Topic: STEAM ROOM FOR ANGER

Sep 8, 2021 07:33PM bcincolorado wrote:

I remember Lita as well. Many others here have also helped me in decisions and confirmed I was not "crazy" in how I was feeling about things. Cancer is awful and I can only hope I have the wisdom and strength to help someone else in the same way.

Sep 8, 2021 08:02PM - edited Sep 8, 2021 08:53PM by KIDI919

Lita sounds like she was a wonderful person. I'm sorry I didn't know her. I didn't know what OP was so thx for clearing that up. I'm amazed at the # of people that can not accept that this a pandemic. Some people feel they can blame whomever (take your pick) on what is going on world wide. I am avoiding the covid thread as it just stresses me out. I wasn't offended, just the back and forth got to me. We all wish this shit was over and when you are dealing with being sick and just everyday life.. I feel like I can only worry about (or want to) my own life bubble. Besides our own dx we still have to deal with all the irritants of everyday life. I am thankful that there is this forum where we come to express our thoughts and feelings. I don't know any of you but I do treasure reading your posts.

Sep 8, 2021 09:03PM AliceBastable wrote:

Lita was a hell of a woman. She reminded me very much of a close friend of mine who had stage 4 ovarian cancer and died last winter. They were both funny, feisty realists.

Sep 9, 2021 09:38AM LW422 wrote:

Minus 2--Thanks, but I have no interest in any PT at this time, and certainly no LE therapist. I'm only 2.5 weeks out from my mastectomy and I've been doing the range-of-motion exercises at home. This morning I found that MyChart was littered with twice-a-week PT appointments for the next 5 weeks so I called and cancelled them ALL. In some ways I believe this is nothing but a money grab, and it annoys the hell out of me.

I'm feeling better each day just doing my own thing, and I resent the push to set up more appointments for something I'm doing myself. Such a waste of time, driving an hour to get there, dealing with the medical center parking, waiting in the waiting room for 30-45 minutes because they are ALWAYS running behind schedule, dealing with the half-assed "therapist" who is pointing at diagrams on a sheet of paper, then the hour (or more) drive home in rush hour traffic. GRRRRRRRRRR

Sep 9, 2021 09:54AM moth wrote:

The PTs associated with my surgeons are top notch and sometimes not everyone gets referred and it's become a pet issue of mine to encourage people to get referred. For ages people weren't getting anything. Then some got a "pre-op teach" and a handout, then some started getting referrals and a decent set of sessions to monitor ROM, strength, mobility assessment, lemphedema assessment. I think PT is hugely undervalued and underused so I'll leap to their defense. If you have a referral and insurance coverage, that is a blessing!

Sep 9, 2021 10:03AM SerenitySTAT wrote:

I miss my LE therapist. Very knowledgeable and adjusted to whatever I needed when I saw her. She was the most punctual medical person I've ever seen. When the pandemic hit, she cancelled my appointments. I haven't tried to see her again yet. I'm sure she's busy with people who need her more.

Sep 9, 2021 10:42AM nopink2019 wrote:

Lw422- I've had both good & poor experiences w/PT (skiing accidents). Since you are good about self care, see if you can get your referral to PT close to house and tell them you want progressive plan & once/week appts to monitor progress & get advice on how to increase exercises safely.

I meant this as alternative advice, not to be so direct, please ignore the tone, I'm too lazy to restate more kindly.

Sep 9, 2021 11:05AM moth wrote:

oh & my last thing about PT is that in the early weeks post-op, things often look and feel fine & the exercises seem relatively easy.. The tensions and adhesions can start settling in weeks and months later causing restriction to ROM and pain. So I think sometimes early on it's easy to say oh this is nothing, it will be fine, it's not a big deal to do the exercises. But the point is to establish a habit of doing some of these exercises regularly, and doing them very correctly, with proper position and extension...possibly for years. I developed cording about 9 mos post op; my surgery side is still not 100% and I'm at almost 4 years out.

Sep 9, 2021 03:44PM bcincolorado wrote:

Where I go there is one person who deals with breast cancer patients only. I think that helped in my case. It is affiliated with a university hospital medical system so that probably makes a difference.

Sep 9, 2021 06:05PM moth wrote:

I'm angry at the miserably short survival times for metastatic breast cancer. This from the metastatic breast cancer research conference today. This is making me livid. Livid. Where are the advancements??? Chronic disease, my ass. We need so much more for stage 4, we need the early stagers to really lift up the mantle and push for cures and treatments for stage 4 because we are not making much progress & well, we die before we can accomplish much :(

https://twitter.com/2020VisionGirl/status/14360912...

On the plus side, guys I've outlived my best before date!!!! 14 months? phhht

Sep 9, 2021 06:29PM moth wrote:

gamzu, it depends who is doing your genetic test but medical genetic tests are not the same as the cheap ancestry and other dna kits. They test many more exones unning a genetic test is a highly technical process. "medical-grade testing for BRCA gene mutations analyzes thousands of gene variant options, whereas one leading at-home kit considers just three." https://www.everydayhealth.com/cancer/what-to-know...

It is a highly technical test running through thousands of base pair mutations. When they run the tests, they have to have an inventory of known mutations that they compare against. There are thousands of mutations possible, and some are not associated with malignancy. You're paying for their gathering of known mutations and the building of very sophisticated anylytical machines.

I'm still considering redoing mine as I'm not sure that the company that did mine is as robust as I like & I have a family hx and a female child that I worry about.

Sep 10, 2021 07:02AM ctmbsikia wrote:

gamzu-the company will work with you. It took me months to pay the genomic bill. Pretty sure I still have an outstanding balance from 2019 as well. Seeing what happened in 2017 & 18 when Penn stopped sending bills, it went to the 1st collection co. I could not match up what they were asking, so after letting it go, it went to a 3rd collector- they had the correct amount and offered a 1 time settlement for a lesser amount, so that's what I've been doing if I can't get the bills paid as they come. I wait-usually it's a year end dump.

oh moth-no words. You are an exceptional contributor here despite your own health. I really and truly admire you for that.

Still waiting on my ultrasound results. Got an equivocal score on the anti mitochondrial antibody. At least it wasn't positive and my phone hasn't rung! I have ben reading about different liver conditions and what these labs are for since I've never had them done before. Weird that alt and ast are always normal. alk is always elevated but not by any sort of alarming amount. Still calm and hopeful that these tests are ruling things out rather than facing another diagnoses of some kind. Would just like to read the US though.......still waiting.

Happy Friday!

Sep 13, 2021 12:07PM Rain88 wrote:

I've just got off the phone with my doc and I wanted to share with all of you who provided such amazing support and advise that the vaginal bleeding I had experienced was caused by a large polyp, so nothing sinister! I will undergo polypectomy and hopefully that will be the end of it. I cannot put in words how immensely relieve I am! Sending you heartfelt thanks for your support. ♥️

Sep 13, 2021 08:10PM MountainMia wrote:

I'm not angry, but I'm disappointed about something in my personal life. At the beginning of the year, I was asked to write a crafting book. A small publisher is planning to expand their offerings to include craft books. The project started a bit slowly, then ramped up and because of editor/publisher input, became a quite different project than either of us expected. But there were project management problems on the part of the publisher, and several of my concerns were never appropriately addressed. Because of the publishing company size and this new product line, some of that was to be expected. I tried very hard to be flexible and understanding with problems. But still my concerns weren't being addressed.

At any rate, on Saturday I let the publisher know that there were still issues, and I asked when we could iron them out. Publisher wondered what was wrong. SAME LIST. THE SAME DA** THINGS. So I said, same things: this this this and this... She brushed me off again.

Lovely, creative, brilliant person, terrible project manager. Also frankly disrespectful.

After I said, there are still these things, and I know you have these problems in your life, but there are STILL these things we haven't solved yet, she quit responding.

We had gotten to this point at the end of May. A phone call we had, she would not let me talk, kept talking over me. I finally loudly said, "STOP interrupting me!" And I told her then I'd have to think about whether or not to continue. And here were are 3 and a half months later, and most of those same things were never resolved.

I stuck with it largely because of my husband's encouragement. But today I told her, very kindly, that I am done with the project and appreciate the opportunity, but life is too short to spend it on things that aren't truly rewarding.

SO I guess this is about cancer, after all, because my recognition of the brevity of life, and the need to be honest about my own desires for how to spend it, is partly because of my own cancer.

Anyway, she didn't respond to me today after I contacted her again, either. So I guess she's giving me the silent treatment. Which is okay. Her feelings are not my responsibility, as long as I know I tried to be clear but not mean.

Sep 14, 2021 06:29AM MountainMia wrote:

It IS scary. Cancer is f'ing scary. I'm waiting for a call from the BS office, because I have a small lump under my lumpectomy scar. (Actually, it is VERY lumpy under there, but this is a new thing and very distinct.) And it just seems like it's always something! I hope you get good information soon, ctmbsikia.