August 2015 Chemo Group
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Bluefrog, great news!
Happy holiday season, everyone. May this year be better than last.
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Looking good! Bluefrog! Getting busy preparing for Christmas! church, party at work (work space decoration and desserts contests, white elephant, secrert santa... )
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Today is the 1 year anniversary of my lumpectomy, when we found out I had a CPR. So 1 year cancer free. I am too young to be saying this.
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Musogirl! And we are celebrating our 27 year old son recovering from a particularly nasty strain of malaria contracted in Africa, so our Christmas letter this year has someone else in pole position as the one who diced with death most in 2016!
Enjoy the partying all :-)
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malaria is nasty stuff! My father-in-law almost died from it when he was 4 and in Africa. Glad your son is recoveringI have a sore throat--I obviously have an upset lymph node in my neck and it is FREAKING me out. Ibuprofen takes the pain away for about 6 hours and Thieves oil helps in-between. Pain radiates up into my teeth and ear. But I am avoiding the doctor. Hoping the infection goes away on its own and trying to distract myself from thoughts of mets. It's day 4 and otherwise I feel fine...
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Bluefrog. I have kids your kids age. Its good to hear you are doing well? My daughter is 12. Really trying to think what to get her for christmas. Its a fun age but wow we are in full on tween rollercoaster here and its a wild ride with her emotions. I hope all is peaceful in your house this Christmas.
what are everyones Christmas plans? We are staying close I think company is coming to us this year. Superious your church job is probably just bopping during this season.
Brompton that is just scary stuff Malaria wow just wow. Our church is participating in the malaria campaign we so take for granted that it is such a threat to so many people in our world. What a relief your son is doing better. We never stop being a mom and worrying about our kids that's for sure.
Muso. that sounds like it needs antibiotics. Baby yourself and I hope that you are well soon.
My life is a bit busy still trying to wrap up treatments. My last Herceptin kicked my butt like nothing I imagined. It put me down for a good 6-8 weeks. I just dragged through and felt terrible. I finally got my Port out November 4th and had some fat grafting to finish up my reconstruction. Overall I am pretty happy with things. On related news my plastic surgeon has a specialist come in once a month to tattoo reconstructed aerolas and nipples. Its the micropigmentation kind so it will last 3 -4 years. I figure by then I will be ready for a more permanent tatoo but I was ready to have a little color, feel normal and move on. I am very happy with how they are turning out. I used pictures from before surgery and had her color match. So far so good. My tatas look pretty good and I am happy to finish this chapter.
Now for my frusterating news. I am having Carpal Tunnel/ Trigger finger surgery in my right hand tomorrow and De'quervains Surgery in my left hand. This all came on 8 weeks after I started Arimidex and hasn't totally subsided 6 months later after switching to Tamoxifen. A part of me really wanted to wait another year but my insurance covers it now and well I am really going to need my hands when I go back to work. My right hand still goes numb a large portion of the day and I can't lift anything with my left hand. I looked it up and when you combine breast cancer, Arimidex and an oophrectomy it really increases your risk. Its a scary thing for mebecause I really worry about making my dominant hand worse. I have an experienced surgeon but if anyone has any advice, suggestions, experience? I would welcome it.
Happy holidays to all
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Sorry to hear about the carpal tunnel, exercise_guru (I had it once but it all settled down on its own). VERY interested to follow your tattooing journey. I am scared to begin that after my new nipple got infected and I needed two days of IV antibiotics. Agree, Herceptin sucks towards the end.
In other good news: my boy recovered quickly from malaria!
Happy holidays everyone
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exercise guru,
I had trigger thumb after starting arimidex, but it did subside on its own. It flares occasionally. I still feel like I have arthritis in my hands, and the joint swelling is visible. I hope your surgery is helpful. Keep us posted.
Blue frog, I'm so happy for you.
I wanted to wish all of you Merry Christmas and happy holidays. This year should be better than the last
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I hope your surgery goes well, exercise_guru.
I saw my MO on Friday. Everything was good and I have graduated to appointments every 6 months (instead of every 3). Woo-hoo!
Happy Holidays, everyone. May 2017 be a healthy and peaceful year for us all.
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Merry Christmas Friends.
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Merry Christmas
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Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays...However you chose to celebrate I hope it is filled with love. We have all come so far in the last year. It is truly a time to celebrate. I have to say YAY for hair again!!! Cheers
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yes! YAY! for hair! Today my grandmother wanted to look at all my hair stages over the past year. Made even more fun by her being practically blind and I only had the select few on Facebook I dared share. Topped off by using my little phone screen to show her. 🙄
Are we setting any resolutions for the New Year? I want to work on my health but need to make that more specific and realistic. Maybe focus on losing 40 lbs. and regaining full range of motion in my right arm/chest. Now to break up that 40lbs. into something manageable.. (All said as I gorge on Christmas sweets.).And I want to write my story so if life knocks me down again my boys will have it--write letters to correspond with their future milestones as I recall mine.
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Muso I don't want to lose 40 lbs but maybe 25. Since there are 12 mos in a year, that means about 2 lbs a month... give or take... seems doable when I look at it that way... I do get the arm strength... I have worked out consistently all my life, so I was pretty disappointed when I dropped a stove my husband and I were lifting onto a truck last summer to give to my brother. So I've been working on regaining my upperbody strength. I accept that it may never be the same, but hey... a girl can work at it. :-)
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mollie, I can't decide how to focus on this. Do I make my goal about lbs? Or to run a 5K? The scale really depresses me, and I think focusing on walking/running would bementally easier. Unfortunately I have so much body pain right now and moving is so hard. Yoga has been a huge blessing in regaining range of motion! It really helps! And I only go once a week. I do need to start lifting weights though. I was told to start back with my 2 lb weights and I can't find them--the 5 pound ones do pull a bit too much and I have to stop sooner.
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Merry Christmas & Happy New Year! Christmas Day was spent napping! I sang with the choir the 10pm "Midnight" Mass with 9pm concert before. Got home at 12, got 5 hr sleep & back to church to direct another choir for 9am Mass. someone actually asked afterward, "so are you off to party now?" Yeah right!
I think I have 15lb to go, then I'll be in the "normal" BMI range - that's what I got from last weigh-in at Dr's office. But I think the goal is more Plant-Based, Cleaner Eating (this year I made Granola as Christmas Treats, all local/ organic ingredients. Minimum Baking.)
Yesterday I did stairs 4 stories up & down, 5 rounds (parking structure). some days I take a long walk about 3.5 miles in the neighborhood. somedays run/ walk in empty parking structure. weights while watching tv. stretch in the morning (& trying to get into plank, squat, & wall-sit).
I don't think I would ever be comfortable going to gym, etc. but my local Kaiser has a health center (open to everyone) that does a lot of health seminar & programs with healthy eating/ body composition test, personal trainers, with medical backgrounds. they also have medical weight lost program (one would need to get clearance from doctor to start)... I'm contemplating checking them out...
How's that YMCA Program?
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I hear you, I try not to look at the scale either, but my waist band and snug pant legs tell me when it's time to get back to it. I've weighed 160 on my scale for so long now that I don't bother looking at it that often. I say 25lbs because I felt my best prior to my first preganancy when i weighed 135lbs
Sometimes my goal is just to get moving the first day, then the next and the next and the next... (if you can't find your 2lb weights how about a couple of cans of peas or some thing like that? )Yoga is so good for the body, and uses body weight for strength training. Keep going! Even that one day a week is so beneficial.
I found it daunting sometimes to think i should work out 30-40 minutes a day so I just aimed to move for 10-15 minutes, and I worked up to 30. Even now i usually pick work outs that I can finish in 20-25 minutes. I keep a journal so it's very satisfying to fill in a day with an activity. I found that when I set too abitious goals for myself in the past I often got really sore or discouraged and didn't go back to working out. When I gave myself permission to start slow and easy, I made much better progress.
When I started back to Crossfit I started off with really small goals. You could do the same thing.
And when I say small, I mean small for example,
Walk 5 minutes at as brisk a pace as you can for this week Mon, Wed and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday start with maybe 3 sets of 5 squats while picking up two cans of peas from the floor to the counter and back.
Next week walk 6-7 minutes Mon, Wed and Friday, and do 3 sets of 6-7 squats with the cans. You could use the peas and raise them from the counter over your head and back too, and do the squats seperatley.
My beginner crossfit work out was 'Mon Wed Fri 5 deadlifts ( is used something like 40lbs), Tues and Thurs run 400 m.'
I hope this is helpful and gives you the confidence that you can start, and that you'll get there.
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Hello, ladies. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas.
I am also thinking of how to set goals for next year. Like many of you, I also need to lose weight and I want to get my strength back. My oncologist hasn't said a word about the 25 pounds I have gained since I was diagnosed. I would love to get that gone this year!
Spurious, are you asking about Livestrong at the YMCA? I just finished the program and I thought it was helpful. We got to try a variety of exercise types (cardio machines, weight machines, yoga, tai chi, barre, TRX) and we had a nutritionist come speak to us. It was eye opening to meet survivors of other types of cancer, too. We did an assessment at the beginning and the end to see what improvements were gained. My leg strength improved by 50%! It's also a great way to ease into the gym atmosphere if you aren't used to that.
My hair almost covers my ears now!
Happy new year!
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Happy new year everyone from England!!
(Good to hear everyone's news. I'm in the middle of a bunch of investigations for back pain. Good news: no mets. Bad news: crumbling spine, slipped disc, "wear and tear" etc. But it's treatable I think.)
God bless all.
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Wishing us all a happy and healthy 2017!
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Lovely, Bluefrog. Giving thanks you're still with us and so well :-)
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Have anyone heard of this paper? it came across my search last night (I don't even remember what I was looking for...)
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/12/161227083500.htm
It's about using metformin & syrosingopine. I have read about the metformin trial on these board, but couldn't find much about syrosingopine (a high blood pressure med)
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Superius, I explored this option a few months ago, asked several doctor friends, was told it's experimental and no real evidence for it.
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Superious
Interesting. I talked with my MO about Metformin. He shared his experience with the drug stating that over the years numerous patients had sever side effects and problems with Metformin. He was not familiar with this study you posted I think it was regarding a study of Metformin alone and the drug in general.
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Saw this on Pinterest & it made me think of you ladies!
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:-)
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Hello ladies!
It's been a very, verrrrrrrrry long time! I just caught up with everyone's posts from the whole time I've been absent. Whew, y'all have been through a lot. I have too!
I finished my chemo in November 2015, then started Herceptin infusions. In March of 2016, on the recommendation of my MO, breast doctor, and genetic counselor, I had my ovaries out. Can't remember if I posted here about it, but we had a car accident on the freeway on the way to the hospital when the brakes on our old car didn't stop us in time at the end of a long string of people slamming on their brakes ahead of us.
Less than a crash, but more than a fender-bender; the car wasn't really drivable other than pulling off to the shoulder to wait for a tow truck. No one was badly hurt, although I bruised both my shins and my son was very scared (he was in the back seat, thank God, and not hurt at all). My husband handled all the post-accident business, and I got a ride to the hospital -- providentially, the people right in front of us were associated with the hospital where I was having the surgery, and knew exactly where to drive me to, so as soon as my husband told them where we were on our way to, they offered immediately. They were incredibly kind, especially given the situation.
I went through with the surgery, although everyone kept asking me if I wanted to back out, and offering to reschedule if I didn't feel like it. But it actually went very smoothly, and recovery was probably easier than any of my breast surgery experiences, although it took a really long time for one of the incisions to heal. In retrospect, I'm not sure it was the best idea to go through with the surgery after the accident, because I was very fuzzy-brained for the next couple of months, and unfortunately I wasn't able to follow through on things I should have been on top of regarding the car. That got expensive!
My Herceptin ended in November 2016, but I still have my port. (My doctor recommended keeping it until my preventive DMX so that they'll have access to it for anaesthesia.) That means it has to be flushed every month, but that's okay because it requires me to visit my MO and I often see my in-person "chemo buddies" there, so I can keep up with them.
I will meet with the person that I hope will be my breast surgeon in a couple of weeks. This is going to be my "third opinion". The first one was right after diagnosis, when I met with the local PS who works with my breast doctor. He is supposed to be very good, but he works in a small clinic and doesn't do a lot of analogous reconstruction, which is what I want to do if I can. So I'm checking out some of the big city hospital surgeons as an option. I had my "second opinion" several months ago, and honestly it kind of threw me for a loop, because the surgeon was not very encouraging and basically told me they didn't recommend DMX in my situation (in spite of BRCA1 status) -- because "all it does is reduce your chance of dying from breast cancer from 5% to 1%" -- which really doesn't sound all that pointless to me! My naturopath recommended this third surgeon, who works at a different hospital, one that uses integrated care including naturopathy, nutrition, massage, yoga, and even therapeutic knitting. I'm really looking forward to meeting with them. I've put this off long enough, and especially with health care law changes probably coming down the road, I want to get it over with sooner rather than later.
In the meantime, one of my friends was also diagnosed, and has been going through chemo and radiation treatment. She's almost done with her radiation. Seeing her with no hair was like looking in a strange sort of mirror. Here we are, in the same circle of friends, at the same ladies nights, only she's the bald one "with cancer" now and I'm the "healthy" one with hair. (And boy is there a lot of it, it's a mess of curls and I have to have it cut every four weeks. It's actually much thicker than it was before chemo. It's like a hair rebirth! Those hair club for men people really need to get on this chemo thing. LOL) And another friend, a former coworker, has passed away after battling ovarian cancer. Cancer touches all of us all the time, but once we've had it, our perspective changes, that's for sure -- for one thing, we know what it's like from the inside.
Reading over everyone's experiences, I've really wished I had stayed active on this board. I've been through many of the same things, including the overindulging after getting my appetite back, the Buddha belly phase (still working on that one!), the fuzzy-brain problems (thank God my work-mates are so understanding), the incredible lack of energy on some days, the scary-as-heck two-years-after-diagnosis mammogram (which was clear, phew).
One thing that happened for me -- and I don't know if anyone else went through this, but I'd be very curious to know -- is that during my 12 weeks of chemo I had an amazing burst of creative energy. Every day I was drawing (and I've never really drawn before), writing, daydreaming, thinking of new things to do and make. After chemo, all of that slowed way down and eventually sort of stopped, as my energy went back into work, raising our son, and trying to solve difficult issues for my elderly parents. My naturopath told me that I got a lot of energy from the steroids given during chemo, and prescribed American ginseng as a substitute (and also to help curb sugar/chocolate cravings, which got so bad the first few months post-chemo that I practically made cookies a new food group). Ginseng, astragalus, holy basil -- I change off to a different one each day -- definitely all help keep me going, but I don't feel the same sense of wellbeing that I did on steroids. Anyone else in that boat? (Kate, I'd be really curious to know how you got your writing mojo back! And also how you're doing on Effexor now.)
I've just started something new -- somatic psychotherapy. I've only had one session so far, but I really like the approach. It's similar to regular talk therapy, except that the therapist pays special attention to how you're holding yourself, your breathing, and your physical/emotional/mental state, and there's a therapeutic touch aspect to it as well. I think (hope!?!) that this will help me reintegrate body and mind and get me out of the rut I'm in and back to running.
I hope everyone is still doing well! I loved reading about how you are all recovering!
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GREAT update, Mom2aBoy. Car crash sounds lucky in the scheme of things - nobody badly hurt. Good luck with your next round of surgery.
I pop into this forum occasionally and am sort of relieved that most people have little to say now, with most of our treatment behind us. What a journey!
I'm doing OK, main health problem is my wobbly knee right now I'm glad to say.
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I'm so happy to see you are doing well Mom... keep on Keeping on!
I miss Kate.
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Great update Mom. Glad to hear things are going well.
I didn't realize until yesterday how far I have come. I was at my Yoga class(for cancer survivors) yesterday. There were a few new ladies there. One had a cap on and the other was wearing her wig. A friend and I started chatting with the one lady after class wanting to see how she enjoyed it. Well she ended up spilling her guts and was standing there crying. She is exactly where I was a year ago. We had our surgeries a year apart and finished chemo around the same time. My heart broke for her as I know exactly where she is....that feeling of being lost, stuck and an emotional wreck. I looked at myself and was proud of how far I have come. We encouraged her to come to our newly formed BC support group.
I along with 4 other ladies have started a peer support group. We didn't have a support group in our city so we came together and formed one. We hold them once a month. We have had 2 meetings so far. The first meeting we had 20 women show up in a blizzard. We had 30 at our second meeting. The meeting have been amazing, they are so loving and supportive. I wish I would have had access to a group like this when I was going through active treatment. So I am happy to be able to help others navigate their BC shitshow. I'm so thankful to be done with treatment and feeling good. Learning to accept this new normal has been a challenge but I think I'm there
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