Can we have a forum for "older" people with bc?
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Oh Sandra...how true! It was the friends that I had never met that walked my breast cancer journey with me, offered suggestions and supports and cyber-hugs. I have since met a few of them and they continue to be true friends filled with compassion and understanding. I value each and every one of you, as you are all very special ladies!
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And now I'm thanking Maxine for her perfect understanding of the world at large and sometimes bathroom and toilet stools in particular.
Jackie
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Sandra, thank you, it was the perfect sentiment for this group of ladies. They walked me through a lot of scary moments. loved both of your posts
Anne, enjoy DD's baby shower. I love the girl's name
Carole, Enjoy your company and the Mardi Gras parade. I'd love to see the Mardi Gras parade. We were there for the St. Patrick's Day parades a few years ago and that was fun.
Shuf, Enjoy your kids , grandkids and your Super Bowl gathering
Linda, I hope you are feeling better
Ritajean, this move will be a permanent move. We will travel to Philadelphia and Illinois a few times a year, probably for longer periods during the summer months since our children are in those areas. The closer it gets the more worried I am if this is the right thing to do but we have talked about it for years for when we retire.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday to all
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We’re seriously thinking, once Gordy has decided where he wants to land (here or L.A.) to pursue his comedy/writing career) of retiring to Eugene, OR. We love wine, and the proximity of the Willamette Valley is a major plus. It is a university town with active and stimulating cultural activities, not as hilly as much of the rest of the PNW, cheaper than Seattle or Portland, relatively mild climate (milder than e. of the Cascades and cooler than the Sunbelt), ideologically harmonious with our own values, and has public transit so we could make do with a single car. We have several friends there. Back in the ‘70s we lived in Seattle for 7 years, which has become way more expensive than even Chicago, and the traffic can be horrendous. The only thing that gives us pause about the PNW is that unlike hurricanes or even tornadoes, you don’t get warnings for earthquakes; and computer models have shown that in the event of “the Big One” w/in our remaining lifetime (10-30% likelihood), devastation w. of the Cascades due to tsunami would be extensive. (But the Coast Range might protect the I-5 corridor far enough south of the Puget Sound/Columbia R. watershed),
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Sandy, you had almost sold me on Eugene until the last part of your post!
Termite, if you're building your retirement house in a desirable area, you are making a good investment and can always change your mind about living in FL if that plan doesn't work out the way you thought it would.
I sometimes think longingly about living in a less humid climate but we have roots here in south Louisiana and there's much that we do like. We enjoy MN in the summer but I wouldn't want to live there in the winter. It seems that every place has drawbacks and weather dangers.
DH's brother seemed to enjoy the Endymion parade. We collected two shopping bags full of beads and other throws. He will be taking one bag home with him when he leaves tomorrow.
I am so NOT a late-night person at this stage of my life. We got home about 10:30 last night, poured some glasses of wine and watched Saturday Night Live, which had some funny political spoofing. It was after midnight before I got to sleep and I'm dragging today.
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Gonna see if the dollar store has any purple, gold & green garlands (maybe Michael’s has ribbon?)--or I may take whatever beads I have and deck the little cedar tree in our front yard with them. Maybe make some faux (roux-less) gumbo or crawfish bisque (we have some frozen tails) for Tues. night. Davis St. Fishmarket in Evanston always has a Mardi Gras menu, but seeing as they’re right next to NU they’ll be mobbed.
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Sandy, are you in Evanston? I took my nursing at Evanston Hospital in the 60's. Great place. Changed a lot since I was a student. My Grandparents lived in Wilmette, walking distance up on Central, from the train station. Memories! Jean
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Living in a society that undervalues the spirit, we who embrace it are tempted to apologize for our interest. We must stop apologizing, for no subject is more important. It is, after all, love's retrieval. It is the answer to global hatred. To invalidate the spiritual life is to shoot at the fireman who is putting out the fire.
Marianne Williamson
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We watched the Super Bowl with friends at their home. Drove home in a ground blizzard, the interstate was icy so we stayed on city streets, and even those were hard to see the road with all the blowing snow. Still very windy today and it's tempting to stay in the house all day, but after all the food I ate last night I really need to get to the Y!
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Dh and I are heading for the gym in about an hour. Played hooky for a few days as I worked overtime twice and one day had to have the furnace man out. Really got to make it today. Not liking our weather so far. Yesterday was sunny and 51 -- today 27 and snow with some sleet a couple of times. A lot of wind our there too --- maybe from Puff's direction. Hoping we have seen the last of the snow, but I am a bit concerned with the temps staying down that we might get some freezing of any of the moisture around after daylight is over. Ah, we will just have to see.
Dh watched Super Bowl, but I skipped it. I'm not much of a sports ( any of them ) fan and in yrs. passed only watched for the commercials so I stayed in here in my little office and worked with my computer. We had Chinese food for dinner --- so nothing difficult and didn't even have to spend any time "listening" to the plays.
Jackie
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Happy Lundi Gras to everyone. In years past, Lundi/Monday before Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras, was a quiet day with no parades but that has changed. There are parades today, too, but the gusting wind today may present some problems for the floats..
DH's brother, who lives in North Aurora, IL, departed this morning. Those of you familiar with the Chicago area will know where he lives. We haven't been to his house there. He used to live in Orland. He was an easy guest but it's still nice to be "home alone" again. DH and I saw him off and then went to the gym, which will be closed tomorrow, so we wouldn't be able to get in our Tues. workout.
Puffin, I looked through our Peterson Field Guide for Eastern Birds and I think the pretty bird visiting our window feeder is a rufous-sided towhee. I have seen a similar bird in the winter time before. I hope this one comes back so I can get a good look at the head and beak.
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Carole - Rufous sided Towhee is certainly a possibility, pretty bird
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Jean, I'm in Edgewater on Chicago's far North Side--about 7 min. s. of the Evanston city line. When you were a student at Evanston Hospital. it was probably still affiliated with NW Memorial and the Northwestern Medical School. (I had my first knee replacement down at NWM in '12). About 5 yrs. ago they parted company, it became the flagship of the NorthShore Health System; and despite its proximity to NU is now affiliated with U of C's Pritzker School of Medicine and the Mayo Clinic. (Had my other knee replaced in '13 by the same surgeon at NorthShore Skokie Hospital, which used to be a dinky little community hospital called Skokie Valley, lampooned by docs at other hospitals as “Death Valley." In the interim it became affiliated with the Rush-Pres-St. Luke's system as Rush North Shore, which was when it began to be revamped and expanded. Best hospital where I'd ever been an inpatient--was like a luxury hotel with great drugs).
Carole, so sorry about the loss of your b-i-l. Prayers for your and DH's comfort.
I know I’m not supposed to eat them, but I sorta hope one of Bob’s patients brings in some paczki tonight like she always does on Lundi Gras. I carbed it a bit too much yesterday, albeit having burned a lot of it off on my 2+ miles of walking.
Yesterday was a good day--great walking weather, We won $125 (each $50 on our squares and $25 from the “Sack-sack pull"--you signed a dollar bill, put it into the grocery bag, and if your dollar was drawn when a QB was sacked you won the contents of the bag. Poor Cam Newton made for several rounds of sack-pulls). And I had the best fried chicken (brined in pickle juice) I ever ate! It was also part of a “good-LE-weekend."
Gonna don my compression now just in case, though. Got the call from one of the guitar shops that both my Taylors have been fixed and are ready for pickups, and those hardshell cases (necessary for proper humidification & other protection in storage) are HEAVY. Hope it doesn't spur questions like “what happened to your hand?" since I'm tired of explaining.
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Sandy, Thanks for catching me up on Evanston. Used to get some news from them, but no more. It was always a good hospital, and the neighborhood was nice to live in. Had the choice between Rush Presby , Evanston and Little Company of Mary on the South side , and picked Evanston. Was a nurse for many years, then got tired of the responsibilities and stayed home wit the kids. Went back to school in spec ed and speech, as I had 2 deaf daughters . worked in speech for 25 years with dev delayed, til I retired about 8 years ago. Anyway still consider myself a Chicago girl, esp when it comes to pizza. Original Unos, deep dish . Yumm!
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Jean, small world! I used to be an AnchorHMO patient, so Gordy was born at Rush (yup, an “Anchor baby” whose parents are both native-born citizens....sorry, couldn’t resist). Also said b’bye to my gallbladder and had my shattered rt. leg glued and pinned back together there. Good times. Little Company is one of Bob’s three hospitals--the other two being Holy Cross in Marquette Park and Advocate Christ in Oak Lawn. Since Mt. Sinai bought Holy Cross, he has privileges at Sinai now too, but never goes. We just attend its Black Tie Gala From Hell, because they hold it at Cinespace Chicago, where they shoot the “Chicago Fire/PD/Med” trifecta as well as “Empire” and the old “Boss”.
Trivia--the firehouse for “Chicago Fire” is a real one (at least the exterior shots) a few blocks from Mt. Sinai. And the exteriors for “Chicago Med” are shot at Rush. The three shows are set all over the city but shot mostly on the near-to-mid S. Side: Bridgeport, Canaryville, the area around Sinai (Ogden Blvd. stands in for lots of different thoroughfares). Occasionally, they venture north to Wicker Park & Bucktown (which sometimes stands in for Lakeview). The first year they actually took over Metropolis Coffee up here in Edgewater to shoot a meeting between two characters--but rearranged the layout so that the counter and menu boards, which are directly in front of the vestibule that has no seating, would be the backdrop for the characters’ table. Drove the shop’s staff nuts, because the <one-minute scene took all day to set up & shoot. There are also a lot of filler shots of upper Wacker. A recent episode had a tornado hitting West Lawn--where Bob has his main office. I have to laugh about all the bogus addresses (many of which would be in the middle of the lake, some of them quite clearly in a different part of town from what the street signs & house numbers--which Continuity often forgets to blur or Photoshop--indicate). And they have Firehouse 51 making calls all over the city (and to one address that is actually in Skokie), when everyone here knows that no two firehouses are more than a half-mile apart! “ER” also was loaded with geographical inaccuracies--but in its first year, it used the actual ambulance bay at UIC Hospital as “County General’s” emergency entrance. During his residency, on his on-call nights Bob & I used to sit on the bay’s loading dock drinking terrible coffee...out of paper specimen cups (not recycled).
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Last time I was back was for my 50th High school reunion , at the U of Chicago High in 2010. We lived on the S. side and were warned by a cop at our hotel it wud be dangerous to go there. I notice now that many more neighborhoods are designated by their names than when we lived there. Hyde Park and South Shore were a few that were , back then. Now there are ones I never heard of, growing up there! Some of the southern suburbs where we had looked to move as a kid look like war zones, when we drove thru , on out way back from Danville, where my Dad grew up! So sad! Remember Christmas and Uncle Mistletoe and Aunt Holly at Marshall Fields, was a big treat to have lunch there. Spent many a Saturday at the Museum of Science and Industry. When we were there for my reunion , I had to go to the ER at Advocate Christ, great Hospital. Took a small ship cruise around Lake Michigan , one year. Docked at Navy Pier, my uncle taught there , when it was the U of Illinois! The stained glass museum there is great. Also rode the ferris wheel on that trip. MOre memories! nd some new ones.
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ChiSandy, I must be guilty of miscommunication. BIL just went home after a visit. He didn't die, thank goodness.
I've just been looking up last night's news about the connection between reflux meds and kidney disease. As usual the Nightly News Anchors over-simplified a study. It was an observational study, not a causal study, though not to be ignored. The people in the study who developed kidney disease may have developed it even if they didn't take reflux meds. I take Prilosec and am concerned since my last two blood work results raised a flag on kidney function. As Rosanna Dana said, It's ALWAYS something!
We're planning to visit my brother in Tulsa this next weekend so I probably will just keep taking the Prilosec until we return. Then I may conduct my own experiment to see if I can make some diet changes and manage the heart burn without the med. I read about some natural remedies that I can try.
It's a pretty, cold day here. All the local network channels on tv are covering Mardi Gras parades. So it will be a boring day for my mother without her soaps. I plan to go to her house for a visit today.
Happy Tuesday to all.
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Hi Ladies,
We had some snow over night and flurries today. Temps are going to drop for the rest of the week. Very windy here today also.
Carole, Your bil lives very close to where we live. It is about a 10 minute drive from us. Where we are building is a 55 + community that is just building up. The older houses and the duplexs are selling fast. The prices have already gone up since we bought ours.
Today is the day my mil has a wecare person come to visit her for 3 hours. She is taking my mil to get her hair done and to the store. I am just hoping my mil is nice to her. Sometimes she gets a little out of sorts and snaps at people for no reason. She finally seems ok with having someone come in to the house to help her. We will build on this as needed. When we move down there it will be nice so we can go to her house in Naples a few times a week and do things for her and take her out and then have this lady on one of the days we are not there.
Happy Lundi Gras to everyone
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"Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness but because you deserve peace." ~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie
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Termite, dh's sister and her dh own a condo in Naples. Actually it's between Naples and Marco Island. The name of the complex is Eagle Creek. It has a golf course. We've been there a couple of times. They spend the winter months there and the rest of the year in Decatur, IL, where BIL was a gastroenterologist.
The wind has been howling out there today. Not a day I would want to be outside watching parades. Or a day I would want to be on a big top-heavy float in a parade. Catching beads and throws must be a challenge.
I spent several hours with my mother today. I knew she would be having a boring day. We played some games of Yatzi and darned if she didn't roll yatzi four times! She and my dad always played some hands of cards in the afternoon when they were having coffee. I know she really misses that little daily routine. She plays solitaire on the I-pad my youngest brother gave her.
Hope everybody in the cold climates is staying warm. I'll be turning on the gas logs in our fireplace pretty soon.
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Carole, you are such a wonderful daughter. Your mother is so lucky to have you!
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I believe that the first test of a truly great person is his or her humility. I do not mean by humility, doubt of his or her own powers. But really great people have a curious feeling that the greatness is not in them, but through them. And they see something divine in every other person. -John Ruskin
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Good morning to all on this sunny, beautiful Ash Wed. I went to the gym this morning to get some exercise before we take off on a road trip to Tulsa, OK, tomorrow to visit my youngest brother and his wife. Their daughter is grown up and lives in GA so we won't get to see her. We'll take two days to get there rather than try to drive 12 hours. There was a time when our bodies and minds would endure 12 or 13 hours on the road but not any more.
I'm doing laundry today and will pack my suitcase with comfortable, casual clothes.
Wishing everyone a good day.
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Mike will be admitted to the hospital on March 3rd for a bone marrow stem cell transplant. I know I just posted a couple of weeks ago that he was doing great...he was. But just as the oncologist said would happen one day, the chemo (azacitidene) that he's been on for 13 months is no longer able to help keep him stable. The reports from the bone marrow biopsy he had two weeks ago show significant disease progression. The blast percentage in his bone marrow doubled, more chromosome damage was found, and his platelets, which had crept all the way up to the bottom of the normal range, dropped over 60% in only four weeks. We were stunned at first, but had to admit that we knew this was coming, just didn't expect it to completely turn around in four weeks. The transplant doctor said there was no point waiting anymore since his high risk category MDS has become aggressive. The next raise in his blast percentage will change his diagnosis to Acute Myeloid Leukemia and jeopardize the potential success of the transplant even more. Right now, the chance of surviving the transplant process is 50-50. We have 8 million beautiful healthy stem cells from his sister - a perfect 10/10 match - already harvested and frozen. All he needs to do is complete the pre-admission appointments. He started this week. One day they took 27 vials of blood! It seems almost every single department in the hospital has to do tests and sign off on the transplant. They have to get baseline numbers on everything from his major organ functions to pulmonary function tests and audiology testing so they can tell when something is going wrong as he recover from the devastating chemo used to kill his immune system and the new stem cells begin to build a new one. He will be in isolation at the hospital for about 30 days, then home in the "clean room" we created until sometime in mid-June when he has survived 100 days.
We are ready, I guess. We know he COULD die in a few weeks, but know he WILL die without the transplant since there is no cure for high risk MDS. He finishes all the appointments next week and then we'll go dancing and hit a few favorite restaurants before March 3rd.
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Sandra - oh my dear, what a fast progression. You will be in all of our thoughts & prayers. Love the idea of the 'outings' before the hospital. Great pictures. Thanks for keeping us in the loop.
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Praying that all goes well. There's not enough for you to know how many are praying for you both.
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Everyone who wills, can hear the inner voice.
It is within everyone.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi0 -
Sandra, love and hugs, and bravery, and hope and beautiful cheerful mornings with a big yellow sun rising. Sending you everything that is positive and uplifting and encouraging and hopeful peace when needed at the next stage of this journey.
Jackie
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Sandra - prayers and hugs to you and Mike. We are all with you in spirit. Take care of Mike, but don't forget to take care of you as well. It sounds like a long process, so make sure you eat, get outside for a while, and pamper yourself in whatever pleases you most, whether it's a manicure, massage, a walk, going to church, because you can only give so much, without putting something back in yourself.
Anne
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Sandra, Ditto what Jackie said. You'll be in our thoughts. Sending hugs from Seattle. We enjoyed meeting you both so much.
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