I may only really hit one...pesticides on food but if that were the cause, then everyone who eats would have cancer.

    I know we've discussed this before...but I really believe it is a "special" combination of triggers that happen individually in each of us that allows cancer to grow.  Stress, diet, environment, previous exposure to a viral agent, and genetics etc...

    I've known several full blown alcoholics in my life to believe for a second drinking CAUSES cancer for everyone or even a majority of drinkers.  Sure it may be one of the triggers, but pfft..... 

    Also being fat.  I dunno.  I've said this before.  For every one fat person I meet with cancer there are 10 athletes (non-scientific I know!).  I was in tx with a room full of lifetime athletes! And over half of America is fat....but not half of America has cancer.

    Could it be one of the triggers? 

    Sure.

    But maybe not for everyone.  Maybe not at all.

    Wouldn't it be fantastic if someday we had the technology to tell us our triggers (if that whole theory pans out)?  For example, they looked at my DNA and said, AHA!  Stress, a virus you contracted as a kid that damaged your DNA, estrogen, and this newly discovered cancer gene, all combined at the right time to create a warm comfy place for cancer to spread its tentacles and move in!

    I have this vision in my head....of a future when they take out all of our breast cancer samples and say, "OMG.  There it is!  How did we not see something so obvious?"

    Yeah.

    I'm holding my breaf.  Foot in Mouth

  • suegr8
    suegr8 Member Posts: 138

    www.lymphedivas.com

    My local business for ADP items (assistive device program in Ontario) used my prescription from MO for "LE prevention", phoned my insurance company, measured me and ordered my choice of 4 LE sleeve & gauntlet sets.  I was covered 100% for the order.

    I wear them like accessories while exercising & get lots of compliments. 

    cheers

  • arlenea
    arlenea Member Posts: 1,150

    Touche Lago and TonLee!  Good comments!!  Couldn't agree more.

    SpecialK - thanks for your comments.  I'm definitely asking about it and maybe before my next 3-month check up.

    Good luck PBrain.  I've heard you feel wonderful after the transfusion.

  • specialk
    specialk Member Posts: 9,257

    pbrain - sent you a PM

  • Shasha10
    Shasha10 Member Posts: 212

    Hi I'm new to this thread

    I'm seeing the oncologist Tuesday to set up for Chemo

    Had surgery Jan 22, 2013 and no nodes, tumor removed, clear margins.

    but the tumor had been very aggressive. grade 3 nad I'm triple pos.

    Someone said cold caps may prevent hair loss. Is that true?? How do you apply it?

    I know it sounds vain, but I'm freaked out about that. Do I cut it now?

    How do you prepare for this???

  • PatinMN
    PatinMN Member Posts: 784

    Hi Shasha10.  I'm sorry you have to be here, but you will find a lot of help and encouragement here.  Several of us who frequent this board have successfully used cold caps to save hair.  There is a very helpful thread called "Cold Cap Users Past and Present" under the "Help Me Get Through Treatment" forum.  If you're thinking about using cold caps, don't cut your hair!  The cold caps are doable and they work very well for many types of chemo, but it is an extra expense and not generally covered by insurance. 

  • DiZZyMom
    DiZZyMom Member Posts: 96

    cypher, that's what I had was taxotere. I get confused on all the names, they all have about three each! Thanks!

  • Shasha10
    Shasha10 Member Posts: 212

    Thank you very much

  • Bellanan
    Bellanan Member Posts: 25

    Just finished my last treatment on Monday. I am incredibly tired and nauseous. Is this just the accumulative effect? Anyone out ther experience this? I am so thankful I am done with Chemo, but jeeze! Enuf!! On to Rads in 3 weeks. Hope it is better on my body!

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    Regarding what causes cancer (one of my favorite OCD subjects) -

    I'm not sure if I posted it on this thread or not but I recently read a news story about four sisters who were all diagnosed with breast cancer.  Their mother had taken DES when she was pregnant with all four of them.  There is a fifth sister.  The mother did not take DES with that pregnancy.  That particular sister has not yet been diagnosed with breast cancer. 

    Here's a link in case anyone is interested.  And if this is a repeat of something I already posted here - apologies for being redudant: 

    4 Sisters Who Had Breast Cancer Sue Drug Maker, Blaming Mother’s Medication

    http://boston.cbslocal.com/2013/01/03/4-sisters-who-had-breast-cancer-sue-drugmaker-over-mothers-medication/

  • arlenea
    arlenea Member Posts: 1,150

    Lee:  Guess I can look it up but what is DES?

  • arlenea
    arlenea Member Posts: 1,150

    Nevermind, I looked it up!  :)

  • Bellanan
    Bellanan Member Posts: 25

    Kayb. I don't know how to drag myself to exercise. I'll get there, but I commend all of you who work and exercise thru TX! Maybe I am just old!! Haha. Thnx for support.

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    Bellanan, I'm sorry you're feeling under the weather but oh what a relief it must be to have those six (I'm assuming six?) treatments behind you.  Congratulations on that!

    ArleneA, I asked my mom if her doctor (family doctor back then) had given her any meds during her pregnancy (I'm an only child) and she insisted he had not.  She still despises this man (long weird story) and he was such a jerk that it wouldn't surprise me if he had prescribed something regardless of whether or not she needed it (I realize that this is disrespectful and the man has since passed away but her dislike of him and mine in support is well-warranted). 

    I also took provera way back when and I think that's been mentioned here as well but in the end - most of us will never know for certain what put the process in motion.  Just the other day I got the "you got breast cancer because you're a woman" line from a doctor (after I had mentioned my concerns about my former 'addiction' to Diet Mountain Dew - which has since been eliminated - brominated vegetable oil . . . just this week Pepsi announced that they were removing brominated vegetable oil from some of the Gatorade products but not from their Mountain Dew products - and as an aside, the campaign for the removal was started by a 15 year old girl!). 





  • TonLee
    TonLee Member Posts: 1,589

    LeeA,

    My husband lives on Mt Dew. 

    He doesn't have cancer.

    Surprised

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    (TonLee) Paranoia will destroy me!  Yell

  • Pbrain
    Pbrain Member Posts: 773

    Bellanan, you might be anemic.  I'm telling you, walking to the parking lot at my job made me huff and puff, and while I've never been thin, I've always been pretty athletic.  I'm no used to being this weak, and I was thinking it was my heart ventricles just being weirded out by Herceptin.  But nope, it is nothing that awful.  It is just pokey red blood cells.  I'm with you, walking my dog feels like running a marathon at this point (not that I ever ran a marathon....har!)

    Do you know your recent hemoglobin value?  I'm telling you, I feel like I live in high altitudes and I'm in Indiana!  But I have been watching my RBCs and hemoglobin online on my hospitals "my chart" file and it is just creeping down more and more.

    Sasha, welcome!  Do you know yet what your MO plans for chemo treatment?   One thing I learned was take the anti-emetics (no puke drugs) all the time.  Don't skimp.  I felt fine the first day after my first chemo and then was down for the count the next day.  I needed to learn to take pills when I feel I don't need them (proton pump inhibitors like Prilosec, or as Lago calls it, Prilosuck, anti-emetics, stool softeners, immodium, etc.)  Just take them even if you don't feel you need them and you'll do better than I did Foot in Mouth

  • Pbrain
    Pbrain Member Posts: 773

    K, for some reason, I just can't send PMs on this board anymore.  It could be a Mac vs. PC thing, but they used to work and now they don't...

    Confused.

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    I read this last summer and it's one of those articles that stuck in my head.  From the 2003 New England Journal of Medicine.  Talk about excessive!  Check out how much Ruby Red Squirt this man was consuming per day! 

    Bromoderma after Excessive Ingestion of Ruby Red Squirt

    We report a case of bromoderma from excessive ingestion of a soft drink. A 63-year-old man presented with a two-week history of tender, ulcerated, erythematous nodules on his hands and fingers. There was no history of recent travel or trauma. Skin biopsy revealed epidermal hyperplasia with sheets of intraepidermal and dermal neutrophils. Tissue culture was negative for microorganisms. The patient reported that he had been drinking 8 liters of Ruby Red Squirt daily for several months. Surprised

    http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM200305083481921

    Note, this post has nothing whatsoever to do with being triple positive (so sorry for the thread drift) but it contributed to my overall Diet Mt. Dew paranoia because I did drink quite a bit of it - also of note, the FDA apparently considers brominated vegetable oil "safe" and has had it on its interim list for a quite some time.  

    I just found the toxicity based on the amount of consumption to be -worthy. 

    http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Regulation/FDA-Brominated-vegetable-oil-BVO-is-safe-so-removing-its-interim-status-is-not-a-priority

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    I'm on a Mac and can send PMs. 

    I wonder if it's an iPad thing?  Fluff mentioned not seeing the toolbar above the reply box.  

    ETA:  No toolbar on an iPad (I'm on a first generation iPad) but I primarily post from a MacBookPro.

  • specialk
    specialk Member Posts: 9,257

    pbrain - I used to work in transfusion services and I PM'ed you to see if you wanted my transfusion rundown.  There may be no info in there you don't already know, but I thought I would offer.

  • DiZZyMom
    DiZZyMom Member Posts: 96

    Kudos to the 15 year old!

  • fluffqueen01
    fluffqueen01 Member Posts: 1,797

    Special K.....ok, I'll give Prolia a chance. BUT....the thinnest part of my hair is the top. The rest is reasonably thick, more so than last time. If it is going starts to thin, he better either put m on a different drug or back on tamoxifen. I don't have much extra up there.

  • LindaKR
    LindaKR Member Posts: 1,304

    LeeA - I noticed the neuropathy first in the areas that I'd had issues with because of nerve compression in my back, and the residual that I have is worse in those types of effected areas also.  I guess it goes for the weak nerves first Cool

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    Yep, I think so, LindaKR.

    Oh - and I've been meaning to comment on something.  I got one of those "potassium" cards as well a few weeks ago but just like back in college, I still can't inhale.  Smile  

  • LindaKR
    LindaKR Member Posts: 1,304

    Yikes - I guess I won't live that one down Laughing

  • LeeA
    LeeA Member Posts: 1,092

    Well, I didn't want to just come right out and use the real name so it's more a case of me trying to speak in code because even though it's legal in the state where I live - well, you know the rest!  I'm kind of nervous about it yet the integrative doctor said no problem as did my oncologist - which is all well and good other than that little Bill Clinton problem I've got.  One thing's for certain - I sure did drive carefully the day I went to get it!   

  • lago
    lago Member Posts: 11,653

    Have fun Lee!

  • ashla
    ashla Member Posts: 1,566

    Never occurred to me but it just might be a big help with multiple treatment SE's.

  • DiZZyMom
    DiZZyMom Member Posts: 96

    Is it normal to feel bloated day after chemo? I didn't eat much yesterday or today so far, but my normally looser jeans are feeling snug today. Is this from the steroids?