From Alvadeer Update: another spot of bother!
They closed the original thread, so AC must have thought this was all over.Ha ha, so did I! But no. Updating (unfortunately) with "It's baaacccckkkk" and the appropriate scream. The Alien has left seedpods and they are marched all along the bottom of my breast in a perfect circle of pearls. The worst KIND of pearls. Picture me dressed as Ripley to fight back.
So, it is back through it now with Ma Kaiser on the phone as though she's my daughter. This nurse and that nurse and the other.SO far the plan is (and it could change dependent on tomorrow's PET SCAN:1. PET Scan tomorrow 1 p.m. 2. Meeting with the whole tumor board, surgery and oncology team on next Tuesday. 3. Surgery on the 21st for mastectomy.
The PET, if it lights up like a Christmas tree (one without presents), may change plans; not sure. And closure may be a problem for this with questionable skin involvement; I could luck out with a surgeon (I love mine) and a plastic surgeon both toiling over this old rag of a body.
It's a day at a time. Y'all were so very kind in the past, but there's no need to love bomb me. Just give me a thought. And know that I will be DEAD FOR 6 MONTHS before I stop writing on AC. You were afraid of that, weren't you?
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Keep the faith. And as you say onward we go.
PS I missed the post about Need
Sorry to read that.
Take care Alva Dear.
I am hanging in there. So is one drain. The other removed yesterday. Get the second out come this coming Monday. Tuesday is my meeting with psychologist to get all of that stuff about plans for future set in stone. Am not yet contacted for the workup for radiation, which is said to come when fully healed; possibly the week of the 28th April. I will let all know when I begin.
Thanks, but surgery is over. I am flat and loving it. I hated being a "uni". Never knew whether to sling on a knitted knocker or just leave it be what it was--Amazon out shopping. I am hope I get to ENJOY flat a few seconds, as longed for it for some time.
So I am through the surgery now, and on 10th day post op. Out to Trader Joe looking for my Original Potato Chips and Love, Olivia wine. Out to Safeway today and to get a Haircut. This old RN wasn't clever enough to remember that electrolytes help a whole lot so I spent a few days with quite low blood pressure. That's over. I even gardened already, cutting back the scented geraniums which were threatening to make their way up the stairs and strangle us.
Will be, after I healed all up (drains come out Wednesday next), going to go through 16 days of radiation. Why? Well, this breast was FULL of invasive cancers everywhere, including what they call satellites (cute) out to the skin. NO ONE wants to get ulcerations on the skin because they are quite odious; they would make for the earliest of final exits. Radiation is the best way to kill those off the skin by burning those little eggs with Ripley's blow torch, better known as Radiation Therapy. The doctor, who has interviewed me, sounds like an A. I. machine, brilliant but without any humanity at all. I QUITE like him. He levels with you, and as one all into "brutal" honesty I appreciate it when leveled my way.
All goes well, kids. Carry on. Out @ REALYREAL................my daughter asks you if the emu oil is from Colorado? She got pure emu oil from there when she had a breast reduction years ago. She says it so healed the scarring that the scars are almost not noticeable at all. You may have a fan in your "recommendations " corner.
Toast with some Gatorade! You got this!
I have also noticed your respect and acceptance of others. I hope and, yes, pray that we could all be as gracious.
I love your take. If you notice, I, as the ATHEIST on the page, am ever telling people that I often LIVE chanting the Serenity Prayer and I recommend it.
I have loved the poetry of the bible all my life and during my bro's illness, pain, fear I would speak to myself the psalms. We have ALL (or we WILL all) spent time in the Valley of the Shadow. Exquisite gentle and beautiful words bring exquisite comfort and courage. To me, anyway.
Even an atheist cannot live 82 years without seeing, hearing, being exposed to the liturgy of so many faiths, to their houses of worship, their music, the history they saved for the world from the first we could scratch in Runes on a stick.
Are there more beautiful works than The Messiah, which I blast out every Christmas season? (favorite part: "His yoke is easy and his burden is light"). The masses, the hymns of Great Britain and America? I think not. Nothing so beautiful.
To me the best of the faiths of our world are there to provide hope, comfort, beauty. I loathe those that threaten and cause fear in the teeny minds of men (burn the Catholics this year, the protestants next, and ALWAYS, whomever you have at the stake, throw in a Witch or two)
I DO so appreciate the beauty and fellowship and mental respite the faiths provide. And all my life have missed the sense of faith- based community I grew up in in the South of our states as a child.
Few people will discuss religion. They seem to get locked into their own particular brand, and it all goes wrong in discussion. I have seen many an ATHEIST get locked into THAT as though it were a religion; they are as angry and judgemental as the best of the Pastors of threats.
Anyway, the one thing I DO know is that caring people, being kind and good and caring from the most pure part of their spirit? THAT is a GIFT beyond measure. A gift I have been given freely and in ABUNDANCE. A gift I TREASURE and thank all for. I have had a very good life. Not without trials. No life is. But SO GOOD. And I am so grateful. When I say that, my friend Diane, who is very religious, says "To WHOM are you grateful." Hee hee.
I am so glad your doing well. 🥰
As for Faith, I was actually a caregiver to a priest for a while, we were watching the Pope one day and the Pope asked for people to pray for him, and he said, those non believers, send me hope. Honestly it changed my think, isn't that really what prayers are sending love and hope to others. So here is my hope and prayers. 🙏🙏
Thinking of you with quiet strength. I’m here, holding you in my thoughts.
I'm really glad that you have come through this recent fight with some good battle scars and a plan for the next charge of attack!
I wanted to share my ideas of how and why faith gives people strength. I'm not religious, but I do believe in the power of prayer. I think that when we pray for strength, help or guidance, we tap into our own strength and brainpower. And I think that faith and prayer help to build resilience.
I see prayer almost like a form of meditation and that, while in that state, our minds find peace and we come up with our own solutions - without realising we were even working on the problem. A bit like how our brains work on understanding and problem solving while we are asleep.
So, when you prayed about Jesus enduring pain on the cross, you tapped into your own resilience to bear the pain you were experiencing.
After all, religions are created from and are about shared human experience. So, it's not that strange that even those of us who don't have faith can still find comfort in some aspects of religion.
A very good friend of mine is spiritual; she chants runes and creates rituals at certain times, such as midsummer and the winter solstice, or just when she feels a need for it. (She is quite happy with the term, witch, btw 😉).
She's not sure whether her rituals help her find peace of mind and healing because of how her brain works or because there is a spiritual being. She says it doesn't matter, as long as it works.
So, keep doing whatever it is that works. Not that you need me or anyone else telling you that. But even the wisest of us needs a little reminder to look after ourselves every now and then. And you, Alva, are indeed a Wise Woman.
I see doc for post op check in--the surgeon--Tuesday a.m.
Will update after that.
I judge no person for their personal beliefs, that is not my intention and never has been.
Best of luck with your journey.
I know you are talking about something like blue emu pain relief but that is not what I was referencing.
Fortune telling is a JOKE, RR. At least to me it is.
Because no one can tell anyone else's fortune. Unfortunately.
Nor do Wiccans seem to have any more success of their religion or lack of same than the rest of us do with ours, IMHO. I do not believe in nor practice ANY religion, including Wiccan. And I leave to each man his right to his own decision for himself (women as well, by the way).
It's fun for me, however, the crow deck. Often gives food for thought, almost like those booklets of positive verses from the bible might. And the cards are beautiful, especially M. J. Cullihane's crow decks. As a poor single mom her beautiful art has transformed her family's life.
So not to worry, RR. I don't believe in Crows OR Gods. But you are kind to worry re all of that. Your faith apparently demands you evangelize? If so I can be forgiving of your doing so here. If not, I suggest, and would respectfully ask at this "trying" time, that Faith is best kept sacred to one's self, and is not the business of others. Especially I would appreciate that on my thread. Again, you are an adult and will make your own decisions.
Apparently the good Dr Song wants his OWN miracle oil on any burns. Go figure and wouldn't you know it. Perhaps they get paid to recommend it? He says bad choices DURING radiation can be very dangerous, but I appreciate the advice and your help and I love Emus a lot! He also is a proponent of Vitamin D. I know you like your supplements, so score one for Dr. S.
If playing with cards doth make of me a witch, get those fires started NOW. It may save me the radiation burns.
Or perhaps we could do it the old way. Throw me in the water. If I float or swim I am a witch and should be burned. If I sink I am not, but alas..........................
Hee hee.
You do now, and you always have, provided me with more than a few giggles, RR. We are FINE!
I recommend, from loads of research, Montana Emu Ranch brand. It is purified and I have NEVER had any go rancid on me, not something I can say about other brands. The price does reflect the quality, just a heads up.
I keep it in my 1st aid kits as a burn treatment, have personally used it as such when I have had chemical burns, cooking burns and sun burns. Works great on all of my mishaps.
Oh, I would like to tell you, based on your other post accusing me of hating you. Nope, I don't hate anyone, not even you and not even a little, I hate things you do and say but, not you. If you are saying that based on a certain someone telling you that, consider the source. And, you are a practicing witch. Fortune telling is witchcraft, you openly admit you do fortune telling with taro cards, so yeah, I own that and I still believe it if you are still doing that. If you have stopped practicing witchcraft, my apologies.
So glad you have encouraging news and a viable option .
I knew you would , because you have plenty still to say and to stick around here.
So you just take it easy. You know best for yourself and as a nurse. Now you are your own patient.
Everyone, thanks for standing in my corner as I negotiate this.
I took my first walk of any consequence (but still a very SHORT one), came home, sat in the sun on the deck with Frieda Dog, then stood up and almost collapsed. Ha ha. Yes, BP of at first "cannot measure" to 56/over not much.
I think a tad shocky but should not have been dehydrated. After I slugged down a tea, a water, a broth and got myself up to 94/60 I said to Neil "Oh, GREAT. Me on the floor of the veggie stand on the corner with a head wound and my stitches busted open and then calling an AMBULANCE and you driving me home from the ER at 9 p.m."
Oh!
Perish the thought!
I go too fast, and I know I do. Just that I feel so good. I will behave because not worth my life with N. and the kids if I don't. And am holding the atenolol. When I was an RN my first question for the collapsers was always "Do you take any beta blockers?" Hee .
This is all making my answers on AC ever so much shorter and sweeter. Well, maybe not the latter. You will all appreciate that.
Now you knew the two other concerns...the possible spread, and get it OUT.
It is OUT. Removed, The Dr. has a solid, workable game plan. If you weren't a nurse, the spread would have gotten past rescue stage. Timing is everything!
The rest will be easy...you bought some more years. Now the travel and recovery (and related discomfort) will be the hassle. Great numbers, too! 85% is huge!Take the time off to focus on yourself. You have a great Dr, who has scientific determination. Show him he's met his match!
Yesterday the Bay Area was covered with white, fluffy clouds...after some short showers. It was glorious outside. I had a feeling you'd be OK. Everything has been laid out. I'm sure your Dr. is thrilled to have a nurse patient, who gets it.
He can focus on his expertise in problem solving. You will make it easy!
This is a reminder for all of us out there to get our mammograms, we aren't too old for them. I did mine in December, it came up empty. Radiation focuses on precise, specific areas, whereas chemo is similar to drinking nuclear waste.
YOU GOT THIS! So does your Dr. and arrogant ones don't play. They succeed.