Lumpectomy Lounge....let's talk!
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Judy, that certainly was weird.
HUGS!
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Welcome Dizzybee. I imagine you just want this next phase to be finished and be able to move on with your plan. The waiting is always the hardest.
Elizabeth, hope the area heals quickly and doesn't cause you much discomfort!
Michelle, we are so conscious of any changes, which is good, but also very stressful. Thinking super good thoughts for you and hoping the redness is reduced and healing!
Poodles, so very, very sorry about your cousin's wife. Good thoughts are sent to you and your whole family. This will be a very difficult time I'm sure. I'm sorry they are already having to bring in hospice, but that service is a godsend for the family.
Sandy, how is your eye doing? Hope it's healing quickly. It's amazing the difference you've noted already between that eye and your other one. And when is the thumb surgery scheduled?
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i know what you mean, Dara. Hospice helped us so much when my dad died. If I ever decide to stop being a developmental disabilities nurse, I think I'd like to try hospice nursing. They rock!
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Thanks, Dara. When things happen, which are common, I just feel so alone and worry. I just don't want anything to go wrong and want to get through the next 8 weeks very smoothly. I see RO on Thursday and MO on Friday. I expect alot from my body and myself and it stresses me out.
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Hi Dizzybee, I didn't get clean margins first lx either. My BS had me wait about 4 weeks after lx to make sure I was healed first. Plus, besides the DCIS that was expected there was a very small area of IDC. So when my BS went back in for clean margins, I had her check the nodes. Fortunately she got clean margins 2nd time and nodes were negative. My tumor(s) are much smaller than yours. There might be a little difference between my right & left, but they weren't the same size before. You can't tell with bra on. Not enough for me to worry about. I would go with your BS recommendation. Take it one step at a time.
Elizabeth, hope it heals quickly
Poodles, my heart goes out to you and your family.
Michelle, hope the redness goes away. Sending positive thoughts your way.
Sandy, I'm envious of all the great food you've enjoyed. I'm afraid I'm not very adventurous when it comes to food. Meat & potatoes is my mainstay. Have to make myself eat veggies. I work for a Japanese owned company & I'm afraid I'll have to go over for a visit some day. If so, I'll be packing food to take with me. Hope you're healing quickly.
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Poodles, I think you would be the best hospice nurse ever! The one Chuck had was superb. I am so glad she was assigned to us. I know I would feel the same about you.
Trish, you and me both. I am meat and potatoes type gal too. I'd pack food too
HUGS!
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Trish, can I tag along to Japan? I adore sushi, sashimi and kaiseki/omakase chef’s tasting dinners. (Tempura, too--but batter-fried is a no-no on my diet). I promise to bring roast beef sandwiches and potato chips.
Michelle, great that your docs are being proactive about the redness and (hopefully) stopping it in its tracks. We always have to be vigilant about avoiding cellulitis, especially if we already have lymphedema (even subclinical). I was on doxy for bronchitis bordering on pneumonia this past winter and again when the site of my punch biopsy to remove a mole from my back (and rule out melanoma) developed MRSA early this summer. Doxy will knock out some of the toughest bugs around. Make sure you take the whole course so straggler bacteria can’t hang around and cause mutations that are drug-resistant.
Dizzybee, my breasts are an I cup on the L (“Thelma”) and an H cup on the R (“Louise”). Before diagnosis, I would just shove a pad from an old Genie bra into the R cup and nobody was the wiser. But after radiation, “Louise” swelled up and grew to be the larger one, and I had to go up a size (my cleavage was pushed to the left)! It’s now back to being the slightly smaller one, but because of the seroma in the tumor cavity it looks full and perky and points straight ahead--poor “Thelma” is flabby and pendulous by comparison, with its nipple pointing downward.
My eye is getting better and better. Yesterday I took an Uber (was still afraid to drive) up to the mall, where VisionWorks was able to replace the R lens in my glasses with a plain no-glare one without correction. Took the bus & train home--just the wait for the bus took longer than the entire trip. But for the first time since surgery, I could see normally--the R eye wasn’t overcorrected and the L eye was properly corrected. By this morning I got my depth perception back. And my glasses pretty much hide the fact that my R eye is still bloodshot (and neither eye is made up). So I drove to the hair salon where I got shampooed and blown-dry for the first time in a week (the last time I was allowed to DIY in the shower), to the CVS to fill a prescription (and get some “progressive” readers--1.25 up top for middle-distance such as conversing, 1.50 in the middle for computer work, and 1.75 for close reading and sewing); and picked up some stuff at Whole Foods for tonight’s dinner and tomorrow’s breakfast.
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ChiSandy,
Which mall did you go to? I really like Northbridge and Watertower as far as downtown goes. After that I like Oakbrook, Aurora Outlet Malls, Woodfield and the designer outlet in Rosemont. But, I have to confess, I love to go thrift shopping. It has been a passion of mine for my entire life. My dad, born in 1917, grew up orphaned by his dad, raised by my Irish great grandfather, and was very frugal. He waited until he was financially stable to get married, which put him at 41. I was born several years later and he retired while I was in school. He instilled in his three daughters, the value of a dollar, how hard it is to make and even harder to keep. We shopped at the Goodwill, Salvation Army, and garage sales, when it was not, not cool. We always thought we were poor. Only later on did we realize that my father had saved almost everything that he had earned. When I went to college I was told, don't bother applying for need based scholarships because you won't qualify. What a shock that was.......
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Sandy, so glad your eye is improving. That has to make life much easier. And CLEAN hair to boot
HUGS!
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Michelle, I can imagine how shocked you were to find out there was money for college. However, it must have been challenging growing up in such a frugal household. At least now it is fashionable!
HUGS!
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Sandy, thank you for the run-down on the breast size timeline. My right one (surgery side) started out the larger of the two and at the moment is larger yet. My radiation finished in early April, but I think the chemo added some fluid retention to it. I'm becoming impatient with this huge breast that is supposed to end up smaller. As I only finished chemo a month ago, I know I should be more patient, and hearing that yours eventually got smaller is helping.
I had my deQuervain's injected with cortisone today. Ouch!! Hope it helps. It felt great while the lidocaine was working.
Hi to everyone! I'm tired tonight.
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Peggy,
It was quite shocking that I could choose any university, study anything I wanted and as long as I wanted. I still paid for stuff that I needed and always worked at least one if not two summer jobs. Since my dad was retired I also received money for college from Social Security because I was so young.
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Pretty damned awesome dad you had! He planned well for you.
HUGS!
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Alice, too bad they don't have long-lasting lidocaine, isn't it? Hope you aren't hurting as much and that the cortisone helps!
HUGS!
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Sandy, your description of Thelma & Louise is cracking me up! I needed that after a long, long day in the field. I left home at 8:15am and got home after 10:30pm.
Well, here's a bit of good news (or bad news, depending on how you look at it.) I had hoped to go out to Seattle to see my sister for my birthday. In order to do that before I have this hysterectomy Oct 20, and also fit in the business trip to Savannah which needs to be done in early Oct, my birthday trip had to happen the last week of Sept. I normally would just take vacation, but since I used up all my vacation on this STOOPID BREAST CANCER I had to petition my boss with a plan to take my work laptop out of town with me and get 4hrs/day in. I won't go into detail, but the process took THREE WEEKS to decide~! OMG, I thought I would lose my mind over this. (I realize that not getting to take a birthday trip to Seattle is small potatoes as compared to, say, BREAST CANCER, but still...)
So, tonight I got the final go-ahead. Yippee! I went to pay for the flight with Delta FF miles and find out that although DH has enough for the trip, *I* do not. It costs almost the equivalent of a r/t ticket to transfer miles from him to me, so that's out. I was so upset! So upset. After all the hoops I've jumped through! So, I started looking at other airlines--didn't get far there, either. At this late date everything is much more expensive. I really thought I was going to cry, I was so disappointed. So I went back to the Delta site, changed some things around and lo! and behold--I found a flight at decent times, non-stop both ways for less than $400~! So, it's not as great as flying to Seattle for FF miles + $11, but I still get to go spend my birthday with my sister, who is my best friend in all the world. I'll just save those FF miles for when we go to NOLA, if I end up getting recon later this year. *doing the happy dance doing the happy dance happy happy dance*
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Poodles, I'm so happy for you! You need to go celebrate with your sister! It will be wonderful for you. Thank heavens things changed. Sorry you had to jump through so many hoops but isn't it nice that a laptop will allow you to take the trip? (It sure wouldn't have 20 years ago). HAVE FUN!!!!!!
HUGS!!
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Oh darn it! Had quite a bit written in response to 7 pages I just read and scrolled back up to verify something just to come back to an empty comment. Fits right in to the kind of day I had today! Too tired to start over. Thinking of everyone and sending thoughts and prayers to all.0 -
Poodles, I am so sorry about your sister in law. My prayers are with your family.
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Poodles, so great that you get to spend your birthday with your sister! Mine lives in VA, but it’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other other than for family emergencies (like my lumpectomy), celebratory events (e.g. Bar Mitzvahs, weddings) or funerals/gravestone unveilings (the latter of which is actually a “thing” in Judaism). Except a couple of times when I was performing in northern VA, and once for breakfast when we were passing through the area en route from Asheville to Scranton. Keep on dancin’, as the old bubblegum-pop song goes.
Alice, my stenosing tenosynovitis (surgeon is distinguishing it from de Quervain’s) keeps playing peek-a-boo. By the time I had the cortisone shot, it was not just triggering but painful. Six weeks later, I had no relief (in fact, it was a tad worse), so we scheduled the sheath-release surgery for Sep. 20. Wouldn’t you just know it that starting a couple of weeks ago, my thumb began behaving itself--triggering painlessly and sometimes not at all. Still stiff & sore in the morning (no fun trying to pinch in order to pull out my ear plugs). But every time I plan to pick up the phone or message my surgeon and ask if I should cancel, it begins to trigger painfully again (though not as bad as at that last appointment). It’s currently scheduled for Sep. 20. I wonder if I can safely put it off till January, or just get it over with? I hear it can sometimes be self-limiting. Maybe my body is getting more used to estrogen deprivation and is settling down?
Timing of everything else is a tad tricky. Whether or not I get the thumb surgery, Bob is scheduled to get his own L cataract done Oct. 5. (He had the R one done in 2008). That first time, he was able to drive and resume work the very next day, but we’re both older now. (And he had to have the posterior capsule lasered a few months later after it opacified). I’m shooting for Oct.19 (his birthday) for my own L cataract. That’d give me a week to recover enough to drive to Iowa City, where I was originally going to just attend a regional Folk Alliance conference and do a couple of private showcases--but I found out today I’m being honored and will be one of only three performers opening for Anne Hills’ concluding concert. Can’t do it Oct. 12--that’s Yom Kippur and both the surgeon & I are Jewish (though we attend different temples). Having a lifesaving surgery like a lumpectomy is one thing, but a purely elective one on the holiest day of the year would be, as my Yiddishe momma used to say, a “shonda.” (And that’s even assuming the surgeon would even be working that day--Bob does, but first of all, he’s Catholic; and second, he’s a cardiologist. Nobody dies from cataracts, but heart attacks...). My surgeon operates at the surgi-center only on Wednesdays--that’s the day the surgi-center assigns to him. I could have it done at Holy Cross Hospital on a different day, but its Marquette Park neighborhood has gotten pretty dicey over the years (a senior citizen was gunned down last week mowing his lawn across from the MRI center entrance). I’m not crazy about Bob doing rounds there, but the Lithuanian nuns who run it (and who are dying off) love him. It is now owned by Mt. Sinai (talk about strange bedfellows) which is also in an iffy neighborhood, next door to "Juvie Hall” (not far from the firehouse on Chicago Fire and the soundstage complex where all of Dick Wolf’s Chicago-based shows, and Empire, are filmed). After I get back from Iowa, Bar Show rehearsals kick into high gear, the show is the first week in Dec., and my duo has our Christmas show down in Park Forest on Dec. 17 (Brithael, you reading this? Your neck of the woods).
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ChiSandy,
I am the typical Irish/German Catholic with one side of the family Jewish and the other side of the family Muslim. I just went to my 55 year old sister in law's bat mitsva (better late than never.) Everyone gets along beautifully and we communicate through food. The Jewish side loves the Pakistani dishes, and the Pakistani side likes some of the Jewish dishes. I have sat Shiva and have mourned the loss of President Bhutto. My sister has visited Pakistan many times over her 35 years of marriage to my great brother in law. When I had my lumpectomy both of my sisters, who are twins, came and stayed with me before, during and after surgery. They knew my husband would need company and support. They also have a habit of jumping to conclusions, such as when the BS came out and said "they were working hard and the the dye traveled well to the lymph nodes." My sister called all family members and friends and told them that cancer had spread to all my lymph nodes. My husband had been eating lunch and returned to chaos. They had to call everyone back and tell them it was the dye, not the cancer, that went to the lymph nodes and my nodes looked very good. My nodes turned out clean and we created another fiasco memory.
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Michelle, the mall was Lincolnwood Town Center on the border between Lincolnwood, Skokie and West Rogers Park. I usually frequent Old Orchard, the closest major mall; but I also like going to 900 N. Michigan and North Bridge (not to mention Eataly a couple of blocks away). Oak Brook is a bit far for shopping, though we often end up there for dinners and parties. Woodfield and Gurnee Mills are also pretty far--so if I want to visit an indoor mega-mall I go to Northbrook Court. I sometimes find myself at the outlet malls in Aurora or Huntley if they’re on my way, I have the time, and I actually need something.
I never had to borrow money for college, since it was understood in my family that if I didn’t have the grades for a top-drawer four-year college in the CUNY system, I wasn’t going. (I was only 16). I easily made Brooklyn College (the only one to which I applied), and not only was it tuition-free (and a lot more prestigious) back then, I got a Regents’ scholarship which paid for my books and part of my carfare for commuting (no dorms, and only the fraternities had residential houses). I commuted via two buses or a bus & subway every day. I borrowed for my first two years of law school, but got a small inheritance that covered my third year tuition. Though he’s from eastern Queens, Bob also went to Brooklyn (where we met) and got the same full-ride-plus. For grad. school at U. of WA, he was actually a paid research asst. until he got his PhD. and entered medical school in third year--so he had only two years’ tuition, and at the in-state rate of $750/yr. at that. And decades later, Gordy knew he wanted to major in theater at Columbia College Chicago--he’d been in a teen program at Second City, Piven Theater Workshop’s Young People’s Company, and was the first teenager invited to study at i.O. (f/k/a Improv Olympic until suit was threatened by the IOC); and the head of Columbia’s Theater Dept. was also Second City’s artistic director, who recruited him. I began to noodge him about applying to colleges, and he responded by showing me his acceptance letter from Columbia. I had no idea he had taken the initiative by taking the ACTs and applying online. And since Columbia was cheaper than his high school and he decided to commute from home (his tuition even included a CTA pass), we spared him the pain of student loans.
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Sandy,
Did your son go to Lane Tech, Latin School, Quigly or Loyola High School? We are so fortunate that college was accessible and affordable back in our day. I got lucky in my master's degree and was recruited to work with a professor on his book. I was editor and coordinator, and ended up writing pieces of chapters. I got paid, my education was paid, and I got published along with him.
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Michelle, we sent Gordy to Roycemore, a secular private prep day school in Evanston (founded 1906), from the summer before first grade all the way through high school graduation. It's an amazing place--200-230 students at any one time, JK-12. He had sensorineural integration deficit & dyspraxia (diagnosed at 6), and decided not to let him continue at Rogers Park Montessori after kindergarten--the teachers insisted that “every child learns at his own speed" but we were concerned that though he read at the high school level and had nearly as sophisticated a vocabulary, he couldn't write (he had trouble “crossing the midline", drew people as heads with arms & legs sticking out; and couldn't throw a ball, skip, or jump rope). He talked at 7 mos. (simple complete sentences before his first birthday and complex ones with consistency before he was 2) but didn't crawl till 10 mos. or walk till 18 mos. When he interviewed for first grade at N. Shore Country Day, they sighed and said they'd wished we'd brought him in during kindergarten, but his written language skills were insufficient for first grade. Same with Latin. Francis Parker waitlisted him for second grade. (Chicago public schools, other than magnets, were not an option--we were concerned he'd be under-served, and the few that were a good fit preferred girls and minorities that year for diversity). Roycemore was suggested by the psychologist and psychometrician who tested him: it had a terrific after-school learning-assistance program for each of Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, as well as a gifted program for subjects at which he excelled (and AP classes were given at Northwestern, for credit--consequently, he had very few core curriculum pre-reqs. to take at Columbia). By the time Parker offered him a slot in second grade, he was happy at Roycemore. Quigley and Loyola were both Catholic and too far a commute (Roycemore had its own fleet of school buses, but by Upper School he decided he wouldn’t be caught dead being seen stepping off a school bus with the little kids, so he commuted via the CTA Red & Purple lines). BTW, Lane Tech now has a gang problem.
Love that you have such a big multi-ethnic family! As to Pakistani (and Indian) food, we are four blocks south of Devon Ave. and less than a mile from the beginning of its Indo-Pak Restaurant Row. (There’s even one on Grub Hub that delivers tandoori chicken at 2 am). Tiffin is our favorite.
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I am unfamiliar with Roycemore, but just googled it. It looks like a great opportunity, especially being able to take courses at Northwestern. My kids were young kindergartener's just turning 5 before the beginning day of school. They had two years pre-school at a really good Catholic school. Their forever k-8 school did not have a preschool. They both did fine, except my daughter, when she had an idea or opinion she shared it. They had the Humpty Dumpty system, and her Humpty stayed on its head most of the year. I did not care, because I knew she was going to be a strong woman, and she is. She is amazing and had 13 offers to play college volleyball, but she chose to focus on academics. My son was very easy to manage all the way through Catholic high school, now at 20 he is full of himself. Our daughter went to the Lutheran High school, it was smaller and a great fit for her to become a leader and exercise her confidence.
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Good morning Ladies
I saw my BS yesterday and she went over the path report with me. Here are the details
Stage 1 tumor was 0.9 cm (clean margins)
Grade 3 the Nottingham score was 8
Glandular tubular differentiation was 3
Nuclear pleomorphism was 2
Mitotic count was 3
4 lymph nodes examined 3 were clear 1 contained a few isolated tumor cell clusters located in the capsular vascular channels and beneath the capsule, extending just into the nodal parenchyma. The largest cluster measures 0.22 m ( not sure what this means as far as the location description Anyone have any ideas?
Micrometastasea greater than 0.2 and/or more than 200 cells, but none greater than 2.0 mm
ER 98
PR 88
HER Negative
Still waiting on results of Ki-67
Had a chat with BS about the MO she said the MO handles all BC patients as she is very involved with BC research and runs a lot of clinical trials and basically I am stuck with the MO, but she did tell me to stand up to her and remind her that she works for me. She said the MO would respect that and yes the MO can be a bully of sorts and is used to being the boss but she is not the boss of me and to tell her outright that I deserve as much time and information from her that it takes for me be comfortable in making a decision about my treatment..
As far as a second opinion that is not an option this is the only cancer treatment center in my province and my Healthcare is only covered in my province. So when I see the MO next week I will have to make my feelings known and go from there.
I love my BS she explains things in a manner that understandable to a patient. She told me that still being stage 1 is a good thing. She put it this way if I were a train stage 1 means I am furthest away from the cliff and my grade is how fast the train is moving. So being grade 3 I am moving faster than grade 1 or 2.
So I am waiting till next Thursday to see if she thinks Chemo will be beneficial 25 RADS and hormone therapy are a given at this point. I had hoped to avoid Chemo but I have a feeling it will be recommended.
Thanks
Charlene
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Charlene, your BS sounds like a keeper! I love that she told you how to handle your brusque MO. Hard to do but I think you'll manage just fine. At least you know that standing up to her will likely bring about the results you desire. I can't answer any of your questions - everything about my BC seems to have been very straightforward (and that appears to be uncommon). I know the ladies will chime in with lots of help and info for you.
HUGS!
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Peggy Thanks for the hugs. I love my BS she said her and I would be friends as she would be seeing me for a lot of years and to call her anytime I needed her.
I have been reading about your dating adventures and can relate. After my divorce my kids urged me to join a dating site. I was not looking for a so called love interest just wanted to get out and meet people. I did find a lot of men were looking for a soul mate or were very needy. Then I met a man I could relate to and have so fun with, he also was not looking for love what started out as friends developed over a year into a relationship which is now in its 9th year. He has been my rock through all this cancer crap
Thanks again
Char
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Charlene, how great that you found such a wonderful man. I haven't dated that much yet but I know I'm not at all ready for a "friends-with-benefits" arrangement my last date thought a good idea after meeting for 2 hours (scratch him out of my little black book!!). It's a very good thing that you have a BS who wants to be a forever friend!
HUGS!
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Ew. I dont think id ever want to be friends with benefits. I used to work for a family practioner whose office bordered a country club and a 55+ community. I have never seen so much VD in my life! And this was in 1988, full-on AIDS crisis. Ew. Ew. Ew. Those seniors thought they were living it up safely because they couldn't get pregnant and they werent gay. No thanks, mister. I will keep my hoo-hah to myself.
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So, has everyone seen their BS more then just to talk about what kind of surgery and just before surgery? I didn't see her for my followup and she called with just the main results from the path report... i'm not due to see anyone there for 6 months... I hope the onc dr.s are better
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