My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer
Comments
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Mara, glad you're feeling better and are able to get out and walk. If you don't have a walking stick, I highly recommend getting one. I have one that is very lightweight and collapsible. It has saved me numerous times from taking a tumble.
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I have been super busy this week. The final part of the move starts tomorrow morning, so lots of ” lasts” to do (last lunch with old co-workers, last visit with friends, last trip to see the beach...), as well as getting things ready on both ends.
I have been reading and empathizing with all our ups and downs. These are just the most recent
Mara -so glad you're staying to feel better
moth! Broken pelvis?! Holy moly! It's good that it healed well.
Goldens - so nice to have family close by to help
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Mel - this shows what your living room is to me
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MoCo~ that’s a great idea ! The walking stick! I bet that could help a lot of people..
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runor, thanks for your comic relief this morning with pants yoga. It's so funny because I can relate. I lean against something so I don't end up falling on my face.
mara, my elbow is having sympathy pains for you just reading about how you're doing. Hope you feel better soon.
Goldens, I'm so glad you have your daughter nearby to help you and your husband.
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Kikomoon, I am curious by nature. This scan is just for a baseline and I am expecting progression because I've been off treatment. Now, the next CT will be a whole different ball game and I fully expect the dread will creep to the forefront.
Candy, ugh, that's a hefty price tag to absorb. My blood thinner costs around $100 a month. I'm just glad that my co-pay is only $20 or I would be hard pressed to afford it.
Runor, I was eligible for Piqray so I withdrew from the clinical trial. Luckily I won't have to be travelling 6 hours for treatment this time. No yogurt making for me. I've tried making many things but not yogurt.
GoldensRBest, so glad to hear your hubby is doing better.
Mara, I'm happy to hear that your arm is tolerable and am wishing that it gets a bit better each day. You have enough on your plate right now. Optimus prime variant … love it!!
I’m planning a lazy, do nothing day. Maybe I’ll finish wrapping Christmas gifts, maybe not. I guess I should finally make a decision on what to cook for Christmas dinner before the stores are all sold out. I was originally thinking about roast beef just to be different this year but roast prices are outrageous right now so that’s out. We may be back to the standard turkey. Decisions, decisions.
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runor, you are responsible for waking up my husband last night. Actually, it was about 3 AM and I couldn't sleep, so I was reading the BCO posts. Yours made me laugh so hard that I shook the bed and woke up my husband. I totally get the part about trying to get your pants on! I sit on the edge of the tub to get my socks and pants on. Never thought of it as yoga!
Goldens, what a scare. I hope things get more towards stable very soon.
Mara, glad to hear you're beginning to mend.
Bone scan results came back - basically stable. I'll take it.
Happy Friday everyone!
Carol
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Congrats on the stable scans, Sunshine!!!
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Sunshine- Woohoo on bone scan stable
Well I got approved for free Lynparza from Astra Zenica. With my insurance--- Part D prescription plan with Medicare---- my copay was to be $3,032.91 a month for Lynparza. I applied for patient assistance thru AZ and was approved--- based on income. Right now I am on hold on the phone to find out how and when they will ship my refills to me. My hold time is estimated to be 1 hour !!! So my phone is on speaker and I am doing other things while I wait.
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Follow up was good, neuro rads onc said “You’re a veteran at this, so brain MRI is all good and there’s nothing new”. I had no questions, so I let her get on to patients who need more time. The chat and neuro exam was maybe 5 minutes.
Our friend was discharged yesterday, so we’re heading back to the cabin now and will pick him up in San Antonio on the way. We’ll miss monkey cat but she’ll be happy to be home with her dad. We are staying a couple days to make sure he’s fully capable, then home for a few weeks.
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Mae- Woohoo !!! Being a "veteran at this" and all. Hope your weekend with your friend is good.
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Goldens - sorry about Hub, that is scary but hooray for daughter! I hope he is on the mend and stays that way.
Candy - you're describing disco! I also get no endorphin joy from exercise. To me sweating for the pleasure of sweating is just stupid. But add loud music and it's a whole other ballgame. I am the annoying neighbour whose house now and then emits extremely loud music for the listening pleasure of all my neighbours, and they aren't even that close! But I love dancing - well it's more like jiggly flopping, really - but in my mind it's dancing. Find some tunes that make your toe tapping a treat and it changes the whole experience. Crank that stereo! (I have the Pioneer stereo I had when I was 16 years old, which makes it in excess of 40 years old, and that things BLASTS the cobwebs out of the basement. I am pretty sure that stereo is responsible for my early onset hearing loss. It was worth it!)
SeeQ - perfect illustration of the support we weave.Sunshine - my sincere apologies to Hub! Ha ha!
Cowgirl - when Horse Daughter had critters here, after she has moved out, the last thing I did every night before bed was coat and boot up and trudge out to toss hay and make sure there was water and horses were actually in the pen and not running amok in the neighbourhood. I swear that little bit of fresh air and exercise vastly improved the quality of my sleep. That and having big, beautiful beasts nicker softly at me as they wait at the gate, that does something for one's heart too. And now we're going to talk about yogurt, cause, yogurt.
Hub used to take yogurt in his lunch every day for years then several years ago he stopped. He has since, over a period of time, developed nightly acid reflux that gets him out of bed in misery to gulp antacids. I wondered if maybe a probiotic would improve his gut situation. I have tried getting him to take probiotic pills, but getting him to do anything for his own good over an extended time is like pulling teeth, so that went nowhere.
I am not a big yogurt eater but now and then buy myself a carton and have it, mixed with cottage cheese, for lunch. But man, the price of dairy products these days! Hub with bad gut and the price of dairy made me wonder about making my own. So with the help of many Youtube tutorials I gave it a go. I am bloody impressed with the results! I strain my yogurt in a colander lined with cheesecloth for several hours and I end up with thick, creamy, lovely, sweet stuff that is more like sour cream than the thin, gelatinous yogurts some companies make. I use whole milk and no, I do NOT think this is diet food! But I have used this yogurt on perogies and baked potatoes and in my wraps in place of sour cream and wow, I am blown away! I don't think it's all that much cheaper since a carton of whole milk is almost $5 and you do not end up with a carton of yogurt. You loose 1/4 to 1/3 volume as whey, depending on how long your strain it. BUT... if you are creative the whey is not a waste product. I use the saved whey as the starter to make my next batch of yogurt. I also add the whey as liquid to bread dough. Yesterday I made chocolate chip cookies with some whey thrown in. I am even as we speak fermenting carrots in whey - yup, this is a thing, who knew?!
Cowgirl, now for the bit that truly impressed me with myself. I have no instapot. No yogurt maker. I have a crock but it runs too hot. First batch I followed the 'wrap in towel and leave on table' method and it failed. People wrap and set on top of fridge (this seemed fraught with disaster to me) or set in styrofoam cooler with jars of hot water overnight. Too bulky for me. Hmmm...I need extended, slow warmth that is not annoying or a spill risk. My oven light does not generate any heat at all so that suggestion was a bust. Then it struck me! I put my pickle jar (or two) of mixed milk into a cold oven and set in a lit tealight and close the door. You would not think a tiny candle can make that much heat, but you would be surprised! One tea light (not scented, not a votive) will burn for 3-4 hours and generate enough heat to keep those jars toasty warm to the touch. Open the oven in the morning and perfect yogurt awaits you. No electricity required. A puny tea light you can buy 100 of them for $10 at the dollar store. One time I stupidly let my milk get too cool and thought uh oh, this little candle will not be able to raise the temp of cold milk, so I added a second candle and it warmed that milk to the perfect temp! So no wrapping, no cooler, no fridge balancing, no instapot , no crockpot, no electricity needed. In the oven, light a candle, close door and go to bed. Yogurt for breakfast!
We flavour it by stirring in jam. My own jam is very low sugar and more tart than sweet so to satisfy Hub's sweet tooth we bought store jam cause it's a full sugar product. Now he makes himself a layered parfait, alternating jam and thick, creamy yogurt, topped with a sprinkle of granola. Wow. Too soon to tell if it has improved his gut health, but I think I've gained at least 5 pounds, and feeling quite chuffed with my no gizmo, no electricity yogurt. I eat my product and feel like I'm winning at life. Cowgirl, make yogurt!0 -
Sunshine & Mae, So happy for your results! Keep on keepin on!
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Sunshine~ yay on stable bone scan ! Runor has that effect on us all! Lololol.
Mae ~ you too. Congrats on stable.
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SeeQ - what a beautiful poster of us! Love reading all the posts - my heart aches with the bad news but rejoices in good news. Wishing everyone peace in what can be a stressful time for many reasons.
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Runor- I love your yogurt method! Wow the disco music that everyone loved to hate but hey that was my era. I remember going out to work grab something to eat ,have a rest and then heading out to the discotheque until early morning. Exercising to any kind of music or dancing is the way to go. Of course putting on those damn pants first is yoga in itself. I love love love horses. I never owned any but I use to go riding. My friends owned race horses and they had this one horse that was crazy and would nip you every time. One time we were visiting them with my special son when this crazy horses came running for the fence. My son stood there and this horse was as gentle as could be with him and even allowed my son to rub its nose. We couldn't believe it but that horse knew he was special. Actually I was told the horse just died at 32 years of age!
Sunshine- and Mae- Yay!
Candy - mostly all the drugs are covered here so we are lucky. When my Ibrance wasn't covered my oncologist and provincial health got involved and took care of all the phone calls etc. Now my pharmacist takes care of all the calls and paperwork. One less thing to worry about .
I don't know about the rest of you but this covid crap has hit the ceiling again with numbers infected. Today we had 31 alone which is terrible for our small island. We have a total of 79. I know Ontario has also doubled in its numbers. We are hitting the "circuit breaker " as they say.
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Yay Sunshine! Congrats on your stable bone scan!
Rumor - Do you have a recipe you follow? I love yogurt but haven’t had it for a little while. I may have developed a dairy sensitivity. But maybe if I can control the ingredients and limit my serving, I can enjoy some of this deliciousness!
Happy Friday ladies
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Katyblu - it's so easy it's almost criminal.
Ingredients: milk (skim, 2%, whole, whole plus some whipping cream, up to you) and a tub of PLAIN yogurt from the store that says live or active bacterial culture on the label. Must be plain, no flavour, and must have active culture - read labels.
I use empty pickle jars as units of measurement and to culture the yogurt in in the oven.
Pour a pickle jar of milk into a pot. On medium heat let this milk heat to 180F or watch the top to get foamy and the surface to be moving as if hot. Stir. Do not allow to scorch. Do not crank it up to high. Do not boil the hell out of it. Foamy, bubbly, steaming is the goal. This will take a while over med. heat. Be patient.
You have taken about 3 tablespoons of yogurt out of your store tub and it's n a bowl, warming up a bit. Adding cold yogurt to hot milk will shock the little yogurt cooties and they will die. So you want to get your yogurt up to room temp while your milk heats.
Now that your milk is heated, it has to cool down again - remember, we don't want to fry the yogurt cooties! You cna hasten cooling by setting the pot in a sink of cold water but watch it! It cools quicker than you think and too cold will freeze the yogurt cooties. Tender little things that they are. When you can hold a finger comfortably in the milk for 10 seconds, it's good to go. If it burns you, it will burn the cooties.
Spoon a little warmed milk into your bowl of yogurt. Stir gently. Now dump this into the pot of milk and stir gently to mix. Slow and careful is the key.
Pour this into your pickle jar, which you have warmed up having it full of hot water. (obviously you dump the water out!) Set your pickle jar in the oven, light your little tea light, set it in there too and go to bed. You can cover top of jar with loose lid if you want.
In morning your yogurt should be thick and set. Line colander with cheese cloth and dump in yogurt. Have a bowl or pie plate under colander. Let it sit on the counter and drain. After an hour or more, scoop it into a container and put it in the fridge. The liquid that comes of will be mostly clear and yellowish in colour. This is whey and has many uses - look it up! The longer it drains, the thicker it will be. It will get thicker still as it gets cold. You can add in some of the whey if you feel the yogurt is too thick. It will separate as it sits but just stir it up before serving. If your starter store yogurt was mild and smooth, your home yogurt will be mild and smooth. If it was tangy and lumpy, your home yogurt will be tangy and lumpy. Buy a starter yogurt that you know you like as it will give you the best characteristics for your own yogurt.
Save some of your plain yogurt or whey for your next batch. Keep in fridge for up to 3 weeks. To remake, heat milk as above, warm your yogurt or whey and add in when milk has cooled. I use the whey to make more yogurt, adding about 1/3 cup to almost a full pickle jar of milk. Well, the pickle jars aren't totally full, I leave some room at the top, but mostly full.
Flavour with jam, fruit, maple syrup, whatever you like. Feel totally impressed with yourself, you've earned it! (PS. In all my internet searching I came across no one who suggested using a candle (little tea light) to warm a closed oven. It might be out there but I didn't find it . So you might have heard it here first, folks! An original idea! But maybe not...)0 -
Did some purging and got things ready to donate before the lockdown starts. I know we have 50 per cent capacity but just want to be sure.
Mel, my arm is still sore but not surprised, saw a gigantic bruise I had not noticed on the underside of the arm, just above the elbow but overall, still using it as normal. Use the left hand for things that may cause extra pain. Tylenol and Advil have done their jobs. The scab and swelling on my face are ugly but healing. I did go shopping last night and no problem getting around so some walking is totally fine. Thank for asking.
Booked my booster shot for Jan 2, 1st appointment I could get. Unfortunately my province has entered a lockdown situation again due to the Optimus Prime variant. I was going to see Spiderman with a friend on New Year's Day but movie theatres have cut back capacity and you cannot have anything to eat or drink. Told my friend we should stream it and order in instead when it comes out in streaming. Not going to a movie without popcorn and the whole thing. We are still doing Christmas though, not a huge group here.
Lockdowns do suck but would rather hospitals are not overrun. Just keeping on top of the lockdown procedures but other than that, not following this new variant, masking as usual etc. I will shop early in the morning and do outdoor exercise as usual and walk outdoors instead. Will not watch endless news reports about it.
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Runor - yogurt cooties! You are too funny!
Sunshine and Mae- congrats for good results! 🎉
Candy- $3,000 copay is crazy! Good thing there is a program to help. I’m not even going to tell y’all how much Humana pays for my Tukysa, you’ll pass out.
Mara - glad the pain is getting more manageable and you’re out and about.
Speaking of boosters, masks, and Optimus Prime - my MIL, FIL, SIL and niece are coming to our house from Dallas area for Christmas. Since BIL passed away this year they want to do something different for the holidays by coming here. I see on Facebook they are all out doing all kinds of things. I’m getting nervous. Is there a rapid Covid test I can ask them to take?
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Mara~you have really been through a lot this past month. I hope you’re continuing to heal nicely.
It was almost 60 here today crazy ass weather. I did some wrapping and am close to being done. Every year they sucker me into stockings. 20,24,25,26. Ages lol I’m pathetic.
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I figured out how to copy and paste the link to my exercise video I have been doing. I found it on You Tube just scrolling around. There may be some better options, but I just stick with this one and exercise to it. It is 30 minutes long. Try it and see if you can do it easier than me !!!!
The lady on the right that has the hand weights is doing a more impact version. I stick with low impact like the chubbier lady on the left and the instructor.
Edited to say- Remember my posts lately. I said I modify some of the exercises. I have a bad shoulder so I cannot do the above the arm stuff with 1 of my arms. And my hip and knees bother me so I do not lift my knees as high as they do and my legs don't spread as wide as them. So I modify some poses. The instructor is sweaty at the end, and I am not. But he is talking all the time and I am alone in my house so I am not talking to anyone. And the other day 20 minutes in I hit the fatigue wall and had to stop. I hope what I am doing is enough exercise to count though.
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Edited to add Candy, what you are doing is more than enough. The fact you keep trying with what is stacked against you shows your strength. Know how strong you are to push past what you are dealing with all the time and know this is enough movement and as you do it, you will get stronger or at least stable in what you can do.
I will look into that workout Candy once my arm heals up.
Yes, I have had some bad stuff happen, but a good couple of things. I am desperate to see the new Spiderman and the theatre is packed but wanted to get in before they impose the no food/drink policy which starts this Sunday. Got a ticket in a decent seat and should still be able to get food/drink. I will be alone and will still watch it with my friend in future but we don't want to go to the movies without drinks/snacks. I should be fine because that does not start til Sunday.
The other good thing was I was able to book the booster for Jan 2 so that is good. Finally got some happy stuff to report for a change. This movie will be the last time I am at a theatre until restrictions are lifted.
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Mara- so glad you are feeling better to go to the theater to see Superman. I hope you enjoy the show with your popcorn and drink.
Candy- you are doing so good with your exercise regimen. Whether 10 minutes or 30 minutes I salute your determination
Mel- no matter how old our sons and daughters are they still want the traditions of childhood memories such as stockings
This past week my energy has been drained. Feeling icky and depression has set in. I miss my family and wish I could get more help with things around the house. I feel alone on so many levels. When people speak of meltdowns I tend to let everything out when I'm alone. I'm the one who is supposed to hold everything together and be the "strong one" for everyone else. I think the weight on my shoulders is caving in. I'd love to just go outside and let a huge scream out. Probably scare the wildlife though!
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just had this long post disappear ugh! I hate when that happens l! Cancer is very lonely Once you get it you feel like you are a drift someplace you know looks familiar, but everything has changed It's lonely and frustrating and many more things But I also get lonely because of it I've been trying to stay positive lately
I was sitting ina store listening to these ladies complaining about planning this baby shower And they really were going at it So I stopped and said I have stage four cancer and would love to know that one day I'll even get to meet my grandchildren So I'd switch places with you in a second They looked liked they just hurt a puppy . People need to be morethankful . Too much complaining going on I'm trying to be happier That's why I sought the therapist Which I start relatively soon There is a backup in the mental field because everyone is losing their minds…..
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Mel and LivingIV life,
I totally get the feeling. I have been sad, and feeling alone and invisible this week. Finally starting to snap out of it. Mel, I can’t stand people complaining about living life either. I feel the same way when my coworkers complain about their jobs which are really quite cush. I haven’t blurted out yet that it’s the last job I’m going to have, but I’m close. They just have no perspective as they are not like us staring this thing in the face.
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Mel, I feel the same about people complaining about small stuff. I have not told them to be grateful but I definitely think it and totally get why this bothers you, it bothers me too. I miss my old life where I had a condo I paid for with my mother and the biggest worry was spending less money and getting another job. I did surveys while working and did quite well. I would rather only have bills to pay off to worry about.
I am going to see Spiderman today. This does excite me. Last day to have popcorn and this makes my heart feel happy for the first time in a long time between the property stuff and falling last weekend. Still look pretty freaky. Probably cover the scab with a band aid so it is less visible. After this we go back into lockdown procedures tomorrow.
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Mara~ enjoy the movie. Yay you!
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LivingIVLife, yeah, looking forward to it. Want my popcorn and drink so go before the restrictions start. They don't make too much sense, banning movie theatre eating but allowing people to eat at restaurants for example. Cannot even drink anything. Oh well, going today and will see it with my friend in the future and enjoy like it was the first time watching together. Have you guys got a new restrictions headed your way?
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I also wish people would Keep their opinions to themselves. Relatives think they are doctors . And everyone knows someone with this or that. I don't even want to talk about it. In fact I'd prefer talking about having a gum scraped more. Not a lot of sensitivity sometimes. You guys get it. More knowledgeable and understanding!
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