Starting Radiation October 2019
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mocame, sorry to hear the delay.
Kamboka, March sounds very busy. I have SO appointment and Colonoscopy. I think that's it.
TeriJ, how is your skin?
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mocame: Your gyn surgery is in two weeks, correct? Will it be laparoscopic? When do you expect to have the implant surgery? Maybe the skin will heal normally even though it's been irradiated.
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Kamboka - My OOPH is scheduled for 3/17 and it will be laparoscopic. The surgery is on a Tuesday and I hope to be back at work the following Monday, but we will see. My PS won't even talk to me about the surgery to exchange the implant until around May or June. I was told that changes can happen to my skin and/or reconstruction/implant up to a full year after radiation. A year would be November 16. So I'm assuming they wouldn't want to do any surgery until at least November 16th or later. I was also told by my BS and MO's PA that radiated skin takes longer to heal. So, my implant exchange surgery could take longer to heal than it normally would if I was just going to switch out the implants due to age or rupture without it being radiated.
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mocame: I thought it was that week. I'm having my upper endoscopy on the 18th. I hear that with the laparoscopic, that the recover is very fast. Is your job a desk job? If so, it should be okay. I'm lucky that we have liberal telework. I try not to abuse that privilege and mainly went to the office during my year of treatment.
Not only does radiation change the skin but I'm also feeling that chemo changes how our body and skin react. I find that I have more problems with red spots, bruising, allergy to the tapes, etc.
petite1: When is your colonscopy?
TeriJ: Are you feeling better since more time has passed after rads?
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Good morning. Colonoscopy is March 12.
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Okay. That's my GYN consult day. We'll all have to keep checkiing in.
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Hello everyone!
Sounds like you three have upcoming surgeries. I hope all goes well and you have speedy recoveries. I am doing better each day. The itching is lessening. Thank goodness. I’m ready for the tenderness to subside so I can massage the scar tissue so my boob doesn’t look so wrinkly and weird. But then, I don’t really care what it looks like as long as I have 100% range of motion without pain.
May all of you have a restful week to prepare for your surgeries. Eat lots of natural vitamin rich foods and drink lots of water.
I see MO tomorrow which I was hoping to postpone for a month, but they tracked me down. Likely I’ll come home with a script for Letrozole. Hoping the SEs are minimal or not noticeable.
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TeriJ: Keep doing your arm exercises and hopefully you'll not have any problems. I try to do mine daily but occasionally forget. So far so good. I guess you'll get to join us with the AIs. I'm starting on month four. The first two were a bit rocky but this last month was good. I mainly worry about future osteoporosis.
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It sounds like we all have procedures happening around the same time. Keep us up-to-date.
TeriJ - I echo what Kamboka said. Keep doing the exercises and that will help. I was so scared to take an AI due to all the bad side effects that I had heard about. From what my MO told me and I read here on the boards, most people have little to few SEs on them and the SEs that women do have can be helped. I have been taking anastrozole (Arimidex) for 3 months and they say the first few months are the worst. My moodiness went away within the first couple of weeks. My hot flashes have gotten better since the beginning and I am also checking my thyroid to see if it's acting up and may be contributing to them. I just started with the bone/joint achiness a couple of weeks ago. Not terrible and definitely doable. The key is to exercise, keep moving, and drink lots of water. I've tripled the amount of water that I drink just at work, let alone when I am home. I've had this cancer twice now. I need to do what I can to keep it from coming back again. You can do this! Talk to your MO and the women on these boards. They are here to help you and learn from! Best wishes!
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Good morning, everyone. I hope we all have a good month. I still do the arm exercises and still use the aquaphor on my radiated skin. There is an area that still feels different, but the rest is soft and smooth. The scar is still deep, but in time.
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I was still using Aquaphor and my Aveeno lotion every day until I had my 2 biopsies done a few weeks ago. Until they completely heal, I can only use the Aveeno lotion on areas around the biopsies. Hoping everything stays okay until I can get back to using the Aquaphor.
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I still use my coconut/calendula oil mixture every morning. I can't use it at night since the oil causes me to have night sweats. I don't get them much since I've gotten use to the AI and since the MO started me on Celexa.
I met with my supervisor today. We discussed my going back overseas in July. My medical clearance came through but it's specific to whichever country I go to. I have worked overseas for over half of my adult life so on the one hand, I'm ready to go. On the other, I've gotten comfortable being around the USA where I have more options. It will all depend on how my GYN and mammogram come out so I can't wait to get these tests done so I will know what to do next. If I go back overseas in July or August, I need to start making plans by April.
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Kamboka, Where do you travel to? Sounds like an interesting lifestyle.
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I normally work in Africa--unless travel gets curtailed due to the coronavirus. Hopefully, it will have decreased in the next few months. I also have to work my surgery into my calendar as the doctor wants me to be in the USA for four months afterwards.
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Kamboka, hopefully it will. On the map they show on TV, it does not look like many cases are in Africa. I guess that could change in a day.
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Tomorrow is three weeks and still no pap report. I sent a note to my NP yesterday and the office responded that it wasn't back yet. I've never had a pap take three weeks before.
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Kamboka, I hope no news is good news.
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Kamboka - I hope your test results come back soon and is good news. I think all of us have either testing, procedures, or surgery in the next week or two. Praying everything goes well for everyone!
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Good morning, ladies. I hope everyone has a good week.
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I still don't have my pap results. I see the new GYN on Thursday and was hoping to have the results to share. They don't usually take this long for results so I hope they didn't lose my specimen.
I am most anxious to have the mammo on the 30th. I have two lumps below my node incision and am hoping it's just fat necrosis. Of course, when I check my unaffected breast, it feels like lumps everywhere. Probably just old bumpy breast that I've had forever but didn't check much.
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Kamboka, I hope you get the results. It is just not right to make you wait that long.
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Kamboka - The waiting is the worst! I hope you get them today before your appt. Is the Coronovirus affecting your job at all?
I had a pap smear done on Monday for my pre-op appt. Tomorrow I go in for bloodwork for my thyroid and cholesterol levels. My co-worker is sick for the 2nd time in about 2 weeks. I'm not happy about it because if I get sick I will have to cancel my surgery. Lots of handwashing and hand sanitizer but hand sanitizer is a hot commodity right now! Yesterday after work, I went to get my prescriptions for my surgery and it was crazy. I never saw so many empty shelves at Walmart. Our Walmart was 100% out of toilet paper and not a lot of paper towels left. And of course any kind of disinfectant was non-existent. I use rubbing alcohol for my homemade household cleaning spray and those shelves were empty. I won't be able to make that for awhile.
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mocame, Wow. I heard about the run on the stores, but it hasn't happened here, yet.
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mocame: I have also been thinking about cancelled surgeries. Yours is next week so hopefully it won't get cancelled due the Covid situation or you getting sick. You are doing the right things with hand washing and try to stay as far away from your co-worker as possible. At my job, we are getting messages making sure we are capable of teleworking if necessary. That is making us all suspicious that we might be doing that. I hope not. It will cause so much economic downturn.
I was ordering some groceries today when I realized I didn't have much. I went to order toilet paper and the prices seemed to have doubled. Crazy how TP is becoming so important. I have a few tubes of disinfectant wipes and a bottle of alcohol and aloe so I can make my own. The place where I order my goat milk soap says they are making extra hand sanitizer with nice fragrances if you are interested. Here is there address: goatmilkstuff.com.
I hope your pap comes back normal. I sent another note yesterday to my NP office and they wrote back that the specimen was not lost--they were just slow. She promised to follow up today so I could have the resiults for my GyN visit tomorrow but I haven't heard back from them.
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I saw the new GYN today. She was amazed that it's been four weeks and no pap smear result back yet. She will call the office herself tomorrow. She did not do an exam but we just talked. She said I had two options. Since I had some complications earlier she would not do a simple biopsy in the office as it would be too painful. Either I can do the hysterocopy with D&C or go straight to hysterectomy. I told her I want to do the scope first and then decide what to do. She's thinking in April. That is, unless all elective surgery gets cancelled d/t corona.
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Kamboka - Sounds like you have a good GYN looking out for you. I hope your results come quickly now that she is working on it.
I'm hoping elective surgeries don't get cancelled. I'm still holding my breath about Tuesday's OOPH. So much happens so quickly. It can change by the minute. I'm also dealing with my kids and what is going on with their schooling. One in high school and one in college. Plus I work for a retirement community so precautions have been changing by the day.
I had my bloodwork done yesterday and already got at least most, if not all, of the results back. My TSH is normal now and it was low during radiation. So that's good. I have a problem with losing too much potassium due to one of my regular medications and it showed low. When it's low I get the same aches, pains, and stiffness that you can get with the Anastrozole. So, now I don't know how much of those symptoms are from low potassium and how much is SEs from the AI. So I need to go start taking potassium supplements again to get that number back up and see if that changes my SEs at all.
What are you taking for your hot flashes? I'm not taking anything and now that my thyroid test came back normal, it doesn't look like I have that contributing to them. They aren't terrible but my MO thinks I shouldn't be getting them as often as I do.
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Good morning. The colonoscopy was all good. I do not have to go back for 10 years and probably won't worry about that.
mocame, I imagine this is difficult with your kids and job, plus all the medication issues going on. I am a retired NHA and can picture all the cleaning, training, and precautions going on in the retirement community. I was working during H1N1 and that was bad, but this is something out a SiFi novel.
Kamboka, what a difficult decision. I hope it doesn't get cancelled.
The DG ran out of toilet paper. Yikes. This is craziness.
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petite1: So glad your colonoscopy was negative. That's one relief and something you don't have to worry about for many years. I ordered some groceries this week. The delivery was 1 1/2 late because they were so swamped. The toilet paper I bought had gone up a few dollars. Tomorrow I'm heading to CVS to see if I can get paper towels. On one of my blogs, a fellow wrote this that I thought was funny: "If you wanted to wipe your ass in my home town right now, you'd need to borrow a Montgomery Ward's catalog. 🤡"
mocame: I am keeping my fingers crossed that you don't get cancelled. I guess it depends on where you live and how many cases. I'm assuming that in WA and NY, near the epicenters, might be cancelling elective surgeries. I'm in the DC area and we have less than 30 cases at the moment. We actually don't have a lot of high level hospitals so it would be bad it too many people need care.
Did they not give you a potassium prescription? I take some over the counter potassium occasionally but I don't think they are very strong. It's good your thyroid is not affect and has improved. My MO put me on an SSRI (celexa) for the hot flashes. It did reduce them considerably. In February, I very seldom had any night sweats after two miserable months before. I have noticed that in the last two weeks, I've had one or two each night. Still much better than the seemingly continuous ones. The Turmeric is still helping with the joint pain. Did you try it?
My nutrition classes were cancelled until further notice. I have to go every month to get qualified for my bariatric surgery. We can still do a private class, if you can get an appointment.
Today we were told that we have to telework on Monday. Not sure about the rest of the week. I don't really want to be home long as I like having some social interaction each day. We'll see. We live in interesting times!
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Wow! Everyday bring so many changes due to the COVID-19. Both of my kids are home for at least 2 weeks. Thankfully, I still have a job to go to but I can't work from home.
The bad news is that I woke up this morning a little stuffy and clearing my throat because it feels like my sinus are draining. This morning I started drinking A LOT of water. I probably drank at least 8 cups of water in 4 hours. I also started using Simply Saline and spraying my nose every hour. I felt pretty good this afternoon and evening. I did get tired this afternoon and laid down for an hour, otherwise, I feel fine and hope it stays that way because I don't want to have my surgery cancelled on Tuesday. And I also wouldn't be able to go to work until everything is cleared up. {Sigh}.
I am on day 2 of taking potassium supplements and I haven't noticed many aches and pains since yesterday afternoon. My PCP's nurse called me yesterday and said I am to continuously take potassium supplements (my old PCP said only to take when I have symptoms, not everyday), and I have to go back in a month for more bloodwork to check the potassium level again.
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mocame: So sorry to hear about the cough and scratchy throat. My colleagues and i were laughing on Friday how just having 'allergies' or 'post nasal drip' makes people look at us like we are contagious. Have you tried the Vit C with Zinc? I've been taking mega doses for the last four months and it seems to be offering some protection. If you don't have, try the fruits and orange juice to get yourself better before Tuesday. As "trigger happy" as everyone is nowadays, just one sniffle might cause a delay in surgery. I'm hoping for the same good health for my procedure on Wednesday.
I'm glad to hear the the potassium is helping.
Good luck with the kids being home and bored all day.
I'm hearing some places are closing restaurants. Ugh! I don't want to try to cook every meal--since I'm working from home.0
