February 2012 Chemo
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Well, it has been over 40 some years worth! But hives are not fun to have, and they mean systemic involvement so off the usable list they come! LOL. Worst hives lasted for more than six weeks, covered my body, even the soles of my feet so that it hurt to stand. I needed a bunch of cortisone shots that time. Not to mention that people took one look and backed away, slowly! LOL you gotta laugh, or you'd be crying all the time, and I don't really like snot! LOL
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Sorry, I have several pages to catch up on reading. This is a quick post. I promise to get back on this weekend and add more.
Eye surgery went well. I actually coughed during it but no damage was done. Vision already improved.
I'm deeply worried. My dear friend from 1988 on, who lives in Florida, was found unresponsive in her home and is on life support. They don't expect her to make it. I am in shock and denial. It seems it was overdosing on prescription drugs that might be the cause. Not on purpose but by accident. I just spoke to her last Sunday and her daughter spoke to her Tuesday night but she was found Wednesday night. She's on a ventilator. Prayers, please, for my friend. I'll check in again later.
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Fldrmr, prayers for you and your friend.
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Fldreamer, Happy to hear your eye surgery went well--deeply sorry about your friend. You are both in my prayers.
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i have to respond to MLB here- i neglected it when last i posted--
maureen...and everyone--i find that i get quite angry when people ASSUME that they are protecting me from things like your family did to you and i certainly understand you being upset with them..and knowing what i do of you i can also understand you being the one who would rush to the side of the gal just dx...why do ppl think that we can't take the truth? we have gone thru hell to fight our cancer..we certainly can handle something like this...
ok- sorry...my rant !
flddrmr- so sorry to read of you friend and sending a prayer for her...
moon...you inspire me!
ok- now to me...i am very conecrned that i have been dropping things- at goodwill the other day i dropped something that broke (it wasn't secured in it's packjage and i turned it over to view the price) -( did i tell you this already?) they didn't make me buy it but that 's not the point--i walked over to the purses next and dropped one- and then paid for my stuff and left. yesterday, i was heating a cuppa coffee in the micro and reached in to bring it out and dropped it- coffee everywhere in the kitchen and none left in the cup (which did not break thankfully)--point is- is this neuropathy ? is it simply clumsiness? is it arimidex? i have always been sortof clumsy but never to the point of dropping--maybe clumsy isn't the right word- uncoordinated! i have noticed for about a year that i have trouble picking up say two cans of soup from the grocery cart if ya know what i mean...i write that off to beginnings of arthritis...anyhow-this dropping has me very concerned...
spent some glorious time outside yesterday raking leaves in the back yard- filled 4 huge paper sacks --need to get dressed and get back out there to finish-maybe 3-4 more to fill! the fresh air is wonderful--i could live in 65-70* weather all year- and would if i would go to hawaii like sweetie wants-but i am truly enjoying being here with my kids and grands--did i tell you that i got "Chrissy hugs" friday? my youngest is daniel christopher- we called him chris but friends have always called him dan--anyhow friday he texted that he was near my work and could i go to lunch? i couldn't but we met outside and talked a bit and i got the most awesome (and much needed by both of us) hugs! obviously that won't happen if i move to hawaii....i am a true believer in things happening for a reason and i believe that my damnedable cancer happened so that it would get me moved back here to be with my kids and grands....
ok- so--gotta get dressed and get those leaves raked before we get rain tomorrow.
hugs and prayers to all of you, my family!!!!
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Lumpynme and dltnhm, I am 39, stage IIb, grade 2, er/pr+, her2-, 1/11 nodes. Underwent BMX October 12th with expanders. I just noticed that the details of my diagnosis is not showing up on my posts, although I've completed all of that on my profile. Guess I will need to check my settings.
I work full-time in an office, so I sit in front of a computer all day. That is good and bad, because it is easy enough and not strenuous work, but I can see that dragging my butt to that desk chair everyday and keeping my head up could be troublesome. My boss is also such a high-energy person there is no resting while in the office. Luckily I have the option to telework, but only up to 3 days a week, which I will take full advantage of. I understand it is hard to know what the SE's will be like until I get there, but seems like I hear of few people that work full-time during chemo. Right now that is my biggest fear. I think the distraction will be good, but also don't want to compromise my health to get there.
I have two daughters, but my oldest is 18 and recently moved out. The other is just about 11, so pretty self-sufficient for the most part.
dltnhm, I live in Thornton, which if you recall or can picture is north of Denver.
Hildy910, so glad to hear that you snuck in a little skiing during chemo, as well as the running. That is something else I can hold onto and hope to not loose ALL of my fun factors this winter.
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Hello everyone. Surgery was a success! I'm still in hospital but hopefully going home tomorrow. Pretty sore but managing to get around a bit, the hardest and most painful is getting in and out of bed. Glad to have the dreaded TEs out but I'm now kind of flat chested (didn't have enough abdominal fat to completely fill the space made by the TEs). Oh well, I'm just so happy this is done and I'm on the road to recovery!
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Hello everyone. Surgery was a success! I'm still in hospital but hopefully going home tomorrow. Pretty sore but managing to get around a bit, the hardest and most painful is getting in and out of bed. Glad to have the dreaded TEs out but I'm now kind of flat chested (didn't have enough abdominal fat to completely fill the space made by the TEs). Oh well, I'm just so happy this is done and I'm on the road to recovery!
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Oh I am so behind!
Susan and Yvonne, so happy that you are feeling up to posting after your surgeries. Please take it easy and don't push yourselves too much.
skimommi, I worked full time through chemo. I had some severe fatigue on days 4 through 8 after each treatment, so I timed my chemo so two of those days fell on the weekend, and then I took the other two off. I learned fast to schedule those days off. I did apply for intermittent FMLA before I started chemo. Being that I had to take off on chemo day as well, that meant taking 3 days off every three weeks. I think I left work early a few times because I was very tired as well. I also have a sedentary job for the most part, and fortunately my boss and co-workers have been very flexible with me.
Margo - I definitely feel more clumsy since chemo but I am not dropping things. Walking and balance is my issue. That is odd and you might want to tell your onc just in case. That sounds very frustrating.
Karen - so glad your surgery went well! That's terrible news about your friend though! She will be in my prayers tonight.
moonflwr - I bet you are going to be real glad for the handicap parking placard this holiday season.
Hildy - rotten news about DH's job! Let us know how things work out.
This last week has been a Monday every day. We moved my mother in law to the nursing home I work at. I was so excited. But it has actually been a nightmare. Normally where I work, we do great, but we royally screwed up getting her pain meds from the pharmacy, so she went several hours without. Totally unacceptable, and I was in tears.
It is fixed now but I am still very, very angry. I will be working with our management team to figure out how this happened, and how to make sure it never happens again. But now I am paranoid about everything, I check on her about every 30 minutes, go through her chart in great detail...it is actually a huge distraction from getting my work done. Hopefully things will settle down this week and I can relax a little. On a positive note, I am enjoying seeing her so much more often, since she is just down the hall from my office.Wednesday is my last radiation treatment!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Christina, yay for almost done! Hurry up Wed! And things will settle down, and you will enjoy having her near.
Ymac, so glad the surgery went well.
Skimommy, I couldn't work so I can't help you with that.
If I missed you, I am sorry. To all much love.0 -
Christina -what a great milestone! Hopefully you can move on to better things now.
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Christina....ps.....You said this week has been a Monday everyday....hahaha....
I've always asked why there are more Mondays than Fridays......now I know.
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I'm home from the hospital!! Got home late afternoon yesterday and am happy to report that I'm feeling well. Of course I'm still sore - I have a cough which adds to the abdominal pain, but overall it's all tolerable/manageable. My mom has come to stay to help out - she's a former nurse so she's taking care of the drain management (thank goodness) and making sure I eat. My poor husband is trying to manage everything else - getting the kids to school and their activities, running any extra errands to pick up things I still need. But everyone is happy that I'm home - my kids hung out in my room with me all evening until bed time and were right back in to see me this morning.
I am so happy to have this over with - I hated the TEs so much and couldn't wait to have them removed. While I think I look like Frankenstein right now with all the scars and weirdly patched together body, I know that in the end, it will all look fine. And, when we were coming home yesterday and hit a few bumps in the road, I told my husband and daughter, knowing it was going to sound kind of funny to them, that it felt so good to feel MY OWN TISSUES jiggling - they both laughed at me and my daughter told me I was weird. Despite the hellacious 13 hour ordeal, I'm doing fine and my outlook is so fantastic. There will be a couple more surgeries in the coming months to tweak things but nothing as major as this one.
I just took my first full shower in way too many days and I plan to move around the house a bit today. Hopefully in a couple of days I'll venture outside for some walks as well.
Christina, so glad your having your last radiation tomorrow - YAY!!
Skimommy, I had 6 txs spaced 3 weeks apart. Had the tx on Thursdays so took Thursday and Friday off. Went back to work on Mondays, though there were a couple of times that I didn't make it. I work in a small office but my job entails doing many social events - the week after the chemo, I would just stick to my office and not do any events. But the next 2 weeks, I usually felt ok doing my job regularly. I didn't miss a lot of work but I can't say I was fully checked in all the time ( had pretty bad chemo brain!). I am very fortunate that I work for a great company and with great people who were all very understanding of what I was going through and gave me a lot of leeway to work the best I could. I did try to remain physically active but that just didn't spend up in the cards for me - tried to keep running but it so completely wiped me out after my second tx that the doctor nixed me continuing with it. At the end of the day, you will find what works for you - everyone's SEs are different so, as so many people told me as I was going thru it, let your body be your guide, it will inform you of what you're capable of enduring throughout your treatments. Good luck.!
And to all I may have not caught up with, big hugs and hope things are going well. Susan, especially looking forward to hearing from you soon!0 -
ymac. so you had the mastectomy before and this was to switch out to the implants?
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Susan, I had the BMX last year and tissue expanders placed in at that time. This recent surgery was to remove the TEs and do DIEP Flap reconstruction using my abdominal tissues to reconstruct new breast so no implants at all now.
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YMac,so pleased your doing ok, get lots of rest.
Gritgirl, how are you?
Christina, glad rads is over for you.
I worked Saturday morning then went to the wedding in the evening. I lasted 3 hours after two glasses of bubbly and 20 mins of dancing. I went to my room at 10 pm the others 3am.
It was great to see people but they do view and treat me differently.0 -
Yay for Ymac being home, and congrats to Christina for putting that daily rads plan in the rearview mirror!
Ali, I think I would have lasted about the same--the Tamox really makes me tired at the end of the day. It's a little annoying and I hope it wears off. Did you get a few, 'How ARE you?" with the big conerned facial expression?
So I should preface this by saying that my family has a fairly twisted sense of humor. But I texted my brother this morning saying, "Happy cancerversary to me!" He replied by saying, "2014 is the really big one; it'll be tumor years." I am still laughing.
Going in to see my BS today about scheduling a repeat performance, although not, I hope of anything more than the surgery!
Lumpy, did you check in with your onc about the dropsies? And Flrdrmer, thinking of you and your friend...
Edited b/c I completely screwed up my brother's terrible joke by writing 2012 instead of 2014....
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At my breast surgeon's ... 3D mammogram and appointment in just a bit.
Hugs to everyone this morning!!0 -
Good luck Dltnhm!
I just got back--car died on the way in, fortunately as I was getting gas at a full service station, and they replaced the batter right then and there. Thank goodness!
My BS completely understands my feelings and is happy to do the MX. Yay! She's going to speak to the radiologist who did my most recent mammo and ultrasound to see whether he wants a sentinel node biopsy or not. Would rather avoid if possible, since I already have LE on the other side...
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hildy...ughhh to the car troubles!
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3D mammogram - negative/normal :-) Hard to believe it's been a year since I was in for just an annual mammogram. Today it was really nice to hear 'normal' and see the pics. Had my onc appointment last week too. Now it's 3 months til next appointment. Just gotta get these tissues in my chest and arm stretched out and my complete range of motion back. Cost of rads. PT thinks I'm coming along and should be short-term with the exercises. Thinking upper arm definition is returning with all of them.
Hildy - car trouble stinks. Thankful you were right where it could be taken care of. Glad your doc supports your decision. That's what it's all about.
Christina - sorry about the mess up with your mom's meds. I can only imagine what you are going through trying to keep up with everything you do and caring for your mom too. Great to hear your rads are complete! Congrats!!
Ymac - hope you continue to have a smooth recovery. Stay ahead of the pain so you can relax and heal! I don't remember a lot of pain and think that's because I took my meds on schedule. It worked for me. You've been through a lot with the TEs and now this too. Keep drinking water and walk :-) You'll do great.
Susan - how is your recovery going? Are you staying ahead of the pain too? And drinking that water, water, water? Hope your family member is taking care of you and giving you some time to relax and heal.
Ali - sounds like you made the right choice to end the party early. Hope as more time passes that you will feel a little less 'treated differently'.0 -
Ymac
Glad to hear surgery went well. Had to laugh at the jiggly comment LOL!
Hildy
Negative and normal. Two quite fabulous words in our world.
Christine
Good thing your Mom has such a good caregiver in you at the residence! Happy for you to RADs complete now!
Firstcall
You continue to amaze! Finishing that race is a spectacular feat in itself nevermind all you've dealt with this year.
Skimommy
While everyone reacts differently to everything, I found that day 3 - 5 after TX was my downtime, day 3 being the most tired and fluish feeling. I work from home so that was a blessing but if there was a family function or social event that week I would leave it alone. The following week would be fine mind you. Basically I felt quite normal as the 3 weeks progressed then of course it was time to start all over again. I'm not the most physically fit person at all but walked most days which helped alot.
Hope I didn't miss anyone. I've been a little run ragged with now working full time although its from home so my commute is great! But I find it does end up being at least a 10 hour day, sometimes more because I'm usually trying to stay ahead of the game with still getting Herceptin and SYMA scans for my heart. They changed this weeks appointment to today vs Friday. I think I now have 5 or 6 to go yet, not sure, will double check today.
Update on my friend. I was mistaken, she's 4 years out but the news wasn't good. Its's been determined that she has mets in the nodes, sternum, bones and lungs via scans and they're doing biopsies to day to determine the course of TX. So hard to get my head around this! She was DX with DCIS and tested positive for the BRAC (not sure if I have the right acronym) so had a BMX (one was prophy), no Tamoxifen, no rads, no chemo. I have to assume she was triple neg but she says she doesn't know or remember what her ER/PR/HER status was and never saw her path report. Keep her in your prayers would you all.
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MLB, that must have been a huge shock for your friend to go from DCIS to mets--there must have been an invasive component in there some place, but hard to imagine how pathology missed it. I would be so angry were I her.
Have a surgery date of Dec 13. Bummed out at the thought of another holiday season gimping around with drains and so on, but that's the way it goes. Freaking out about my poor husband's job situation, but I am trying not to do so in front of him. We're waiting to hear that his father has taken a turn for the worse, that would just complete his craptastic situation. Son got in a fistfight at school yesterday. Car making funny noise, and I am just exhausted all the time. It's probably stress and depression, but I'm going to get my thyroid checked too.
I'm sorry for such a downer post. Just feeling very down, angry, sad and panicked.
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Oh hildy, I'm so sorry to hear of all the bad news!! Sending you a BIG HUG and prayers that things start to turn better. Just like me, I'm sure you can't wait for this shitty year to be over.
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Hildy, I'm with you and Ymac, come on 2013! I have had two horrible, no good, very bad years. Pretty much everyone on these boards had a year or two they wanted to see end. This is mine. Better luck next year, its not a wish, its a prayer! LOL
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Hildy
You're right, there had to be an invasive component in my friends pathology.
I'm in the same boat with this shitty year. Actually 2 years running but who's counting LOL! The Big C, DH and I about to split, Mum in a nursing home nearing the end. Jeez, it sounds like an old country song! Bring on 2013!
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This last year was pretty bad, last year sure was too,
Could have had a better one,not have to sing the blues.
Waiting for the next to come, need to start anew,
Can't wait to see the end of this, lest my song be blue!
20-13 hurry up, cannot wait for you,
Depends upon the Mayans, and,
If their curse is true!
Now all you need is someone to write the music with a wailing guitar! LOL0 -
Ah ha ha ha ha!
That was pure awesome, Moonflower!
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My friend lives in Florida. She was found unresponsive in her home last Sunday and has coded twice since then. They thought they would have to take her off life support. But she has rallied up and down.
I have been distraught all week. Cried a lot. Don't want to lose my friend, trying to be supportive to the daughter who lives in another state. And on top of this, my daughter had a biopsy on her thyroid last week due to a grape sized nodule and an MRI due to possible brain lesions. She won't have results till Monday and i'm trying to think positive but it's hard. This is the daughter who has had mental health and physical problems. I don't even care about my cancer right now. Too worried about everybody else. Basically, I'm kind of ok except still fighting bronchitis....for an entire month now. Doctor said it needs to run its course! sigh.
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Fldrmr, boy do you have a lot going on. I'd be in a padded room by now. You, your daughter, your friend and her daughter are all in my prayers. (((Hugs))) much love.
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