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Jan 23, 2021 05:00PM
- edited
Jan 23, 2021 05:05PM
by
CarolAnnieLumpLump
Hello Minus,
I see there are a few new people here. Hello to you all. I am Carol, I am from Michigan. I smoked for 44 years until I was dx with breast cancer in May of 2018. I quit smoking on June 21, 2018. I still have a pack of cigarettes (Marlboro Menthol Lights) with a sticky note on them that reads “Not today Satan".
This year has been crazy in so many ways. It's interesting that I think of you Minus occasionally and wonder how you are doing. I have not had a cig but I am still using my e-cig. I was using cartridges from a company named Mistic but they went out of business a few months ago due to some new restrictions. No notice was given. So it was a struggle to find a replacement in a hurry. I ended up trying a few different e-juice until I found one that works for me and isn't too expensive. I went from 18% nicotine down to 12% and plan to reduce to 6% with my next purchase. I know it's the hand to mouth for me. I just can't seem to give it up.
I did retire from my job on June 30. We gardened this summer and canned lots of tomato juice, peaches, green beans, apple sauce, froze baked zucchini breads and muffins, corn, and asparagus. We did lots of fishing and froze lots of fish fillets. My DH is sitting at the table right now cleaning more fish he caught today through the ice. Any way we stocked up on all kinds of healthy food that was either grown here on our 40 acres or within a ten mile radius. Needless, to say I love the outdoors so my retirement was filled with fun.
When we went to the grocery store in late March after not having gone for a month we were astonished that the shelves were bare. There was no meat to be found. No TP. So now we feel good about having our pantry stocked up with all this stuff we gathered. Lol. I don't know about where you live but here in Michigan, we couldn't even buy seeds to start plants or paint or any of the non essentials that you want when you are cooped up in your own 4 walls.
I have to make a confession. I was planning to go to Cancun on January 16th - January 30th. My uncles family does this every year and I have gone with them for the past 4 years. This year things were going to be different in that my dad and sister weren't going. It was only going to be my aunt, my cousin and myself. I had visions of having a real cig on the beach! After almost 3 years that urge snuck in on me. Good Lord! I ended up backing out from going when they announced you had to have a COVID test to get back in to the USA and all the political mess. I didn't want to be stuck down there with the Covid or a false positive or something crazy happen here and me be down there away from my family.
This is turning into a book... You had asked me last post if my husband was retiring too. He has been on disability since 2009. He looked forward to my retirement. Now I think I am driving him crazy. Haha. We turned ourwalkout basement into my craft space so I go down there and create things most days. I rediscovered how much I love to sew and have made hundreds masks. My daughter and I also have an etsy store where we make and sell things.
Glad you're still here encouraging others to work at quitting.
Carol
Diagnosed at 59. Oncotype 10.
Dx
6/5/2018, DCIS/IDC, Right, 1cm, Stage IB, Grade 2, 0/1 nodes, ER+/PR+, HER2-
Surgery
8/7/2018 Lumpectomy: Right; Lymph node removal: Sentinel
Radiation Therapy
10/9/2018 Whole-breast
Hormonal Therapy
11/23/2018 Arimidex (anastrozole)