Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?

Cami, I am doing okay ... just in a quiet, reflective phase ... thanks for asking.  I hope your D is gone.

I am reading everyone's posts and thinking of all of you.

Silly me ... was planning what to wear to a party at my son's tomorrow night ... texted him a question about it ... he texted back that it is a week from tomorrow night.  Oops!

Puffin, I hope your SOB settles down ... being "off" on a week end is a trial.

MomMom, thinking of you ... why do you have to wait until the 16th? ... might you not need the shot then? ... waiting is stressful!

Anne, it is good to hear that your life seems to have settled down.  I know how the anxiety builds before tests/scans.  Take good care of yourself.

Jackie and Chevy, thank you for keeping the thread going when there was an issue.  

I better skedaddle to Walmart before the week end mob ... need some Viactiv chews.  I would rather take a calcium pill and several, but had trouble swallowing them.  Maybe I'll look at the calcium that dissolves in water.  I could mix it with my Miralax?

Back from what turned out a marathon cardio visit because I ended up getting a ct scan. The 4th person to come in to try to get a vein insisted she needed to use my right arm and I insisted right back that her choice was the left. #5 came in and got it. Waiting for results because cardio wants to make sure I didn't have a PE after recent readings from my pacemaker monitor. He said he needed to rule it out because I've been through a lot of procedures this year.

He told me about his six year old philosopher daughter who asked if the universe has an end. Deep thoughts for six and at nearly that age my son just wanted to know which one was Round John Virgin when he looked at the nativity. 

Cammie Hugs

Puffin, sorry, u call if it grts worse

Sally, hru

Anne glad u r in ga out of the range of fire, take of ursel

Jackie  u r so wonderful

Chevy: I haven't started radiation yet so all this weakness is totally from chemo. My butt is getting sore from sitting in the recliner. Lew's going to take me to Sam's Club today, we're out of string cheese and fiber bars, will have a slice of pizza for lunch, I can slowly push the cart and get a little exercise.

The treatment section won't let me just put in Oct 2014 for a start of radiation, and when I check the "not scheduled yet" box, it just shows radiation in my summary,

Well, my day is made.  What great posts.  I did get what Teacher said --- just didn't respond right then and I'm so forgetful about coming back to my computer for specific entries.  If others ( on any thread ) have come in......I tend to deal with what I'm seeing now.  I'm really bad that way.  I did mean to comment though as that was just too funny.  Just proves sometimes with age limits ( very young or old ) you just end up going with WHAT you HEAR. 

Chevy you probably know this -- with my hearing aids ( which I'm so terrifically grateful for ) most of the time things are fine but with dh who mumbles, and others who talk when t.v. or some other pervasive sound is going on, who knows what I will hear.....if anything.  People automatically think if you have hearing aids all is fine, and a good part of the time it is --- but there are characteristics which still cause some interference to crop up.  Mine are set so that noises behind me are much less noticeable....so if you want to make sure I hear something.....have to make dh repeat when I've turned around etc.  Also I will hear the loudest tone level most......so if t.v. is on and dh talks.....I have to insist he speak up.  The consistent higher pitch and tone of the t.v. is what I will have the tendency to hear most.   

Chemo can cause a lot of discomforts.  I had plenty on A/C but that was mainly from the nausea and vomiting.  They have great meds for that but I was hopeless at figuring out when to take them.  Then the Tamoxifen --- now that one causes your bones to all feel like concrete and to hurt/ache.  Fortunately......you have your infusion and fine for a couple of days, then the third or fourth day you are going into ( if you have them at all ) feellable effects, and that lasts just a short while -- maybe three to five days and then you start going up from there. 

It wore me out having the bone pain issues because it is somewhat constant while you have it.  Fortunately for me ( and I'm grateful and knocking on wood so hard here as if that really does anything ) I could sleep so well once I went to sleep and though I would still be somewhat tired.....it would not "get" to me too much until late afternoon.  This was quite some time ago now, but I doubt most people forget since there are so MANY aspects to tx. Going bald, getting bad fingernails or toenails, losing all your bodily hair......and I did lose 38#'s and all the other things....headaches, nasty mouth flavors --- it is very consuming and for me a little depressing.  For me, up till I started chemo 6 mos. of life was going really fast.  In some ways though....after starting chemo, it went so slow.  So Puffin, we just have to keep putting one foot in front of the other best we can.......till we out-pace all that old chemo and radiation. 

Stormed through the night but we are having really cool temps. today.....I am loving that.  I think it could rain a little more but due to clear this afternoon.

See you all later.

Blessings

Jackie

And I'll bet you also have hair on your chest!    Take a picture, and put the rumors to rest.   Okay, let's not talk about what we DON'T have..... Ha!  It's like I have to take out my hearing aids when I go to bed..... I don't take my upper plate out though....  IT says in there, come hell or high-water....  unless there is a request for me...... oh never mind.

And I don't have many of those girlie parts either..... don't think we need them anymore...   See, we lost the baby carriage, but not the play-pen.

Oh come ON girls.... I'm just teasing!

Jackie, YES!  DD from Orlando thinks my hearing aids make it so I have normal hearing, or that I need NEW ones!  That is sooooooo not true.... but I have to go along WITH her, to make her happy.  AND what's even worse, is she thinks I should wear TENNIS shoes, and not my cute little suede wedgie Crocs!  Of ALL the nerve....  

SO,  if I am minding her, I will get new hearing aids, (which would NOT improve my hearing)...... And new shoes that are NOT Crocs, (so I will never twist my ankle again)  and there is one other thing I must do, but I must have completely blown THAT request off....  It's like WHEN did my Daughter become my Mother?  I know they are only trying to help, and protect me, BUT sometimes I should just hold my hand up, and say "tell it to the hand."  Hah!

Puffin, that is probably true.... about the chemo..... I didn't have it..... I think they figured I was much too old to go through anymore....  Besides I whined a lot....  sort of.

I had the MammoSite device for radiation, so I didn't go through the "normal" type of radiation....  I just remember being so tired from that.

Cami and Chevy, I remember times when I knew what was right for my mother.  Now I giggle because I realize I really did not know ... now that I have reached "that age."  Someday, I hope my kids will know why I do the things I do ... when they reach my age.  Lately, I seem to be understanding how my mother was and why she acted the way she did ... I may have her all wrong but, at least, I am seeing her with "new eyes."  I am finding the new perspectives interesting.

Mimi, yay 4 clown gigs and big hugs 4 the mammo with good resuls

Cammie n chevy, thanks 4 the laughs, always can count on u.

Puffin I am so sorry, u r dealing with it..Hugs

Sally. Xoxoxo

good morning...
I know I belong on the "older women's" thread when I worked three days and needed 3 days to recover.  It gets more difficult each semester.  But my job is easy (hours long) and I am blessed to have this late-in-life career. 
I read back - not too many pages but lots of wisdom and reasonable advice.
Anne, as I said before, it is difficult to control every situation and the law will determine the constraints on your DD and SiL agreement.  Prayers, lots of prayers.

Carole, so glad you are on the road and will see your BCO friend again.

Jackie, I think I have had more trouble with change and nostalgia in my youth - yes, I experience it often now when the kids aren't around and I look at photos...but I am more accepting of change and consider it inevitable and OK.
When I moved from Colorado, I missed the mountains so much -- I found an aspen tree at our local wildlife on LI.   After moving back, I used to sit under it and listen to it quake :-D
Funny thing about moving back to a town you've lived in for many years - everyone looks familiar and I couldn't remember which people I actually knew! 
 I am having a great week end.  DD from Boston had comp tickets for the US Open which she gave to Dh and me for Friday.  It was awesome.
In a few minutes, I leave to meet her at Yankee Stadium (comp industry tickets again) for Derek Jeter day and game. 
It will be exhausting and fun.

Cooler day here...beautiful - signs of fall as it has not rained here for a long long time.
Yellow and falling dry leaves....flower boxes are winding down. 

Can't wait to hear about the Alaskan meet-up!

Hugs,

Joan

PS - I love the messages about being present in today.  I worry ahead so much....when I go to the beach I like to really feel the sand and the cool water on my feet...it makes a difference.
I feel so blessed.

Good morning and it is a gorgeous one.  Yesterday ( before going out to feed the dogs ) a small herd of deer were feeding in our side yard -- which is nearest our deck.  We counted nine, but may have missed one or two who may have wandered a bit so as not to have so much competition for the acorns.

This morning there was a smaller herd but we waited to feed until they had meandered off.  Every acorn the deer eat is one less for us to have to blow down into the ravines when the leaves starting coming out of the trees. 

Joan, I starting trying to recall all I "felt" about nostalgia when I was younger.  I don't think I thought about that item quite so much then.   I have characterized myself for most of my life as rather quiet and somewhat shy or hesitant to say or do much that would stand out to anyone.  Though that is true, I did step out in life --- coming from a very, very small town ( 200 people at its most )and joined the Army and went first to Alabama, then to San Antonio, Tx, then to Ft. Leonard Wood Mo. and from there to Detroit, Mi.  For having been a shy person I did some real getting around. 

I was so into so many different and somewhat either unusual or newer experiences, I don't think I ever thought of the word nostalgia.  It was more like I was making opportunities to be nostalgic about some time in the future. 

Those times were great times and I wouldn't trade them.  I think they did add growth, experience and lots of flavor to my life -- and did help me form into the person I am now.  When I think of the past now though, it is not so many of those things, but my real growing up years --- when home was called Glenridge, Illinois.  Where almost all the homes had yards full of trees and usually a big vegetable garden every summer.  Where my earliest years were governed by when the mine whistle blew because even before we could actually tell time --- we knew the first whistle was for the miners to start work, and then it blew at noon, on the dot so they would all know, even those down below ground in the tunnels would know to eat lunch -- and the one we so often used.....the 3 p.m. afternoon quitting work for the day whistle.  Our moms would always tell us when we went out to play -- any where, to come home when the last whistle blew. 

I remain thankful for my beginnings.  Grateful for the people that were my parents, and glad that I was "brave" enough to leave home when I did knowing somehow that my life needed to metamorph in a much bigger, deeper way that would not happen where I lived. 

I am much more timid now about many of the things that actually became somewhat blasé' at that time, like air travel and going places where I had never been and all this with the lousiest sense of direction anyone could have ever been born without.

Life is a beautiful, wonderful thing -- and Chevy even if our ( kids ) know better than we do --- they too will see later on that life unfolds the way it does for reasons --- some of which we are highly aware, and others that are hidden for long periods of time ---but each item, each feeling, each little nuance needs to play out JUST like it does --- and whatever they are feeling now about the things their parents do wrong or NEED  their wisdom and help with will have undergone a subtle change and they too will realize that no matter what they have done or not......each moment had to be just the way it was. 

Life is to be lived and we each get so many, many opportunities, through ourselves and through those we interact with daily and our children to keep being witness to the unfolding of it and the great thing is --- we know something our kids probably don't know yet.  Hopefully, as I have done, I pray my kids will look back at some point and think..........I would not feel like this now, if all my yesterdays had not happened just the way they did.  If I had not had the parents that I did, and that they had not acted just as they did -- with their faults and warts and things they 'seemed' to need my help on, and really now I see, they didn't.

We are all here ( them too ) along with the whole human race, growing our soul and glorifying it so that we can advance to the next step in existence.  It is still exciting to me.  I think it always will be --- just as wonderful as looking out my windows and seeing a herd of deer peacefully grazing in my yard. 

Blessings

Jackie

Sally and Puffin, I'm technicologically challenged too - and glad my life doesn't depend upon making these contraptions function so that they always make sense....  How are you doing today, Puffin?

Sandra and Di and I and our spouses managed to find each other fairly easily at Cape Fox for their last stop in Alaska without a downpour or mishap, and lots of chatter! I won't do any spoilers here while they are on their way home -- and they have the photos because I managed to leave my camera at home when I did a last-minute fill of the dog's water dish... All too brief of a visit, but great to meet in person!

Chevyboy, no phones attached to me anywhere either! Old, young, or indifferent, I have no intention of giving up the sanity that such basic freedom provides... And I too am heart and soul a mountain woman. I can enjoy a roam, but I know what is home.

Anne, glad to hear things are mellowing a bit for all and for you in particular!

Jackie, there are definitely deer here, but we never see any, even though our yard backs up to nothing but forest land. We sometimes have bear visits, but never deer. And definitely, no acorns, which always seems so odd to me, since we live at roughly the same latitude as Great Britain, where there are lots of oaks (and fog and rain and moss, much like we have). But then, geologically speaking, GB is not as "new" and so it actually has much more in the way of soils, where we still have mostly rock and moss, alders, cedar, spurce and hemlock.... I've been picking up the small cones donated by the squirrels, to make Christmas ornaments... the leaves are starting to fall from the alders and the blueberries from the bushes... I am fascinated by your history, which rang ever so many bells for me!

"Where almost all the homes had yards full of trees and usually a big vegetable garden every summer.  Where my earliest years were governed by when the mill whistle blew because even before we could actually tell time --- we knew the first whistle was for the sawmill workers to start work, and then it blew at noon, on the dot so they would all know....   ... to eat lunch -- and the one we so often used.....the 3 p.m. afternoon quitting work for the day whistle.  Our moms would always tell us when we went out to play -- any where, to come home when the last whistle blew."  ....I remain thankful for my beginnings.  Grateful for the people that were my parents...."  ME TOO.... I'm thankful to have been a child when life was so gentle and safe....  I too have become more timid about exploring, despite having done so many adventures when I was younger and quicker of mind and body....

A.A.

Hi ladies,

We have had a beautiful weekend. We have the windows open this weekend and have a nice breeze coming through.

Puffin, please call if it gets worse

Sally, how are you feeling?

Chevy, your sense of humor is great. It made me laugh out loud while reading these messages and watching the Bears game.

Anne, glad you are in GA and other areas are calmining down for you.

Work was stressful this week--we had a school ager about 6 or 7 have a few melt downs and went after three teachers trying hit, kick and bite them, throw things at other kids and knock over chairs and throwing things. He was finally expelled from our center. He has had this problem for the 2 years he has bee with us and from what we are told he is under a doctors care and he does attend an alternative school but the last 2 weeks things seemed to escalate. Hopefully he gets the help he needs bc he is very caring and sweet when not having the melt downs

Went shopping today at Bed Bath and Beyond. They had good sales on. Between the sales and coupons I saved quite a bit for a set of towels for a gift. I couldn't believe on much towels have gone up in price lately.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Emmy

Termite!  Just make your own!  Tear up some old flannel sheets, and cut them whatever size you want, and double them, and sew together.... You can even put rick-rack around them!  Remember that?  Hah!  Grandma used to do that!  She never threw ANYthing away!   And old soap pieces?  She had this wire little cage thing with a handle, and she would put the soap pieces in there, and wash dishes with that!  Slipped right out of her hands, but she didn't waste anything.

I'm so sorry about that little boy!  I just wouldn't know what to do!    Is he on any medication?  Evidently it isn't working, if he is!  

I LOVE Bad Breath & Beyond!  And Ross, and the Dollar Store, and mostly Walmart!  You know Cammi bought her wedding dress there!  And then she had it trimmed with rick-rack, and it looked pretty decent!   For a tramp.

My "good foot"?  It's a LEG, WITH a foot!  One good one, and one not so good.... but the one good one drags the other one around for company!   I'll bet you crack your girls up all the time!  AND me!   No matter what is wrong with you, you still manage to make us smile....  I mean even if you can't stay off the pot!

Yes my Dexa scan was very good.... for my tender age group....    I was really surprised!  At least they aren't rubberized....  like yours are....  when I grow up, I want to be just like you!

You know, I fall all over the place too!  Not just STANDING there, but every other place!   That must be what keeps us in shape.

I'm cooking 4 pieces of chicken.... 2 legs & 2 thighs, to which I have put Bisquick on them, browned them in bacon grease, with 1/2 a sliced onion, then added water, and they can simmer with a couple quartered potatoes!    My Grandma made the BEST dinner like that!   I can just see her stirring the black skillet, and tasting it, and smacking her lips.   I love the things I remember about her, and I can see so much of her in myself!    I mean the way she cooks, and saves EVERYthing, and  never throws anything away.

A Angel.... Yes, I could live in the mountains myself!   The girls don't understand how we just like to sit and watch TV, or even when we eat, and not have to worry about a cell-phone ringing!    I HATE to text!  DD in Orlando thinks that is my biggest threat to humanity.... that I don't text.  I CAN, but the keys on MY cell-phone are so small, and it takes too long, and I think WTH?  I could just TALK or send an email!  They don't have to know what I had for dinner!  Or where I am going!

Teacher, you are like my Daughter's..... they don't have land-lines either, and  they use their cells all the time....  And they text each other ALL the time..   And guess what else?  I don't do FaceBook either!  Same thing....  I hear from my friends by email, or like here!   Besides, since I had my identity stolen, and my credit card stolen, I'm just afraid of being "out there" like that.....  YOU know....  my public can just WAIT to hear from me.... Hah!  

Loved the Alaska photos!

I'm feeling a little better today. Lew and I went shopping at Kohl's, needed to buy a birthday gift for a friend. Found a collage photo frame 50% off that I think she'll like. Now it's time to kick back and relax. Have pork chops marinating for Lew to grill.

OH THANK YOU, I love the pics u all look s pretty and everyone looks so happy. I'm so glad u met with each other--what are the chances when u think about it.

Puffin I'm glad u had a better day today and got out. I hope u'r weather was as beautiful as ours was today.

Jackie new neighbors, hope they're as nice as u'r other ones. We have been lucky too great neighbors and next week a block party, everyone is very nice in this area, like old fashion and sit and talks with each other. So Good Luck

OK Big mouth Chevy, yes that is you---Maybe I did buy my wedding dress from Walmart but u didn't say which wedding so that's how much u know. One of my weddings was in Las Vegas and I wore jeans, yes WHITE jeans, of course my body looked good then, so I could wear white. Hell that's the only reason. I have to admit that. So don't sit there on u'r high horse--oh wait 'r only 4 feet tall, OK on u'r Shetland pony and act like u know everything. Cuz tho u have many many years on us u can still be a brat. I know she's sleeping now so there won't be any backlash on this--Oh maybe tomorrow but by that time I'll forget what I said and what she says won't affect me what so ever.