My Husband, My Life, My Love, My Family, My Cancer

@shanagirl Hooray for good CT results! It sounds like you still have a long ways to go before you feel better but at least things are going in the right direction.

@mara51506 I didn't mean to leave you off my last post. You inspire me to try new seasonings. Lately everything tastes off and it is difficult to want to eat. I hope your kitties tummies can feel better soon. It is difficult to have to keep cleaning up after them. My last cat was throwing up everyday and I struggled to keep up with her. I just wanted to hold her all day and soothe her but I was still working and couldn't tend to her like I wanted. We didn't get another cat after she passed—it was just too hard. I am content with my DD's dog since they live with us. She knows when I need my snuggles.

@irishlove poor Minnie. You must be so sad. Get lots of snuggles.
well this morning my daughter invited me to go on a short walk. The sign read 1 mile. I chose the trail bc I figured I could make it slowly. I didn’t realize halfway through it got very swampy and then underwater.

We got through it without upending. A lot of fun 🤩. I gave my cane to a friend to be able to hold on to a branch. Reminded me of childhood adventures in the woods.

Have a good day ladies.

Tanya

@irishlove Echoing everyone’s thoughts on Minnie mouse, so sad to see a momma grieving. I hope she finds true comfort in all you extra cuddles and bounces back over time. Glad to hear your weather broke and you are able to get outside a bit more and garden.

@tanya_djamila great to hear you were able to hike and create fum memories!

@shanagirl So happy scans show improvement ,may each day bring you more energy!

@threetree I understand your concerns over dose reduction as I went through the same over the past couple years. I agree it’s a scary territory for sure. You would never be the blame in any of this! I feel if your MO wasn’t fond of the idea it wouldn’t be offered. There’s no rush to change if you feel you can hang in and feel a little more ready mentally.

@mara51506 I love to hear your able to share your love of creating low cost meals with others! You’re a great source of info for creative ideas for less… post away👍🏻

@intolight Hope cooler weather finds its way to you as the heat can be so oppressive. Glad to hear the leg is still doing well mending nicely and you’re able to get out and shop with your daughter..best wishes for your granddaughter to have a fabulous start to middle school.

I totally agree and save draft is my best friend on here as it is still frustrating when your post disappears.The brain fog and keeping all the details in our lives can definitely be challenging, but I love my ladies here🥰always in my prayers and wishing everyone a better day than yesterday❌⭕️

@goldensrbest Hope you enjoyed your get together and meeting with the exchange student. Sounds like a good time.

Nothing happening here, laundry, floors, cat care etc. Nothing major. I am thinking of booking a trip to the No Frills store, still got 20 bucks of bonus points and have not figured out to use them online on instacart when stuff is delivered. They have canned lentils which is good, though I do have the dried red lentils too.

Not sure about meals but decided two meals at once should be done, I do alright for the morning meal but get lazy on the final meal. Post any really good meals later.

EDIT 1 Decided to use part of a pack of KNORR fettucine alfredo. Put in 1/2 cup water. 1/4 cup of the knorr pack, it already has flavour with it, added dried red lentils and added cheese to melt down in. I am unsure if need a binder, I will see. Not an overly large meal but really do not care at this point. It will be cheesy and good I think. I also used some garlic spread in place of butter.

UPDATE on the meal, small, used all above measurements, red lentils lend themselves to stuff like this for sure, kept the stirring up so nothing leftover on bottom of pan.

Hope everyone has a good day, in pockets for everyone.

@threetree So my reduction from 3,000 to 2,500 was pretty quick. I think it was at least a couple months .The reduction from 2,500 to 2,000 was probably 2 years. MO waited until I had several stable scans and I was very apprehensive also. Like you was concerned about progression but she reassured we would monitor scans and just increase if necessary.

@goldensrbest Hey its good to see ya was thinking about you lately hoping your back has been behaving 🤞🏻 How nice to be involved with exchange student and quite a bonus for your grandkids to help with their German. Enjoy !

@cookie54 - Thanks very much for the info re the time frame of your reductions. It's really helpful. My tumor markers plunged almost immediately after starting the drug, so my onc said that if the scans I got in April (first ones for Xeloda) also looked good, he'd consider a dose reduction. Well the scans looked really good, but we just never discussed a reduction. Now the last scans in July also looked good and he brought all this up. I just can't decide. Maybe I should wait to see the scans I'm supposed to get in October. I thought you were just on the 2500. I didn't realize you'd gone down to 2000.

@shanagirl - I can totally understand you being quite concerned about being off the Verzenio for about 3 months. I'd be worried too. All these issues are so scary, as you say, sometimes. It just seems to be part of what we have to go through with all of this. I was on the higher dose of Verzenio for about 5 months, and then he lowered it and I stayed on that until last December. Even in that situation I couldn't help wondering if I wouldn't have progressed if I'd stayed on the higher dose. You just never know, and it can really eat at you. I suspect you will be OK, because you are still getting the Faslodex and Xgeva, so that should help. Shana, I just feel so badly for you and what you have been through these past few months, especially. This pneumonia thing you have going on was really something, and I can understand how it is taking such a long time to clear up, but I've got my fingers crossed that it will. Sounds like you've got some uncomfortable heat too - that doesn't help at all. Well, as always, I'm really pulling for you and I like to think that you will meet this challenge like you have all those others you've had over the years, and pull through with flying colors. You are a real trooper if there ever was one!

Thank you @cookie54 for the nice and helpful comments re my dose reduction indecision. They are very helpful. The part of me that wants "quality of life" is ready to go for the reduction, but the part of me that wants a long, long run with no progression, wants to stay on the 3000. I could just be a bit more miserable right now because it's summer. I didn't do real well with the Verzenio and Faslodex in the summer either, so maybe I will just wait for October and see then. The side effects are pretty manageable right now, but I just have this overall fatigue and yuck feeling a good part of the time. Hope things are going well for you too and that you have a really good day. Hugs back!

@cookie54 I am doing fine thank you for asking, I hope all is well for you.

Yesterday, got some Amazon stuff yesterday, got the immodium and the 3M velcro stuff, sticks on walls to hold pictures. I needed the 3M strips to hold the front of a kitchen drawer that some how fell apart. It is holding, is crooked and need to be gentle opening it. I just did not feel like calling property manager yet.

Laundry done so that is good, need to decide on food, probably start out with 1/3 cup measures rice, chick peas, canned lentils and an egg. Will heat those in a pot. When done will put into a large bowl, put in some cheese and microwave to melt the cheese. It should taste good, will add mayo and cheese seasoning and it will be creamy.

MEAL1 I made the above meal, everything started out in the pot except the shredded cheese, once pot was done, dumped into bowl and added shredded cheese, heated 1 min 30 seconds in the microwave to melt the cheese. Brought back to kitchen, added plain mayo and cheesy seasoning, stirred ingredients up. It came out very creamy and was really good, did not even notice the egg but did enjoy the chick peas. Was filling but I did not mind. It was nutritious.

MEAL2 Lentils and chick peas, both mixed together same container in fridge. Almost a cup in total, did put garlic in the air fryer, cooked all for about 12 mins, nothing burned or too crispy. I added some sour cream and onion seasoning and too much cheese seasoning, but that was fine, bit of salt, used mayo to bind it. No cheese this time, it really did taste good.

I do hope everyone has a good day. I am in everyone's pocket. I will post on other meals if good and if this one I am making is good as well

@intolight and @mara51506

I drink during the day but I’m not great abut during a lot of fluids sometimes water with lemon and salt, mostly drink ice water with coconut water mixed together, I drink 2 cups of coffee each morning , and at knight I drink clove tea with tumeric ginger & cinnamon stick with alittle milk & honey. That’s usually the extent of drinking enough, I’m not the type to down several 16 ounce glasses of water 8x a day. I’m probably still dehydrated though, but I am just not big on drinking lot of water🤷‍♀️

@shanagirl - I am so sorry that those shots have you so down. They're not easy to begin with, and since you're still weak and recovering from the pneumonia, it's no wonder that you've hit a wall after those injections. I'd say take it real easy over the next week, and see if things don't get a little better gradually. You've been through so, so much, and I think it's going to take some real serious time to get back to your baseline before the pneumonia. Please know that you have friends her who are really pulling for you and really care. Wishing you comfort and ease today - sending hugs too!

@mara51506 I took a pot pie out of the freezer and heated it up for dinner. I like the turkey pot pies and especiallyn the crust. 😋

I just don’t have much of an appetite so I’ll just make some tumeric a ginger & clove tea and relax upstairs and go to bed early tonight. @threetree @intolight thank you for your loving words of encouragement . You are all wonderful here. I’m just giving into the tiredness tonight. Have a lovely evening everyone.🩷

@shanagirl

I have absolutely no desire to write at all, but I want to write about the latest developments in my health.

I am currently on the reduced dose of Afinitor (5 mg) along with the hormonal treatment exemestane.

A few months after starting Afinitor, I developed pneumonia. This is actually the second time I have had pneumonia—the first time was while I was on Kisqali.

I also developed high cholesterol, especially high triglycerides, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, along with many other problems involving my bones and joints, swelling in my feet, lymphedema, and other issues.

Now I have developed pneumonia for the third time. I became extremely tired whenever I walked or talked, and I had a dry cough. I thought this might be related to my heart, so when I visited a cardiologist, I had an ECG, which was normal. However, the chest X-ray showed what they believed was pneumonia.

The doctor prescribed Augmentin 625 mg twice a day for five days. I finished the course yesterday, but I still don’t feel completely better.

I had my blood tests done last Friday, and the results were reasonably good overall. The CRP was 20, which is a fairly reasonable level considering that I have pneumonia.

My blood sugar and cholesterol were elevated as usual, but there was nothing new.

My iron level was also low at 40.

I will have the rest of my blood tests done next week before I see my oncologist, so we can discuss everything in detail.

I wasn’t completely convinced about using Augmentin for pneumonia, because my respiratory specialist, who treated me for my previous two episodes of pneumonia, used a different antibiotic.

I don’t know if anyone here has had pneumonia three times. I am extremely exhausted, and I have also lost weight because my appetite has decreased.

@norah2024 and @shanagirl I developed pneumonitis (as opposed to pneumonia) while on affinitor/exemestane. It put me in the hospital very sick for five days and it took me a couple of months to recover. My oncologist stopped the affinitor believing it was the drug that possibly I was allergic to. She told me there was no way to prove the cause was medication without putting me back on but they ran dozens of tests to rule out everything else…even legionnaires disease. I was happy to stop it and moved on.