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

Sandra do you know if the did the labs for hashi's? 

Sandra, I bet you are relieved.  So happy to hear that you are okay.

Mommarch, I hope the situation with your DGD resolves smoothly. 

Chevy, keep us posted on your trip when you  can ... have fun.

Di, are you okay ... thinking of you.

Jackie, are the trees changing color in your yard?  I remember the pretty pictures you posted of your yard last spring/early summer.

Ohiofan, it sounds like you had a joyful birthday celebration ... it was fun to hear about.

I hope everyone enjoys today.

Good morning all

Mommarch- what an awful story about your minister/firefighter and his mom. I am happy to say I had the exact opposite of that with my mother. Back in 82, long distance phone calls were expensive and rare. But my dad had sent me a large check just because he could, and when I got it, I immediately called my parents to thank them. My Mom and I had a great talk, laughing and planning what to do with the money, and my husband never tried to get me to hang up because I was calling in the middle of the day on a Fri. As far as we all knew, my Mom was in very good health. The next morning- the very next morning- my brother called at 7am to tell me my Mom had passed away during the night from a stroke. My dad was so upset- besides loosing his wife of 43 years, he had wanted to give my siblings and me money that didn't involve a death. It helped him a lot when I reminded him that because of the timing of the money, my Mom talked to or saw each of her children in a really good mood less than 24 before she died. 

Just got a call from the hospital. I have my last Herceptin infusion tomorrow, and they will take the port out Mon. WooHoo! I will know this afternoon when they can do the colonoscopy. Then I have to take one grandson to the dermatologist and orthodontist, and the other to the cardiologist and orthopedist, and I can put my traveling gear on again. First to visit with Lucia, then back to Fl for a few days, then to NY to visit family. I am going back to Fl simply because I can get a direct flight from Ft Laud to Newburgh, NY, which I cannot get from Atlanta or Charlotte. 

Have a great day, 

Anne

Anne - I know you're excited.  I just got home from my last Herceptin.  Boy did I ring that bell.  I've had 18 months of continuous treatments but will keep my port for awhile in hopes that MO will approve a PET/CT before he retires in November.  I start PT for radiation fibrosis & truncal LE next week, but at least I'm through at the chemo center.  

Sandra - It's great that you're OK but I'm sure it's hard not to be angry at the delay now that you've solved the mystery.  Good luck w/the re-schedule.

Hi to everyone else.  I'm taking a well deserved nap.

Sassy, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's Thyroiditis more than 20 years ago and the tests last week confirmed it is still the source of my thyroid issues.

Got another interesting call from the Endo this morning to give me the results of the repeat lab tests done yesterday. The numbers are now perfectly normal which threw them for another loop. It should have taken months of treatment to bring the number down. We know it wasn't a lab error because the same labs had been drawn by my civilian GP the week before, analyzed in a different lab, but results were nearly identical.

My Endo and his boss spent several hours going over all my history on the computer - illnesses, treatments, medications, and every lab test in the past 12 years since they went to electronic record keeping. It turns out I have a strange antibody that causes some lab tests to show false results. The TSH test uses some product from sheep (don't know what) so now we know my body will have a bad reaction to any test with similar testing components. He thinks it has been responsible to other unusual test results in the past. He spoke to my surgeon who agreed there is no medical reason for further delays.

Tomorrow a.m. I'll see the PS and hopefully get a new surgery date - perhaps sooner rather than later. I have my Endo's personal pager # now and I'm to call him if anything else peculiar happens or if an anesthesiologist or other doc throws up a red flag in the future and needs to get the ok directly. 

Wonderful, thorough care...I couldn't be more pleased.

Sandra, Did you put that in a previous post about the hashi's? I bet that when your doc gets this figuired out, he publishes it. Prime publishable stuff is anything that is very unusual. Even better if they find an answer........THEN>>>>>>>>>They get to put there name on IT. Just like Hashimoto did. All over medical stuff are docs names. Tell your doc you want to be hyphenated with him    ;0

Hi sassie

Sandra so happy that u like ur team

Chevy, jealous

Hey sally

Carol, minus, teacher (hope u r r getting better)anne Hugs all around

OMG I really thought I caught up a little while ago, well I didn't but tried to.

Whoot, Whoot goes out to finishing rads and chemo, it's a great feeling

Anne what a story---weren't u glad tho u had a nice conversation with u'r mom. U'r a traveling laKeep safe

Oh chit I can't ketchup--but I do know Chevy had a great time meeting in person for lunch. That's so much fun to do.

I hope everyone has a good day with weather too.

Everything is a miracle,
not just the beautiful and lovely things.
- Anonymous

Hi all,

Sandy- what a stressful situation for you!  It is SO hard to watch and be helpless.  My youngest DD dated an idiot when she was 15. During the time they were dating, she had two abortions and was witness to a horrendous shooting when the boyfriend was showing their friend a gun he was restoring. To this day, I don't know how he got away with no charges. She, on the other hand still suffers from PTSD. They broke up shortly after that. She went through a series of live-in relationships that were doomed before they began, then around Thanksgiving 10 years ago, when she was 23, she told me she was she had just seeing the original jerk again.  A week before Christmas, she announced she was pregnant. Somehow, he managed to convince her that they owed it to the child to stay together, no matter what. And 4 years later, they added a son to the mix. 

I am sure you have heard me talk about Victoria and Kayden. I absolutely adore them. However, I am devastated at their living conditions. Jamie did not grow up rich, by any means. But we lived in a decent house in a nice neighborhood and there was always food in the house and nice (Walmart, Target) clothes to wear. Since she joined up with this guy, they have lived in 3 different shacks. The one she is in for the last 5 years looks like it belongs in a third world country. It is 2 bedrooms, which was too small when they moved in, it has no a/c which is crazy in So. Fl and it was a fix-upper. Her husband has worked in the construction business all his life, so he told her he could fix it up with no problem. Problem!! He refuses to buy what he can get for free, so their kitchen has cabinets, but they don't match and there are large spaces where things didn't quite fit, there are broken windows, mold in the laundry room, holes in the walls, etc. Neither one of them has held a real job since they got together. She is a fully licensed hair stylist, but couldn't work, because he was too busy to watch the kids. We are all still trying to figure out what keeps him so busy.

He is also really weird about privacy. Since they moved in to this corner house, he had planted stuff sound all 4 edges of the property, so no one can see the house except for the driveway. He has the carport blocked from view with an army camo net thing. She posted a video the other day where she walks from the front door around to the backyard to show everyone something he has built. More people have called family members asking where she is living, than have commented on his invention. It really does look like they are in a third world country. Thing is, most of the houses around them look ordinary.

When she complains that one of the sliding doors broke more than a year ago and is still not replaced, just covered by plywood, he tells her she is too greedy - many people in 3rd world countries would be happy to live the way they do. Maybe, but they don't live anywhere close to a third country!! Or he tells her she needs to be patient, like Mary, the mother of Jesus was. I've been reading and studying the Bible for well over thirty years now, and I can't find any specific reference to Mary being patient, especially about her home being on disrepair. 

It is very hard watching them live this way. They broke up once when Kayden was a baby, but neither of them could handle the two kids on their own, so they got back together

She waffles between telling me what a great life they have- they are both there full time with the kids, they have movie nights- to telling me she is so tired of the conditions they live in and having to scrounge for $5 to put gas in the car. More frustrating for me is that she readily admits that she is frequently screaming at him about one thing or another and the kids witness that. He has this superior attitude that he uses to make her look like she is crazy, when her requests are no more than necessities to 99% of normal families.

So I am with you understanding some of your stress. I have learned to listen without "judging" -at least verbally, because it is more important for me to have access to the grandchildren than to try to reason with someone who lives in a different reality from day to day. I will do anything for the children - buy them clothes, bikes, etc, but more importantly, spend as much time as possible with them, giving them as much security as I can, and when necessary disciplining them calmly and quietly. Of course, the ability to do that has been severely disrupted by this BC - I only saw them once in 9 mos, and I was in pretty bad shape when I saw them. And now, I left them a month ago, and won't see them until the end of Oct. That seriously breaks my heart. 

Know that you are not alone. Prayers and hugs to you

Anne

I'd love to stay in touch with everyone off BCO too. If you have Facebook, send me a friend request. I'm Sandra Pruett Asher.

Sandra, I alluded to a "Negative Feedback Loop" in a previous post. I just finished writing a description re:" Surgical Stress Response" It a description of how the body responds to surgery. It's on page two of the two page thread. I linked to page one in case you want to scan for info.

https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/64/topic/824365?page=1

Blondie, Don't hesitate to vent. Similar situation in a more distant branch of our family. We're praying she doesn't go back to him.

thanks peeps, the kids r who it is about

Happiness blooms
in the presence of self-respect
and the absence of ego.
Love yourself.
Love everyone around you.
Love everyone in the whole world.
Know that your own life is of infinite importance,
as is every other life.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie