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

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them.

Dalai Lama

I have been lazy for the past few days due to feeling heat drained by our extreme temperatures. I really haven't ventured out of the house much either. I focused on clearing out some crossword puzzles that had been piling up from the newspapers and dabbled on Ancestry a bit when DSIL sent me some info about a cousin's daughter. Mostly self-care days and I have been lurking, just not posting.

L1ttlec, they do delay radiation until your surgical site has had a chance to heal so while you are eager to start, let your RO determine when it is safe for you to start. It is not uncommon to have a wait longer than 4 weeks. As far as AI's, there are 3 that are available for treatment and they do have SE's but responses can be individual and as carole said, it can depend upon the binding agent used. You may not experience any SE's. Your RO can help you if you do have them, just let them know. They can also lessen over time so give them a try.

cindyny, I admired your new lights and that area looks good. Laughed at your comment about your linen closet and mimicking me. Did you finish the linen closet yet? However, I did do a closet exchange today, moving winter sweaters to my DD's former bedroom closet and moving the summer tops and pants to my primary closet. I do need to declutter this closet and figure I will do it when I am forced indoors for several days. I have to winnow down what I own and keep only what I have been wearing and not keep the "just in case" stuff.

I wore a pair of sandals that I have had for quite a few years on the 4th. I hadn't worn them in ages due to my knees not tolerating anything other than flats. Now that I can wear wedges again, I dug them out. DD and I decided to watch the fireworks display put on by the country club every year. The best place to see it is from the side yard or front porch. We were watching from the side yard when it began to downpour, The terrain is at best rough due to rocky soil and we sprinted to the patio and back into the house. We then finished watching the show from the porch. Later I found bits of cork on the floor and discovered that the wedge of my sandals was disintegrating. I think they were dried out, so they went into the trash. I have several other pairs by this company so it will be interesting to see if they, too, will fall apart.

Chris, elated with the news and hope that follow-up treatment is doable. Loved the fashion show and you are so creative. You said you use a serger that you use to sew them, I have one, but never thought to use it on delicate fabrics. Do you have patterns for the items you created?

petite1, great news on the labs.

carole, that storms sounds scary. We had bad storms on the 4th and 5th overnight that caused some damage as well as flash flooding in some areas. We were lucky that all we got was the sound my mother used to call "God bowling". A lot of noise, claps of thunder, and lightning. Regan heads to the basement when the thunder starts.

gurney22, thanks for stopping in. Are you a lurker or new to the forum? If the latter, welcome and continue to post as you like.

taco, glad you are back to golfing. How is the knee?

Waving "hi" to everyone and hoping everyone has a great day.

l1ttlec, I’m not sure you’ve mention having had met with the RO for mapping. That’s done prior to starting rads. I had surgery in early Nov of 2017, and actually started rads on 12/26/17. As Betrayal mentioned, your incisions needs to be fully healed.

Betrayal, I did complete the linen closet. I can no longer buy anymore liquid hand soap. HA! (I have 10) I have a ziplock bag full of masks made with cloth material - early COVID; a sealed package of masks like what you get at the doctors; and of course KN95 masks. (masks were put up higher into a storage cabinet) I also have too many shower curtains - I need to use 2 at a time because it’s an “L” shaped shower rod.

Carole, I’m glad the golf tent was the only damage you suffered from that storm. We’ve had some bad storms, but south east of us - 70 mph wind sheared off trees.

Chris, best of luck at tomorrow’s appointment.

Petite, good news on your labs!

Gurney22, I’m a snowbird NY to Florida for 5-6 month of the year.

It rained all night, into today. We ran around today. SO had to get his car in for an oil change, we dropped his car off. Went on to the post office; then the airport to pick up a friends car, they left for Aruba for 2 weeks this morning. Back home and out just about immediately to pick up SO’s car.

Tomorrow morning the siding is getting put on the garage! Sorry ladies, no red and yellow stripes. I haven’t seen it but I think it’s a light gray. My alarm is set for 7:30 AM, because they’ll be here between 8-8:30. I did take “before” pictures, and I’ll get “after” pictures too.

I really believe that all of us have a lot of darkness in our souls. Anger, rage, fear, sadness. I don't think that's only reserved for people who have horrible upbringings. I think it really exists and is part of the human condition. I think in the course of your life you figure out ways to deal with that.

Kevin Bacon

cindyny, love what you did with the fence section. Love being able to recycle when we can. It looks nice. Hope all goes well with your endoscopy tomorrow and you are right, that is usually when someone shows up.

Went out around 11 to weed and while it was warm, the humidity wasn't as bad as the 4th. DD said the heat index was higher than the temp I was seeing on our thermometer though. It was 80 when I came back in at 1:30. My plan was to weed and then mulch any areas where the mulch was a light coating from last year. I got distracted by weeds by the garden gate, then drifted into the daffodil bed (unfinished; will come back to it) and then up the hill where DH was diligently digging new holes for stakes to hold the new fence around some azaleas and a hibiscus. We had erected a chicken wire fence initially, but it was damaged by a branch strike and it was difficult to straighten the wire again. DH finished that while I worked on a 2 foot path behind the hill garden beds. I had done the other side several weeks ago.

DH worked on that while I worked on making a 2 foot wide path behind that garden bed which is about 40 feet long. I had done the other bed a few weeks ago, but never got back to this side. It is now done and while not totally weed free, there is a big gap between the beds and the weeds in the woods. I trimmed some bushes that hang over the path, but they were low enough they touched the top of my 5'1" head. I want to walk without being snagged. I weeded the bed as I worked along the path and assessed if it needs additional mulch. A touch-up might be in order in some areas.

I did not get into the other fenced in section of this bed because the deer broke through the gate in the fence and ate half my white hydrangea. DH then sealed the gate with cable ties. So I will need to cut them to pull weeds and touch-up the mulch in there. There aren't too many weeds, but the deer hooves do a job on the mulch in a bed that slopes. It won't take long to do and probably less than 2 bags of mulch to fix.

I put together a large pot of spaghetti sauce to cook while I was working outside. I usually cook this with meat, but was intending to recycle the leftover Italian sausages with peppers and onion as the base for cacciatore. I cook it in the microwave and the house smelled so good when I came in. I added mushrooms to the sauce when I added the leftovers and heated it up to serve over ziti. It was good. I have the other half of the sauce that I may freeze for later use.

Felt good to get back my energy and to get another thing off my "to-do" list. I put two loads of wash in after I showered. They are done and I will probably do two more tomorrow.

I hope everyone had a wonderful day and waving "hi" to everyone.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

Yesterday was a day when I was planning to weed the fence enclosed bed on the hill and re-mulch as needed. It was hot, but the humidity was unbearable. I forgot my sweatband, too, so the sweat was a real hazard. I did manage to weed the bed and get 3 bags of mulch in place before I had to call it quits. DH had to reclose the fencing to keep the deer out. It still needs probably 3-4 bags of mulch to undo the damage the deer feet caused on the older mulch. I'll get back to it since the weather for the next few days is to be very humid again. I'm down to maybe 20 bags of mulch left from the original 80 and feel good about that.

I did 3 loads of laundry after weeding and mulching. Then moved on to vacuuming the primary bedroom, the closet, the hallway rugs and then the guest room. I still need to vacuum DD's former bedroom, but noticed the filters were dirty. I washed them and will resume vacuuming when they are dry.

Working on vacation scheduling for spring/summer 2027. What we had planned was a cruise followed by a land tour in Canada, but problems with the cruise dining arrangements have made us decide we may need to cancel and seek another option. We have located another land tour we could add to the one we had planned with downtime in between where we could get laundry done. It's all up in the air at present, but we should have results within the next week. We tend to book early to avoid hassles, but there are always things beyond our control. Fall 2027 is already partially booked, we just need to finalize what land tour we want to take.

Today, I'll probably iron and run the vacuum on the first floor. I have some mending to do for DD, so I'll probably do that as well. She's always bringing me things that need repairs such as seams and hems. Easy sewing and what I seem to do more of anymore. Some is hand sewing and some machine.

I'm feeling good at what I have accomplished in the yard as far as gardening and while I have some areas that are still unaddressed, the list is getting shorter. I want to power wash the patio using my new Ryobi power washer and we purchased some steel edging to install to prevent the stone edging from moving. It has a tendency to lean and we want to prevent that. We should do the edging first and then power wash after so we can reapply paving sand as needed.

I hope everyone has a great day and waving "hi" to everyone.

Harley, I had the same thought about Betrayal, that she is in Cindy's category with energy and productivity.

Betrayal, I like your attitude of figuring out a way to co-exist with the deer.

I can’t believe that you can do that much betrayal! I mowed front and my half (husband does the level half with the tractor) of the back and one very small load of laundry. I don’t know that I could do anything else.

mcbaker, I was so happy to hear about the nodule on your lung being unchanged. My husband has had ongoing breathing problems for years and it’s been a back and forth between cardiology and pulmonary. He had a heart attack 2 years ago and a Watchman implant last year. We were at the ER several weeks ago because we thought he might have had a blood clot. No blood clot but the CT showed a nodule (very small) on his lung that wasn’t there before. He goes back in 3 months for a follow up CT. It helps to hear of someone who has had one unchanged for that long. Will be praying yours and his to stay that way.

Whatever else an American believes or disbelieves about himself, he is absolutely sure he has a sense of humor.

E. B. White