The Hermit Club
Comments
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Liver and lungs all ok, lovely technician who looked at my pancreas too.....all shows as normal...
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Woop=Woop Lily.
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Lily- such good news everything looks clear on all your films and scans! Congrats and big sigh of relief!
Skittle- I found yet another thing to help the sore feet with the Ais. I got this massage ball from a company called Giam and roll it on my feet before I get out of bed in the morning (and any time I am home). It helps to loosen things up, less pain when walking. Only $15! Here is the link:
http://www.gaiam.com/trigger-point-massage-ball/05-60558.html?start=8&cgid=5010000
I had a great visit with my first set of cousins who came through the area this week. Tomorrow night is a friend from back east who is in town will be coming to hang out.
Cami- I hope you are doing okay this week. You are right it has been quiet here lately, so I thought I needed to pop in and say hi!
Blessings to all the to other hermits out there.
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hated homework for the kids and when I was in school, figured I leaned enough, lol and for the kids it is more problems for the parents trying for the most part getting them to do it.
Yay Lily!!
Jazzy aren't you tired, you have been entertaining all week....
Cammie, how ya doin?
Went to the MO yesterday and him and the lung dr. want me to go to a thorastic surgeon for him to check out the lung to see what the problem is and how come I can't breathe cause they can't figure it out. don't know if there is more fluid in there they don't want to wait, they want to take a biospy but I have to go to the lung dr. tomorrow so I will find out more and who they are referring me to....I just want to be able to breathe without the use of oxygen and wonder if that will ever happen....thanks for caring
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Hi Hermits,
Its been a cool muggy day. Slept horrible again last night, I really just need to take my sleep meds. I keep thinking I don't need them.
Lilly girl, way to go with the good news!! I went for my mri yesterday, waited 45 mins only to be told I couldn't go through with it, cuz of the tissue expanders. Good thing I am getting my implants soon, then I can have it done. Hopefully the lesion on my liver is just a hemanginoma (sp)
Had my psych appt today...is hard talking to a male Doc, but he seems pretty nice. He doesn't give me a lot of advice or any "home work"....he just said I need time to heal and let my anxiety ease up, not to mention my chemo brain. Idk...seems like I am just a different person now.
Blondie, it is so good to hear from you. Sounds like your Doc(s) are pretty attentive eh?I hope the surgeon has some answers for you......
Has anyone heard if those good feet inserts work? Don't know if you tried them Skittle.
Well it's an hour before DH wakes up, going to get supper started. Have a good night....
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Camille, thank you for the deeply kind words. (Teachers don't hear them often.) I hope Joey likes his teachers. It seems a major obstacle these days. As a whole, there's no respect and no love of learning. It's all tech and text and Miley Cyrus/slasher video games mentality. Scary future.
Jazzy, thank you for the link! I'll definitely look into it. (Have tried Ruth's raisins, Claritin, and Topricin... so far, no change.) You are so active--I guess I should try yoga again. (So little patience at this point, sorry to say.)
Lily, Yay!!! So happy for you.
Lori, Hope you can get some sleep. Have you tried melatonin? Worked great for me years ago. I tried inserts... no results.
Teka, Florida??? Color me an envious green. Hope you have a great time.
blondie, best wishes to find relief. Hoping you can breathe well soon. Maybe some dr will have that ah-ha moment and solve the troubles. Good luck tomorrow.
Happy Friday, all! Will be off to the doxie derby. :-)
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Hi everyone---Still floopy but I have to check in with all of u.
Blondie (((prayers))) for this Dr. to find good answers for u.
Lori don't feel bad about how u feel, u'll level off somewhere, and if u'r not quite the same so what --everyone wi have a new person to get to know--let them get used to you. There's lots of healing with all this crap.
Teka oh I'm glad u'r on a mini vacation, it sounds good just to get away--enjoy.
Skittle I really only say how I feel, and I;m always right.
Jazzy I love u'r ideas, that ball thing sounds clever actually, it would give u'r feet to activate muscles.
OK TTYL
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Blondie- oh yes I am tired between work, company, and some home repair stuff going on (got another contractor coming tomorrow). I get to work at home tomorrow and then have visitor number 2 coming over (friend from NJ) and our evening should be low key. I hope to have some recharge time this weekend at some point.
I really do hope the thoracic surgeon can help determine what the root cause of the breathing issues may be. Getting off the oxygen will help you in so many ways.
Teka- how cool you are doing the train trip to FL and sorry to hear about that terrible accident. My cousins that were just here are doing a 3 week train trip around the country and were on their way back home to D.C. They love traveling by train and you sound very up on this trip! Enjoy!
Skittle- the yoga does help the joint stiffness in general. The feet are their own "final frontier" and the worse of the SEs from the arimidex. I keep trying things in the attempt to deal with the problems. I have accepted my feet are going to hurt with this med and trying to manage it so I can get around. I certainly walk like an old lady now.
Lori- I definately feel the same way as you do about not being the same after this on any level. The SEs make us different but the whole experience changes you. In some ways, I don't think that is a bad thing either.
On another subject, we have a freeze warning for tomorrow night as a cold front moves through. I also find my new lower carb diet to manage the blood sugar issues is working and have lost 4 pounds the past few weeks (7 total in the past month). Being very disciplined.
Hope everyone has a good weekend. Balloon fiesta starting and will post pictures of that if you want to see some cool special shape balloons?
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THank you all.....on the subject of exercise
I thought I did not do much but yesterday took dogs for one hour walk and at end of day had done 12000 steps.......
Emotions - my therapy seems to consist of me being told its all about finding a new identity and for me to talk as i amble through all of that, big problem is I dont want to find a new identity I want my old self back!!! I was happy as a normal person, now every day is such bloody HARD work emotionally, from the minute I get up to every situation i go into, can people see, oops I bent down, did anyone see my feet through my top......can anyone see at that angle, oh no i leant in to a mirror etc etc.......sometimes I forget and then it hits me like a wave..........all this stuff takes energy of course......
Blondie - is it possible your lungs were damaged by radiotherapy? I knnow whjat its like to be so tight you cannot breathe and its exhausting struggling to get enough oxygen, there MUST be an answer somewhere.
Sorry I cant reply to everyone personally, my head is fuzzy today, too much going on...xxx
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jazzy...love the picture.....0 -
That's why u'r called Jazzy0
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Cami- actually I play jazz music! Not regularly but when I can. Been in a salsa band at one point. I love all things jazz!
Cold here today, big winds out west today.0 -
cami....paralegal? What kind of instrument you play jazzy?0 -
Lori- violin, flute, soprano and alto saxes. I was classically trained on the flute and violin in my youth, and picked up the saxs in my 30s and now do all jazz and salsa related playing with all instruments. Have not been playing since before the bc though. Trying to get back into it. Everything takes awhile to get back to.
I have been getting out to listen to jazz here as the concerts come up I want to get to. Went to one last week that was great and going to one in Santa Fe in a couple more weeks. That seems to be best for now.
The cleaning people here today asked me if I just moved? I tend to have areas with piles that never have gotten attention since everything hit last year. They are a new team, so they thought maybe I was a new resident in my home. I said "no, I have lived here for almost 10 years, I am just busy and a slob!" We all laughed. Well, I don't have to tell any of you how hard it is to keep up with things anymore!0 -
Oh Jazzy u r so disciplined--How thrilling t to play so many instruments. Oh I always like Jazz from yrs ago. A man I dated for yrs loved play jazz (piano) like u he was classically trained, but on Sundays he had a baby grand piano and I'd lay on the couch and request the old standards and he'd just play and play and I enjoyed that time so much--My kids were young and he has a young boy and they played in the pay room and they wer happy and so was I. Oh u have to start doing this again, it's like therapeutic. Well it would be for me.0
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hey everyone. i am not playing at all yet. it is hard to be a hermit , i guess i start feeling bad if i dont make myself try and get out and do something with someone, and its usually fun. bet then i get mad at myself for not staying home and getting some writing or art done. when i go out, it is an errand mostly, and when i stay home it is for chores. or laziness. what is wrong with me! why cant i allow myself to do those things that are supposed to make me happy, or used to make me happy? like, why do i say i am an artist when i am not doing any? and this was way before bc. just working, and keeping a house used up most of my time. this week my boyfriends friend was in town. he has started going to my treatment center cause he might have cll. so, i have known him for 15 years, and he is not easy. he is really smart but hard to get along with, and thinks he knows better. i do like him cause he has been fiercely loyal to my man, but we are both so relieved when he goes. so now, my boyfriend has a headache and neither of us can sleep. i was looking at my still hands, and they started looking dead. and i told myself to get over here and write about it cuase there is plenty of time to be dead later. whoa. jazzygirl, thats pretty cool that you play. do you sing, too? anyway good night to all, youve no idea, what it means to me when i close my eyes at night and imagine us all safe in our beds, for now.0 -
Good Morning hermiys
I hope u' all are having a decent day, and it's Sat. so relax.
Skittle I have a question from Joey---Have u ever read Esperanza Rising? Joey thought it was a good book Thanks.0 -
Kathyec- sorry to hear you are struggling. It is very hard to final the new normal after this. Teka says it very well, bumpy dirty crappy road until you finally find pavement. I too struggle to find my joy again. It is not really there, although I have moment of contentment after working on my garden, or making a good meal, or listening to music I enjoy. Brief moments, but my overall happiness and joyfulness is not there. And that is hard for me. But just taking each day at a time and trying to find something good in each day does help. Because there is always something good in each day.
It also sounds like you may have been drained by your visitor. Probably good to know as maybe he is not the person you need around right now. We can appreciate people for the qualities that have been good, like loyalty or the like, but some folks are purely just "too much work" for us. I continue to learn who those people are and avoid them. You take good care of you.
And I sing a bit of background vocals, I think I have a pretty good voice and have sung some duets and background in groups I have played with but not a real solo-ist. I prefer the instruments.
Cami- do you have any good jazz standard music you can pull out and listen to? That story you told is so lovely about the man who shared his music with you and your children. Beautiful.
Teka- how is the train trip?
Friend from NJ here for a visit last night and very enjoyable. Balloon fiesta has begun!
Blessings to all the hermits this weekend.0 -
I just had a brief moment this morning I had tests at the hospital--but I'm all done, didn't take that lone, but I actually did a couple of things when I got home-Wow for me.
Kath maybe it was the roughness of the week that u feel so down. I felt so sad inside reading u'r words, Kath u'r hands aren't dead they are resting and the artist in you wil always be there waiting til u'r feeling that feel again. U should never feel guilty for anything u do or feel, it's wasting u'r energy to feel happiness again. And u'll notice in time there might only be a few minutes a day for that special emotion, but the time gets longer as u go along. Some of us just take longer--this isn't a bad cold, this is a disease that changes everything about our lives, feelings, strengths, weaknesses, it touches every aspect of it. And in time we adjust, I don't think that means u can't do what u did before, I think it means u choose to do the special things u love and maybe put the mundane things aside and we feel like we are missing something, because we don't do everything we did. Well I turned so much lazier than I was originally,--my mom used to tell me I hope u marry someone rich cuz u'r to lazy to work for a living---and yet most of the time I raised my kids alone and worked sometimes 2 jobs, except for the money I could care less anymore about working. I think u and Jazzy are so blessed to have a love of the arts and music and u can return to it.Cancer couldn't take that away from you, don't let it. I hope u start feeling brighter and let's face it we are never going to be happy all the time anyway--we just notice it more now. U should see how often I use cancer as my reasons to not do something hahaha--it's abused me so I abuse it. I'm sorry I made this into a novella but I just like to see u feel better and tell u u'r not alone.
Teka u r so effin cute, I can't stand it--U make me laugh with such ease and use few words.
And Jazzy u can sing too. OOOHHH u lucky duck0 -
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Hermits- hope you like the first day of balloon fiesta. No, I did not go down to the field where this takes place (you have to get up at 4 a.m.), but watched the launch on tv this morning. The friend that is here right now went with her family she is visiting this weekend, and said it was fun!
Cami- such wise words of wisdom for Kathec and us all. You are right it takes so much away from us. I am constantly trying to rebuild and restore each day that goes by.
I went to the arts and crafts festival here with a friend today, and we shopped until we dropped. Home resting now. Missing cousins surfaced and passing through tomorrow and we are meeting for lunch. The last of my visitors for the week.0 -
Jazzy I was just thinking about u--I'm watching Elton John on PBS and he plays a lot of piano in his songs and I thought Jazzy could do that.
I love those pics and so glad u'r having such a good time with u'r cousins, I bet this week flew by. Enjoy my dear.0 -
Cami- I love Elton John. His Yellow Brick Road from the 70s is one of my favorite albums ever. As a matter of fact, I am listening to Funeral For a Friend on You Tube as I write this. I don't play the piano though, I did try and never got the hang of it.
I just read on You Tube the album came out exactly thirty years ago today! Happy Birthday Yellow Brick Road!0 -
Jazzy, I envy your talent. My parents forced piano on me, but I was so miserable, they relented and I spent days climbing trees and riding horses (competitively... horses/not trees) I wish now I stuck with music. And, wow... the colors! Amazing.
Camille, You can tell Joey I read Esperanza Rising. The beginning is soooo sad. (Does he know Esperanza means hope?) If he liked it, he might like Becoming Naomi Leon. If I remember that one right, there is a really interesting cultural part about carving radishes--that I did not even know existed. (If I remember it right.) If he liked Esperanza, he might like Granny Torelli Makes Soup by Sharon Creech. I'd highly recommend it. It's not quite so cultural, but I thought it was a fun read. Or see if he can find a copy of Captain Nobody... I like that one, too. There are zillions of books I like. :-) If he has a favorite hobby and can't find a good book, let me know and I would be happy to head him in the direction toward books he might like with that hobby in it.
Just got back from doxie derby. DD2's little one came in third in his heat. It was his first race ever, so everyone was proud of him. (Some don't even budge, they're so timid or just flat confused.) I had never been to Southlake, TX before. Nice community. Everyone friendly.
Teka, Stay as long as you can. I like that.
Kathec, Don't despair. we each hit a wall... then gather our pieces, squish them back together, and keep going. I hit a point not so long ago that the things that "used to make me happy" as you said, no longer gave any zing or smile. It is taking me a long time to climb out of my dark hole and hunt for sunshine... Those moments come and go and I find that I have to force myself to "get over it." (Doesn't always work.) I have an MO appt in November, and wonder if I'll have the umph to bring up emotional woes. Or if I'll bury it and pretend all that matters is the physical... Dunno. Only when it gets here. But do sleep safely. Everyone here cares.
May Sunday shine upon us all. Hugs.0 -
Jazzy why did I think u played piano??? u play something.I can feel a dirty mind miles away.
There are such glorious women who are hermits. LOL
Skittle I have to tell him about those books if he doesn't already know,Thank you.
I just realized I think Elton John wrote a lot of his songs High. The words are crazy to me but I still love them.0 -
Hi camillegal. sorry you had to spend a part of saturday seeing a doctor! sounds like everything turned out all right though. and thank you all for even caring! good things to hear. i had such a crush on elton john when i was in high school. and i never understood all the lyrics but i loved them anyway, too. I had an impromptu massage today at the open air veggie mart. i never did that before, but i had been seeing him there for almost 10 years. an older japanese gentleman, i dont know if it is reiki or not, but it was gentle and felt nice. picked up a few things to make a potato salad, and then found out that this girl there is starting a belly dancing class! that might be fun, and good exercise for lymphedema, actually. entertain my man that way, anyway. Ahem. looked at my workbench, though, and am seriously thinking of getting up tomorrow and clearing the whole thing off and starting over. I remember an old friend of mine saying once, "why put off doing or trying something today? cause if you like it enough, you can do it again tomorrow!" so am just reading around on here.0 -
Cami- yes, flute, violin, saxes. You did remember I played music, and that it's important to me. That is what matters. And I am watching the Elton John concert on PBS now, and thought "this must be what Cami is talking about!"
Skittle- congrats on the doxie coming in 3rd! Glad you liked Southlake (I lived in TX once but never went to that community).
Kathyec- belly dancing is supposed to be great exercise. Someone recommended it to me after abdominal surgery last year, but never did it. And good for your love life too. Let us know if you do it and if it helps?
I went swimming tonight and notice I have not been as strong in the pool the last few times. I think it comes with the lower carb diet my PCP has me on to deal with the blood sugar issues. The lower carb diet does seem to be helping on all front, including with weight loss. I wish she had given me this like 10 years ago when the weight started piling on.
Teka- let us know when you are home safely in the recliner!
Good night hermits, sleep well!0 -
I will let you know, jazzygirl. Anything would be an improvement, as it is practically nonexixtant! used to be pretty nice, until dx and tx. we still hold hands.0 -
From the balloon glow last night. Enjoy.
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