Starting chemo July 2014
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Good to get updates, hope all tests come back as "nothing to worry about".
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I hope all goes well for you ladies. Hang in there.
Nancy
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Hello ladies,
I'm still lurking here, still crocheting/sewing chemo caps; just not posting much. It's great to see so many finishing up treatment! I had a PET scan yesterday to try and find out what's causing the back pain. I get the results next week. hope it's not the big C. Wish me luck!
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Good luck, Slappy-Squirrel! Hope your PET scan is cleanariffic!
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I hope your pet scan is clear slappy-squirrel. Thinking of you!!!
Nancy
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good to hear from you slappy squirrel, sorry about the back pain, hope your test comes back good
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Going for the MRI tomorrow to look at "the thing on my hip." I guess that I can lie on my back, instead of on my tummy with my boobs hanging down, as one would for a breast MRI. I hope I get out of the hospital in time to pick up the autistic twins at school. They're doing OK at school this year, even the nutty one who was stripping down naked randomly. (One afternoon, I looked out the window, only to discover that he was naked on the backyard swing!) We put him on Seroquel, which is supposed to even out his mood swings.
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Good luck tomorrow Elaine. I will be thinking of you and hoping the results come back B9. Glad the twins are doing well this year. Must have been very stressful trying to get the medication right, but so happy you did!!
Hugs
Nancy
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Yay! Just got my MRI results: "There are certainly no significant signal changes or enhancement that would explain a metastatic lesion in the femur. Specifically, no convincing evidence for mass in the area of abnormality by the PET scan. Although PET scan is more sensitive for metastases, the findings are likely a false positive. It may be reactive from low-grade musculoskeletal inflammation or adjacent soft tissue inflammation that is not readily apparent by MRI or has resolved. Otherwise, the femur is intact without mass or suspicious enhancement." Looks like I'm NED....for now!
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hooray for NED Elaine!!! And that you will stay. Wonderful news - big sigh of relief over here. Enjoy the weekend
Hugs
Nancy
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great news Elaine! Glad you didn't have to wait through the holiday weekend to find out.
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Super news, Elaine! What a great reason for a holiday at your house. Enjoy!
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Awesome news. Elaine. Yay! for NED. Enjoy your holiday weekend.
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Wonderful news Elaine! I'm so happy to hear it!
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great news Elaine!!! Time to celebrate!!
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I got my PET scan results back.
Looks pretty good. There is a small focus of mildly increased metabolic activity in the area where the cancer was removed, but they think that's just scar activity. But "clinical correlation recommended" is also on the report, whatever that means.
Shirley
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Woo Hoo Elaine!!!
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Sounds good Shirley. Fingers firmly crossed for it being simply scar activity!
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Thanks all. And Shirley, I hope it's just scar tissue, too.
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I haven't been on since August 8, so I'm catching up…
Coyote – woo hoo NO PORT ; Aug 26 – boo another scan, about the book, 'out there in Beta' I have elementary school aged kids, I'd love to review it if you need more comments; .
ElaineThere – August 12 post, scary; August 15 (results on portal) – no way, you must have been on pins and needles, August 26 – want to do an MRI – I hope they schedule a MRI guided biopsy with it, if they do see it, so you don't have to do it twice; What is it about autism and running around naked??? NED – woo hoo!!!!!!!!!
JoeysMommy – Tamoxifen – yuck. Started this spring, went off for 3 weeks for exchange surgery in May, and again for the 2nd exchange surgery that I had on Aug 28. My joint pain was significantly worse when I started it, but not so much anymore. I'm wondering if starting Magnesium (due to night leg cramps) might have helped???? As it is so much better now. Also, I was TCH-P, so not AC +T
Beachbaby – my Occupational Therapist says it takes 1 – 2 months to get tamoxifen out of your system, so you might need to take a long break… check with your MO first.
Slappy – that is exactly how I remember you, the chemo cap gal, glad to see you are still doing them. Hope the PET is OK; I hate getting results on Friday, I mean, what the heck is "clinical correlation recommended"
Ladies – where is Mags? Oh, I see that she has been on Warm and Fuzzie, as well as the insomniacs page. I think I'll pm her and ask for an update.
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Well LOL! I just replied to your PM and said I had this thread in my favorites – well, I thought I did, I would never intentionally delete it, and I have re-added it now! When you use an iPad for stuff, all you have to do is accidentally touch that and POOF! no more favorite. And you never know.
Well, I've read all the posts, and I'm so delighted that y'all are keeping us updated. I'm friends with a couple of you on Facebook, I notice Pink Ninja hasn't posted lately, she's a bit under the weather after her recent surgery, so keep her in your thoughts. Coyote, delighted you got your port out, I elected to keep mine because I have to have blood draws every few months and my veins are shot. I even switched to a new PCP at the new family care clinic they started in the building where I had all my tx, so when I need a blood draw I get to see my chemo nurses.
Elaine and Shirley, glad to hear you got clear scans. I was having some problems with breathing, coughing etc, so MO sent me for a CT and the lesions that have been there since 2011 are still stable, so I'm still NED too.
But my bones! I already have a lot of structural problems: osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease and stenosis in the whole lumbar spine, as well as neuropathy from who knows what, but this arimidex is murder on the hands especially. I can sit here and type, but when I flex my hands they ache so bad.
And my eyes: I now have a detached vitreous, and though it's not listed as a side effect of the arimidex, I found an NIH study on it which tells me it is one, however rare. It's like having a giant dust bunny floating around in my vision on the right.
I'm finally driving again, not a lot, but my cousin is taking care of a lady, and getting a small stipend for it, so she's very busy these days. When she's not doing that she's at the church helping out. I'm really glad for her, but it was getting rough coordinating rides to doctors, so DH got a cheap used car to drive to work and gave me back my old Honda.
I still have minimal energy, which I hate, and not a lot of strength, so I have to prioritize and allocate scarce resources these days. This is probably the longest post I've made in a month.
Love you all dearly, keep posting!
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Mags, so good to hear from you! Sorry about the joint issues. Have you tried the rum soaked raisins? The recipe is on the Arimidex forum and several ladies have found it helpful.
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LOL Puffin, like I'd need an excuse to eat rum soaked raisins! I'll check it out!
MRI scheduled for Wednesday on lumbar spine. Open MRI.
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started chemo July 20, 201
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Lots of good updates from you all. Happy to hear that things are pretty good! NED is the best news possible. Every other issue seems minor when we can celebrate that.
I went to a "Pretty in Pink" luncheon at the Red Mountain Resort and Spa near St. George, Utah a week ago. It was put on for women in the area that are dealing with bc and the aftermath. It is a yearly event that is sponsored by the resort, a magazine company, and some other local businesses. The companies and the women who organize it are amazingly generous and thoughtful. It was a truly lovely event. The hostess said something that I thought was interesting and rather important for us to hear. She spoke of the value of those of us who have traveled along this route to other women. Essentially, she said that the strength and coping skills we have learned through our experience teach other women to be stronger - rather like a phoenix rising out of the flame (my take on it). I actually can see that as possibly true. I hear it sometimes from my friends and acquaintances. Perhaps I shouldn't discount my "experiential example" value as much as I do.
I've been dealing with lower rib area pain on the highly abused on side of my body that began (and for a short time subsided) during radiation. Since I have also been dealing with compromised kidneys since chemo, drs. focused on that as being the most important possibility. The pain continued.... I thought ribs... they thought kidney. After yesterday's MRI showed there is no injury, cancer or abnormality to my kidney or other abdominal organs, they now think ribs or peripheral nerve damage from the abuse (aka surgeries and radiation.) So for now, I will just work through it without worry. Yeah! it comes back to NED!
Thank you knmtwins for being willing to read my manuscript. That's really nice of you. I may be repeating myself here, but we have decided to go two directions with it. I am sending inquiries for possible commercial publication - which can take quite a long time. Simultaneously, my DH and I are moving into the book making mode that I mentioned. My test readers really liked the book. Some of my artist friends are going to help with some serious illustrations, and I'm doing the sketches for text pages. I've picked out the paper and ordered samples of book cloth for the covers. It's an interesting project.
We are redoing my studio to make usable as a guesthouse too. Painting walls, laying flooring. It's looking really good. Fun project.
Since we lost our Sunny cat earlier this year, our home seemed rather empty and sad. We (probably more I than we) decided to bring one of the studio cats to the house. I brought BG (Big Guy) home one day to see how he would do. He hid under a bookcase for about four hours. Then:
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Coyote, I love the book idea. Did you know I was a graphic artist before I retired? Owned my own business for 18 years. I'm not really an illustrator or designer, but I can put books together for print and make designs happen. If you need any help, my studio is merely in hibernation mode and would be delighted to donate my skills to the project. I've done lots of these kinds of things and I'm very good at it.
Glad to hear your doing well other than the ribs. We may survive the cancer but the treatments might do us in, am I right?0 -
Coyote, looks like BG is settling right in and making himself right at home
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Coyote, cat looks so cozy! Glad to hear you gals r up and about
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Mags, Thanks so much for your offer of help. To be honest, I'm kind of flying be the seat of my pants going one step at a time. I don't know what questions to ask until I run up on it and sit there scratching my head. I have the manuscript written, edited, rewritten, edited and read by others. I loaded it into Publisher and have the basic layout complete. I'm pretty good with a computer, having done computer graphics since before Microsoft came up with Windows. I didn't get into a business with it, but I made my income from it for several years. I'm prone to pushing at the edges of things and enjoy learning how to accomplish things that may or may not have been done exactly that way before. I am fortunate to have wonder friends who are also wonderful artists - they are doing the major illustrations for the book. Actually they are so good that they get articles written about them in Southwest Art Magazine. My part of the illustrations will be the little drawings on the text pages. I am no where near the artist that my friends are, so my drawings are simple and hopefully "charming".
I do pen and ink and scan it into my art program, clean it up, and add a touch of color. Then I import them into the pages and wrap the text around the illustration. So far, that is working. There will be 10 full-page illustrations and 20 or so sketches. There are 232 pages. It will be hard cover, in signatures, and hand sewn. I haven't picked the cover cloth because I can't figure out how to get the title on the front of the book. I've thought about using T-shirt transfers on the fabric before I bind the book. Any ideas? Well, it feels like bed time. I started on the 'map' - as in Lord of the Rings type map, at 5:oo this morning and didn't get it finished until 4:oo this afternoon. I'm happy with the end result.
Thanks again...stay well. All ideas are cheerfully accepted.
Jana
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Hi ladies! I just wanted to drop in and say hi. I had my last treatment today and finally got to ring the bell. It was amazing. How are you all doing? I need to read the older posts and catch up but I hope everyone is doing well. Missed our little group. I'll try to post some pictures from today. My DH and some of the nurses were there to cheer me on.
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