For Older People with Sense
Comments
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Wren, you're in my thoughts. This is such a frustrating path. Keep us updated on what happens.
Dragon
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Back from appt with BS. We agreed on MX on 2/22. She asked how I'd feel if the mastectomy didn't reveal any more cancer. I said I'd feel relieved, but would not regret making sure. She also ordered an MRI to see if the left breast is planning any surprises. The second (larger) tumor did not show up on the mammogram when we went back to look. I don't want recon, but may want a reduction on the other side so I wouldn't have to wear a bra all the time.
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Ihad a single mast with no recon 11 years ago... No regrets..only one tumor showed up on my mammo..there were 2.
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Wren, I had a single mastectomy eight years ago with no recon but if I were given the choice now I would go double as a single can and does cause skeletal problems as you are unbalanced. I'm still considering having the other one removed.
Love n hugs. Chrissy
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My Med Onc is a SCCA in Seattle. I hope all goes well for you. I was in the middle of moving when I was diagnosed so I went for a lumpectomy. I did that only because of the recovery time. I wish I had gone with a bi lateral as I have big breasts and worry about the other along with all the scar tissue in the lumpectomy side. I already had to have other pack the house so a difference of a few weeks wouldn't have mattered. It is just so hard when one is making critical decision under a timeline.
I wish you all the best as you make your choices and move forward.
Ginger
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Happy Saturday, everyone! I wish you all happy thoughts today, friends.
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Hppy Saturday back at 'cha Lulubee! Hope everyone is having a relaxing weekend. Except it is Sunday in Aus, I think, Chrissy?
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I'm jumping in here after weeks away. I'm about 20 pages behind with no time to catch up. Wren - don't know the history re your diagnosis. I had an MX 17 years ago with an attempt at immediate reconstruction (with an implant) and a breast reduction to try to achieve symmetry. The recon didn't work out. I lived lopsided until this past summer when I had a propholactic MX. There's no way I was ready to make this decision 17 years ago. All I wanted then was my breast back and I thought that was what recon would do. But, I was just so tired of being lopsided and worrying that the cancer would show up in the other breast, I decided to let the other one go. Pathology report was clear, which gave me a sense of relief I never expected. I have no regrets. I only wear my foobs to work and some days I don't even do that. I'm so much more comfortable, in my own skin, flat chested than I ever was lopsided.
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Wren, best of luck with your surgery. I also had a single mast in Nov 2008. Unlike Chrissy I didn't end up with any skeletal problems but since I'm an AA there's not enough weight difference to throw things off-balance. Pathology after my mast said 223 grams. I'm hoping to do a prophy mast and recon (not sure when) not for symmetry but to ease my mind.
Leah
edited for typos. Again.
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Hauntie, nice to see you back. Glad you did the prophy mast...it's so much better than being lopsided. Hope you're getting over it alright. Being evenly flat is reasonably easy to cover up with a baggy shirt. I have just got used to being this way ...I only put the foobs on if I am going out .
Wren, good luck with your upcoming surgery, I don't think you'll regret your decision.
Isabella.
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Wren, I think you made a good decision. Like Ginger went with a lumpectomy because I was looking after my dad and my aunt at the time. I wish I could have gone ahead with the mastectomy, because this living 6 months at a time between mammos is nerve-wracking.
Barbe, thinking of you for Monday and prayers being sent!
Kathy
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wren: i'll chime in: i was dxed with a large, fast growing tumor bc; that turned out in surgery to be two smaller tumors, better prognosis.. i settled for a phrpho on the left; and that also, ended up questionable cancer..
i hate the hoopla with the bilateral, no recon.. the sides are caved in; they ended uo doing a radical, which they told me hardly EVER id sone anymore.. but, like isabella, i go flat most times, except when i go out..I kept "rethinking" it for awhile, but know, without a doubr, i made the right decsion for me.. i wish you well whatever it ends up you decide........3jays
i
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I did both sides and never looked back. It was my fourth biopsy over the years (both breasts!) and I told the surgeon if it was cancer I'd have a double mast. I did try a lumpectomy first, but that was what showed the cancer and dirty margins. "Take them off!" I said and haven't looked back since.
I wear what I want and have even worn TIGHT tops to work!! I consider it a badge of courage to walk around with visible proof that I am winning this battle. I don't get many stupid comments from people saying "it's all over" as it's obvious it isn't!!
The weight loss of my heavy breasts (I'd even had a reduction years ago!) helped my skeletal system SO much!! I walk taller and better without the weight, too.
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barbe: Good for you. I think I will do the same thing if this monster ever comes back on me. My biggest frustration was navigating through all the treatment options and trying to decide what was best for me, and it was never what the doctors thought was best! My boobs aren't all that big and now they look like popped balloons since I went off all the HRT, so who needs them!
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3jays...I got a double radical...I have no idea why, it was just what the surgeon said he did. He must have been old fashioned, as I've read also, that they are hardly ever done nowadays.
Barbe, I just would not have had your nerve wearing a tight top, boob-less ! I still won't answer the door unless I can see who is standing on my doorstep, and it's coming up to nine years for me soon. I don't bother when the family are around , but just now and then someone says something about boobs, in conversation, and there's a deathly hush !!! They look at me awkwardly and I, very quickly, have to think of something to diffuse things.
I have upped my sweater for the older granddaughters, to scare them into keeping check on themselves when I am not around anymore, but I would NEVER ever do this for the grandsons !! DD has not looked, she wouldn't...
Isabella.
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Isabella....LOL...you are a character...I could just see my DGM doing this if she had ever had a double MX. She used to try to scare us all the time about boys...telling us the awful things they did! She said if a boy ever put his hand on your knee, then the next thing was he would grab your breast. Boy...was I ever watchful after hearing that! No guy ever got to touch my knee until I was good and ready!
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My DGM's were of the generation that wouldn't even admit there is such a thing as sex--and one had 7 kids the other six. Mom told me that when she had her first period it was her sister-in-law that told her what was happening. She claimed she meant to tell me when I was about 14, She started at 16. When I was 12 we had "the movie" in girls health class. On the way back to the class room I stopped in the bathroom to go and then ran back to the health-PE teacher for help, cause it was happening.
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Perfect timing Chabba!
I don't know when my mother planned to tell me, but she had gotten some booklets for my older (by 2 years) sister. One was called "Now You Are 10" and I saw it in her room - I figured, Oh, I'm almost 10, and read it (not hard to persuade me, I read EVERYTHING). I was fascinated and read all the booklets she got her!
So I was prepared.
Leah
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My Mom never told me anything and then was surprised when I wanted to find out about it all in real life! Sheesh!!!
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In a VERY loud voice, I commented to my husband I had some book to hide from my boys (one I really wanted them to read about the "birds and the bees" and everything..) I told him I was putting it behind some books in our bookcase...you guessed it...
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My mother told me that I would get that once a month until I was about fifty and to go see my older sister and she would sort me out and give me the books to read. One was called 'What Sally, Mary and Kate did when they couldn't go swimming'........I still remember it after all these years.
My surgeon did a radical mastectomy as the largest of the tumors was very close to the chest wall. I remember at the time that I was dx'd, my DD1 and GS's were living with us and because I needed to go to hospital and of course have the op plus the chemo etc, etc, etc I wanted them to know what was going on. One was 6 the other 8. I just explained that Oma had a very sick boob and the doctor had to give me an operation and cut it off and I would be sick for awhile but then I'd be okay. The only comment I got was from the 6 year old and with all concern in his little face, he looked at me and said, 'but won't people laugh at you coz you only have one boob?' After much reassurance, I convinced him that that was not going to happen. When I woke from the anaesthetic and was returned to my room, my family was waiting for me and of course that same little GS wanted to know all about what went on in theatre and wanted to look at where the boob had been cut off so I obliged. His next comment was, 'so the doctor cut your boob off and just threw it in the bin'. After regaining my compsure because I laughed so hard, I had to agree that that was exactly what happened. His curiosity was assuaged so what came after was never a problem with either of them but on days when I was at my worst, and dozing in my chair, I would be aware of both of them 'checking' on me and very quietly either returning to the other room or just sitting down in the same room with a book so they could 'look after me'. They are now 14 and 16 and still 'checking' on me.
Lisa, that's what I used to do with my kids if I wanted them to read something.......lol.........tell them it was out of bounds and sure enough they would read it and I'd know from the things they said when I steared conversation to the topic.
Hauntie nice to see you! I've missed you! Good to hear that everything is going well for you. Please pop in more often just to say hi.
BarbA you are right, when you posted it was indeed Sunday but now it's Monday.....lol
Wren, good luck with your surgery and your final decision. I know it's hard but we are all here to support you through this whole mess.......whatever you need.
Barbe, your surgery for your thyroid is this week, yes? Good luck and I hope it goes well for you and your recovery is swift without any complications. Hoping that after recovery, you feel like a million dollars! Thinking of you.
Nancy, can't wait to see some of the pics you take from the ferry! Good luck with your treatments and I hope they treat you gently without too much fatigue.
Kaara, love the way your gran thought and the progression from knee to beast......lmao.
Isabella I really dislike it when others start to treat you differently because you had a mx or the conversation can't flow normally because they feel the subject of boobs is taboo. I make sure I laugh the lowdest when those sorts of conversations happen when I'm around just to let them know is all okay.
Leah, I love what your Rabbi said about control.....perfect!
3jays, any improvement in how you are feeling? ((((((((hugs)))))))) to you and Mur, tell him hi from me please.
Oh my gosh, I know I have missed people but if I keep going this post will take a whole page. For those who are going through treatment, I hope it is treating you gently and kicking cancers butt, for those who have finished treatment, I hope you are recovering well and looking forward to better days and for those who are well passed all of this but still come to the boards to help others, I really hope life is treating you well and you have joy in each day.
Love n hugs all. Chrissy
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In California, it is time for greenery...
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I'm the only girl with 4 DBs. My mother had all the books, she had just never given them to me. I wasn't even 11 1/2 when I got my first period. I had no idea what was happening. THEN, mom brings out all the books.
Things are going well with the PMX except for the stupid move I made a couple of weeks ago. I was sitting in my recliner eating dinner. It was couscous with chicken and vegetables and the bowl was hot. The bowl was touching my chest, which of course I couldn't feel. The next day in the shower, I noticed a blister on my chest. I had no idea how it got there until I remembered the hot bowl. The blister was a little smaller than a dime. I ended up with a pretty good (actually bad) 2nd degree burn. I had an MD apt 2 days later and she checked it out and gave me some silver something cream to smear on it. She told me not to break the blister, but it broke on its own.I'm keeping it smothered in the cream and a gauze bandage. It's right in line with my radiation tattoos, so the skin has received radiation. It's getting better, but this is probably going to take a while to heal. My skin is so sensitive that even the paper tape is leaving red marks. I now have this nickle sized round red mark with a white center, surrounded by white skin with red marks, from the tape, shooting out in all directions, in the middle of my chest. Kind of like my own personal bullseye.
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Awe Hauntie that's not good! but I guess there is a lesson learned but wow wha a way to learn it!
Lisa, fab pics as usual, the top one is overlooking a vineyard? Both, lovely, lovely, lovely.
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Chrissy, it is Leonese Winery in Temecula
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the vines don't get going for a while yet...
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I thought I recognised vines in the foreground.....lol.......the whole scene looks so manicured and the mountains in the back ground are stunning!
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well, you are right, some of the pruned vines are there..but no leaves on them yet..
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i was only 10 when i noticed a spot of blood on the stairs as i was going down to the bathroom. i figured i was dying so when back upstairs to bed. the standard book at that time was "Your a Young Woman Now".... believe me, my daughter knew at a very early age.
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