Breast cancer.

[Sheilajeanne]

Hang in there! 

I was going through chemo during the COVID lockdown. And the chemo caused breathing problems - I was on oxygen for awhile! You can bet I kept my distance from anyone not wearing a mask!! It was a scary time.

[Mulesaw]

1 hour ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Hang in there! 

I was going through chemo during the COVID lockdown. And the chemo caused breathing problems - I was on oxygen for awhile! You can bet I kept my distance from anyone not wearing a mask!! It was a scary time.

Wow, that sounds frightening!

I hope that you have recovered completely. It is such a big scary disease, and the psychological impact on the patient and the family is hard to imagine. 

[chuck123wapati]

42 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

the psychological impact on the patient and the family is hard to imagine. 

i pray for you and your family, that you don't have to live with outcome some of us have suffered. I am so glad your wife is doing well.  I try to think of an uplifting thought to add but i lost my dad to cancer when i was about 27, Chemo was pretty new then so i hope they have come a very very very long way in the treatment.

Take care my friend and may god bless you and yours.

[Mulesaw]

@chuck123wapati

Thank you, it really helps to know that we are not alone in it.

They really have come a long way with the chemo treatment, and we have been very lucky that Mette discovered it when the nodes were still really small. But it still lingers in the back of the head a lot of the time.
The first 3 times she had the chemo, I drove her to the hospital, since she got another injection of something that had a red warning triangle on it, so she couldn't drive home, and those waiting rooms.. even if they don't look like a regular hospital waiting room, there is definitely a different mood in there compared to the part of the hospital for giving birth. 

When I get home from the ship this time, she'll have a surgery, and then I think there is still a couple of months with chemo before the treatment is over. And then there will be check up's every so often for the next couple of years. 

Thanks, Jonas

 

[Sheilajeanne]

On 9/2/2023 at 1:32 PM, Mulesaw said:

Wow, that sounds frightening!

I hope that you have recovered completely. It is such a big scary disease, and the psychological impact on the patient and the family is hard to imagine. 

Yeah, it was, especially when some close family members decided the vaccines were killing people and masks were useless in preventing transmission. 

I just had a bad scare with the breast swelling up and getting hard, but after a round of very comprehensive tests, my oncologist says it's just due to scarring causing an increase in lymph-edema. I'm coming up for 4 years cancer free in November! 

[Mulesaw]

27 minutes ago, Sheilajeanne said:

Yeah, it was, especially when some close family members decided the vaccines were killing people and masks were useless in preventing transmission. 

I just had a bad scare with the breast swelling up and getting hard, but after a round of very comprehensive tests, my oncologist says it's just due to scarring causing an increase in lymph-edema. I'm coming up for 4 years cancer free in November! 

Gee, I wouldn't know how to stay diplomatic in that case..

I am so glad to hear that you are 4 years cancer free in November. That is such good news, and great that your oncologist could see that it was "only scarring", normally I shouldn't say "only" about something like that, but in comparison with cancer, It really is.

We had the most fantastic weather in May and June, with July being fairly wet and grey. August was better, but all in all a very good season to receive chemo therapy. Also all our children are almost grown up. the two boys still living at home are 17 and 20, so they don't come home from kindergarten or school every other week with a cold or the flu etc. 

Brgds

Jonas

[DanMatha]

My friend's wife was diagnosed at an early stage last year. In this one, they celebrated their wedding anniversary and being cancer-free within a month of each other. I hate cancer.

[Sheilajeanne]

DanMatha, good news! 

And, yeah F**K CANCER!!

One of my oldest friends was just diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. It's a secondary tumor, and they think the primary is in her pancreas. And pancreatic cancer almost never has a good outcome. 

[Mulesaw]

On 9/25/2023 at 7:46 AM, Sheilajeanne said:

DanMatha, good news! 

And, yeah F**K CANCER!!

One of my oldest friends was just diagnosed with a tumor in her liver. It's a secondary tumor, and they think the primary is in her pancreas. And pancreatic cancer almost never has a good outcome. 

Ouch, sorry to hear that. It is a monstrous disease.

Mette had the cancer nodes surgically removed including the tow nodes in her lymph. The hospital as a precaution always take the neighbor lymph nodes and send those to closer examination. The answer was sadly that they also had signs of cancer in them, so two weeks later it was back to surgery and now all the lymph's in the right armpit have been removed. The hospital then suggested some more chemo therapy, so that is where we are now.. 

The next step is going to be radiation everyday for 3 weeks. 
Can't honestly say that 2023 so far has been a great year.

But we are still going in the right direction which is good, and the hospital has asked if Mette would be interested in participating in some follow up program where they monitor her more closely for the next 10 years. She has of course said yes, because that'll mean that they will immediately discover if anything is acting up in the future.

 

[Sheilajeanne]

{{{HUGS}}}  Prayers for you both! Yep, it's certainly no walk in the park!

The followup study certainly sounds like a good idea.

When I met with my oncologist due to the recent problems I was having with the scar tissue, she recommended I get an IV infusion of a drug that is supposed to both strengthen the bones and help prevent the cancer from coming back. I hadn't been able to take this previously, as I was thinking of getting a dental implant, and the drug has been known to cause issues with this sort of thing.

I wasn't feeling great after the infusion. 12 hours later,  at 1 in the morning, I had a severe chill followed by a high fever. I took some Tylenol and eventually the symptoms subsided enough that I was able to get some sleep. The chills and fever came back the next morning, and when I looked at the side effects of the drug on the paper they'd given me, they said yes, it was a fairly common side effect, and I should seek medical attention if this happened. I was able to get a friend to drive me to the E.R. Six hours and numerous tests later, the doctor concluded: You were right - this is a side effect of the drug. Go home, take Tylenol, and if it gets worse, come back and see us.

Geez -  What a waste of my day! 

And I will NOT be taking a second dose of that drug! Those side effects were ten times worse than the ones I had from the chemo!  I've rarely felt so sick in my life! 

I did feel better after a couple of days, but by the middle of the week, I woke up with such severe joint pain I could barely walk. I had to ask my tenant to take my laundry out of the dryer, as it was too painful to go down the stairs. More Tylenol, and the pain was gone within a couple of days. 

Nope, nope nope. Not doing this again!

 

Edited November 11, 2023 by Sheilajeanne