Stage 2 Sisters Club
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What GREAT pictures! You look absolutely gorgeous (and your family looks pretty good too
). What a wonderful and fun day! Congratulations!0 -
You are a stunning bride!
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Beatuiful
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Thank you 😊 A great photographer, great hairdresser (my Mama) and awesome makeup artist put together can make miracles
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It's love that makes the miracle (the photographer, hairdresser & makeup people just put the icing on the cake
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I agree, Ruth! Beautiful bride and beautiful wedding!
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Time for my check in for May, as the rest of the month will probably get pretty busy: all is really going well for me right now, after a rough winter and early spring dealing with all sorts of family issues. The biggest concern involved the health issues of one of my sisters, but she is doing much, much better now.
As for me, after another week at work, I leave next week for a dream pre-retirement trip to Australia and Papa New Guinea. Will be gone about a month to some very remote corners of the world...going to spend time on my favorite passion (scuba diving) and just to see that part of the earth (I have visited Australia twice, though obviously it is a big country with lots to still see, and I have never been to PNG). Hubby, who is not fond of long airplane rides, will stay home and keep the home fires burning (and work, he is a bit younger than me and probably won't retire for a few years yet), but I won't be alone: traveling with a group of long time friends. Ten of the days we will be on a boat..my idea of heaven. While I am in Brisbane Australia I am going to spend a few days with a BCO Sister I know from another thread: that will be really wonderful.
I fly back home the third week of June, and then back to the office for a week before I am officially retired after twenty plus years with my current employer! WooHOO!!! As a friend pointed out to me, I don't plan to work that week: just attend good-bye lunches and a retirement party planned for me, and then will clear out my office, tell everyone where the files all are on the computer, give instructions to my staff for holding down the fort while they recruit my replacement, and then I am out of there....
I confess that I am a little nervous about the trip, just because my knees are in bad shape and I will be active, and because Papa New Guinea is a bit, well, out there....But I have had steroid shots in both knees as a temporary assistance (total knee replacements are in my future after retirement), and as I said, I will be with friends (and one of those friends is an ER doc if things really go south :-)). It will be an adventure, so as soon as I can get through the pile of work to complete before I go, I will be in adventure mode!
Doubt if I will be on the boards much till I return, but pics (both above and under water!) when I get back!
Hugs to all
Octogirl
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Sorry MJ for my oops asking about the wedding. What was I thinking?! I don't even have chemo brain to blame.
What a wonderful wedding! You have great looking children. And You look amazing and so happy! Makes me want to re-marry my husband... anything to go to Bermuda ;-)
And Octo off diving in the South Pacific. I'm jealous of that as well. I got NAUI-certified when in grad school and have not been in the water in close to 30 years. Please post underwater photos, and have a great time!
My health-update is that a recent PET showed no news other than the little cancer in my kidney. And there are weeks when I feel so healthy I even forget that is there, yay! My life-update is that living in San Diego means welcoming relatives during the summer, often from overseas, so trying to plan summer in a way that gives us time to escape town and see new places.
Keep healthy Everyone!
Nisa 🌷0 -
Octogirl, have FUN!!! Nisa, so happy you are feeling well. My update: I am overall feeling good and some days I manage to forget about cancer all together. My scars are fading a bit so my frankenboob is not as franken
I am slowly accepting my implants will never look like real breasts but I look good with clothes on so that is something. My mom is dying such a long, slow death. It is torture for everyone. I don't want to lose her but we lost "her" long ago to Alzheimers. It is a horror show to see her. I can't even describe it. My son is very up and down with his health but sleeps far too often, has too many seizures and well life is hard. Hubby and I are getting out tomorrow night for a rare night out to see Jersey Boys and have dinner with friends. I am flying to Nashville late June for a girls weekend with friends. It is rare for me to be away from my DS but I really need the escape. 0 -
Octo, send back lots of pictures!!
Nisa, glad everything is stable.
Molly, so sorry about your mom. My dad went through a long, sad cognitive decline too. It is hard. Glad you & DH are having a date night, and that you are taking a girls weekend. You need to take care of yourself & build some fun/happy things into your life.
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please welcome me to the group; sigh, I really hate being a member of the BC club, only thing looking forward to is the dragon boats, now I can be a rower! That is if the club in my town gets back to me. Ofcourse wont be this year as just had a bmx and diep a week ago. Got my path back. one lymph positive at 4.5 with focal extracapsular extension, no LVI. two tumors largest is 2.2cm.
Don't know what the nxt step will be. Appt. with BS in two weeks then I figure he will refer me to a MO. What did the rest of you had. is it automatic ALND or Chemo or Rads?
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Welcome Tpralph! Next should be an ocotype DX ordered by your MO to see if you need chemo. However, your MO may recommend chemo based on extracapsular extension. Hard to say. Not everyone does ALND any more but mine did. I had levels 1/2 removed.
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TPRalph - Hello and yes, we too hated entering this club. Just a week post-op, you are not in an easy place, But soon you will have a definite treatment plan and that can make the entire journey seem more doable. I too am a multi-focal woman. Usually your next step would be oncotype if not already sent right after the surgery. I had all four tumors oncotyped and they all came back with different scores. I also heard from second opinion guy at UCLA that more often than not, multi-focal women get chemo because oncotype data is based on single-tumor women and therefore hard to generalize to a different group of women. I hope you don't get chemo however. My wish to you is two low oncotypes, safe rads, a decent experience with Arimidex... and that you manage to plan a vacation after rads. You will need to have something to look forward to, and planning a vacation can be distracting! For now It would be a good idea to rest, eat and walk, and come to us with any questions. There is always one of us ready to offer a hug. Hope you can sense mine today. Nisa 🌷0
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thanks Nisa, not sure if they did the oncotype or not. didn't mention it in the path report.
I do feel the hug thanks
Just a bit down. Anyone know the survival rates (up dated of course). Wish I saw my BS earlier. I feel I should be on the tamoxifin asap.sigh
Teresa
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Hi Teresa, it's not a club anyone willing joins; but you will get a lot of support and meet some awesome people here.
Lots of factors go into survival rates. Your oncologist can plug all your information into a site (I can't remember it's name) and tell you statistics with different treatments. Stage II survival rates are VERY GOOD, which makes it easier to do all the crappy treatments......for us they should work!
If you need chemo, it isn't fun but not as awful as you imagine beforehand & it helps to remember that it is working FOR you! As others have said, you are at the worst part. Once you get a treatment plan in place, you just do it; get it over with and move on and, with time, this experience becomes part of your life's story. Hang in there!!!!
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thanks Ruth. I am also wondering if I have any more lymph nodes involved at this point seems the node that did pick up the dye was negative and the one beside it was firm did not pick up dye and was positive. now I am wondering if it is full along that chain. have asked in another threat hoping the radiologist can comment My two ultrasounds and MRi were node negative too.....
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You will want to get hooked up with an oncologist, probably the sooner the better as they are the 'team' leader. I would maybe call your surgeon on Monday and have him make the referral now. I am not saying you to scare you but because I had involved my GP from the start; and he called and got me referred to an oncologist before I even saw my surgeon for the post-op appointment.The surgeon was surprised because I had already been referred but GP was of the opinion that the quicker the better. As far as ALND, that is another question the oncologist can answer. I am far enough out that ALND was the standard of care when I was diagnosed.
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Hello to all my "Stage 2ners". It was a shock to me as well as my family when I was dx in April because I was doing so great (body & spirit). Now, my female relatives and few friends (whom I told about my dx) are so scare because they think if it could happen to me then it'll happen to them in due time. I have to reassure them that BC doesn't work that way.
I'm waiting for my mamaprint test results; hoping for low risk result but not sure I'll do chemo if it's high risk. I want to trust my body to fight instead of flushing it w/ poison. Anyone who didn't do chemo w/ high risk genomic test results?
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KLT - Hello and welcome! There has to be a thread in this forum addressing your question but I don't know where it is. I hope your score returns low enough to avoid dealing with the chemo question. And thank you for educating your friends and family about BC. While your illness doesn't mean it will happen to them, they are not wrong to think that it COULD happen to them. Most of us were quite healthy before diagnosis. You can help your friends by encouraging them to get mammograms. Early detection is key to survival.
Hugs, Nisa 🌷0 -
Thank you Nisa; Hugs to you as well.
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Hi Kit, wait until you get your results back before you make any decisions. Remember that chemo isn't the enemy, cancer is. If it is warranted, chemo is working FOR you in the fight. Hang in there!
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Thank you "ruthbru".
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Kit, I was diagnosed before there were tests to make chemo recommendations from, and I wrestled with the chemo decision too (because who in their right mind would 'want' to do chemo!). I brought all my information to my beloved GP. I had a large 4 cm tumor that came out of nowhere 6 months after an 'all clear' mammogram, it was grade 3, it was only slightly estrogen positive, and even though my nodes were clear, there was a 50/50 chance that rouge microcosmic cells escaped. GP looked at my results and said "You have to do chemo, if you don't and it comes back......well, if you were my wife, I'd beg you to do it." I did, and retrospect am very glad that I did; I have a peace of mind that I did all that I could. Anyway, that is my experience and maybe something to think about.
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Good afternoon ladies...
I'm done with AC and will start Herceptin & Taxol on 6/7. Can I be honest...I don't want to go back... I'm already feeling anxious about it. I have been blessed and the side effects haven't been "awful" but it's no walk in the park nor something I would ever want to do. I've been trying to stay as positive as possible but for the past week or so I have been feeling myself struggle. I have been trying to work as much as possible and I worry with weekly chemo that I won't be able to work as much as I have been. I worry about my family and the financial struggle this could cause us. I wonder how the new treatment will make me feel...side effects... Just wish I wasn't going through this...wish none of us were...and I know this too shall pass and in a year it will be a blur...I just have to get through this right now... Thanks for letting me vent ~ Jenn
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We all know the feeling of not wanting to go back! I remember just wanting to run away (but unfortunately I would have had to take my body with me). For what it's worth, the people I know who did Herceptin didn't find it that bad, so once you are done with the Taxol you will be done with the worst of it (and most people find the Taxol part easier on them than the AC part). How many weeks of Taxol are you doing? When's the date of the last one.....we will start counting down with you! Hugs!
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That's what I've been reading - Herceptin isn't too bad and that AC is worse than Taxol, Amen for that light at the end of the tunnel! I'll do 12 weeks of Taxol. So far they've only given me the apt on 6/7. (They seem to book my appts only a couple of weeks at a time - I think that way if anything goes amok they don't have a bunch of dates to reschedule.) August 23rd should be the last Taxol though
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We will celebrate on the 23rd (or two weeks later when you will have it all out of your system). A German teacher friend of mine took her language kids on a two week trip to Europe between her last two Herceptin treatments. I can't say that you will feel that good (I would never feel good enough to take a bunch of teenagers abroad!), but I think you will start feeling pretty normal when you are on Herceptin alone.
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ruthbru I appreciate what you said 'the cancer is the enemy not the chemo' very good to keep in mind so as to not become so freighted by the chemo. Thankyou
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Glad if I can help. I thought of chemo as Navy Seals, totally bad ass fighters searching out and killing terrorist cancer cells, who would kill me for sure if they got the chance.
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i just finished my 12 taxols and compared to AC it was a piece of cake -- i even traveled for work once between treatments and felt fine. i would get a bit sluggish after the steroid crash but NOTHING like the indescribable exhaustion of AC.
it is much, much easier.
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