"Live By Inspiring Others To Fly"
I feel like I am ready to fly, the surgery is over and went well. It was a different experience as it was done at St Elizabeth's Surgical Center. This was a small setting, like going to the Doctors office. I had to be there at noon with the surgery scheduled for 1:30 pm.. Lots of different types of people in the waiting room;) and a soap opera on the TV along with a lot of storm warnings ~ I admit the thought ran through my hairless head ~ gosh what would happen if they loose power here in the middle of my surgery. They were mentioning 60 mph winds. Someone from the operating area came out to see what the television was saying about the weather. Oh my!
They started a bit late, Peter had to go back to the waiting room. When I woke up I had no idea where I was and I was very cold. They were trying to warm me up with warm blankets. ( at least the electric did not go out) . I was in the recovery room, which was two feet away from the holding room. I asked a couble of times for Peter and they said he could come back after I got out of the recovery area. They were concerned that I had a rash on my face and I was cold. So two hours later I woke up - again and I am still in the recovery area. The nurse told me that they were waiting for Dr Williams ( who is in pratice with my Dr.) to look at this rash on my face. OK. He eventually came out and said I was fine.
Suddenly they wheeled in another patient. She was very bubbly and had just had her breast done.
She wanted to know what kind of surgery I had. So I told her and she exclaimed "that's what I had done, what size did you get" ! LOL I told her I had no idea as I had just woken up. That was priceless!
I am ready to fly, fly to the beach in Florida!
Susan Beryl's life with cancer. To see the older posts and pictures, click on "older posts" at the botton of the page
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Tuesday, July 24, 2012
Friday, July 20, 2012
Of course we do not have gray hair!
Information on the growth of hair and the results after chemo. Of course we do not have gray hair!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a message dated 7/17/2012 8:42:14 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
lnbstew@6thsensedesign.com writes:
Sue, Hi!! Well about the hair. Mine is still wavy in the back ands still very short. It is very dark and more gray hair than I have ever had, but i do get highlights now. Actually I am going tomorrow to get foiled. I refuse to have such dark hair. Need my highlights. It will take a while and it comes in curly. For someone who never had curly hair i kind of enjoyed it. It only lasts 1 year than it is straight again. I have heard of people with curly hair getting straight hair. You sound quite good. I have decided to go to San francisco in Sept. and stay with my Aunt for a couple of weeks. I have to take oxygen which is a Pain in the ass but they will not let me leave without it. I do not use it but doesn't matter. Looking forward to getting out of this heat. Should really be nice that time of year. When are you having surgery? I really admire you doing the reconstruction. I just can't imagine having it. I had two lumpectomys and that is enough. Take care.Love, Linda
In a message dated 7/17/2012 2:38:13 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
kc4nsicrn@aol.com writes:
Susan, I just read the great news! How wonderful! Wanted to let you know that my friend who lost her hair after chemo, had very curly hair when it came back. God leads us to the right path, huh? wow, prayers worked.
Karen Chabert,
504-891-6293 Phone/Fax
504-343-9095 Cell Phone
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
New Breasts and New Hair are on the Horizion
Hello Everyone!
It is hot in Cincinnati/Northern KY
I am finally feeling better! I was beginning to think I was just going to turn into an inactive boring aging elder woman. I am five weeks and 2 days out of chemo! My chemo days are a thing of the past and I am moving forward on new life paths. I still have not made it to working in the yard ~ we are having a drought and another heat wave. I am getting bored.
My blood work is good and my bones are actually stronger that they were a year ago. Thank you to the horrid bone marrow shots I had to have after each round of chemo.
Tuesday July 24, 2012 - I am having the expanders removed and my reconstruction surgery:) I can not wait to get this done! I feel like I have rocks on my chest. Good bye to the expanders which are tied to my ribs and full of sterile solution . The surgical procedure is done as an out patient procedure - a fairly simple surgery. I THINK! Of course this involves all the pre-surgery things that I have to do. A pre-surgery physical with my family Dr. and an EKG. Another visit to Dr Vashi (plastic surgeon) - who I just saw last week. Than the pre- physical they give you at the hospital . The best thing is I will have my new breasts and they will be perfect and soft! I will be healed for my trip to the beach:)
My hair is kind of interesting - I have a few bits of white fuzz on top of my head. I have heard all kinds of stories about the regrowth of after chemo hair. My oncologist Dr. Bhandari- commented the fuzz I have is just the first growth of hair eventually I will have a second growth of hair. How long does this take? A few years! Usually the hair comes in curly ( I guess the hair follicles are damaged and the hair grows crooked) It also changes color - somethings it comes in red or different colors. Well, this white stuff is going to make me look like a Q-tip. I anticipate by fall I will be wearing my wig! Gray hair is not my style.
Thanks for following my journey. Remember early detection saves lives! As we age we need to follow Dr's orders - mammograms and colonoscopy's are a must!
xoxox
Susan
The American Cancer Society “Guidelines for the Early Detection of Cancer” recommend, beginning at age 50, both men and women follow f these testing schedules for screening to find colon polyps and cancer: 1. Flexible Colonoscopy every 5 years.
My new hair!
Tissue expanders - these will be gone next week yayayaya
It is hot in Cincinnati/Northern KY
I am finally feeling better! I was beginning to think I was just going to turn into an inactive boring aging elder woman. I am five weeks and 2 days out of chemo! My chemo days are a thing of the past and I am moving forward on new life paths. I still have not made it to working in the yard ~ we are having a drought and another heat wave. I am getting bored.
My blood work is good and my bones are actually stronger that they were a year ago. Thank you to the horrid bone marrow shots I had to have after each round of chemo.
Tuesday July 24, 2012 - I am having the expanders removed and my reconstruction surgery:) I can not wait to get this done! I feel like I have rocks on my chest. Good bye to the expanders which are tied to my ribs and full of sterile solution . The surgical procedure is done as an out patient procedure - a fairly simple surgery. I THINK! Of course this involves all the pre-surgery things that I have to do. A pre-surgery physical with my family Dr. and an EKG. Another visit to Dr Vashi (plastic surgeon) - who I just saw last week. Than the pre- physical they give you at the hospital . The best thing is I will have my new breasts and they will be perfect and soft! I will be healed for my trip to the beach:)
My hair is kind of interesting - I have a few bits of white fuzz on top of my head. I have heard all kinds of stories about the regrowth of after chemo hair. My oncologist Dr. Bhandari- commented the fuzz I have is just the first growth of hair eventually I will have a second growth of hair. How long does this take? A few years! Usually the hair comes in curly ( I guess the hair follicles are damaged and the hair grows crooked) It also changes color - somethings it comes in red or different colors. Well, this white stuff is going to make me look like a Q-tip. I anticipate by fall I will be wearing my wig! Gray hair is not my style.
Thanks for following my journey. Remember early detection saves lives! As we age we need to follow Dr's orders - mammograms and colonoscopy's are a must!
xoxox
Susan
The American Cancer Society “Guidelines for the Early Detection of Cancer” recommend, beginning at age 50, both men and women follow f these testing schedules for screening to find colon polyps and cancer: 1. Flexible Colonoscopy every 5 years.
My new hair!
Tissue expanders - these will be gone next week yayayaya
Sunday, July 8, 2012
DR.Wartman's story. Glimpses of research and genetic linked cancer
Happy Sunday
July 8, 2012
Robin my nephew Micheal's wife ( so my niece) who suffers from leukemia, is in her second remission, her Dr's are at OH State Hospital. She is doing great! This is a glimpse into what is happening in the world of research. Some of these genes begin to grow and multiply quickly. My cancer was driven by estrogen and there is some suspect of the p52 gene which may be responsible for this estrogen invading my body.
I have posted this article on Facebook ~ this is a major break through in genetics and the link to cancer. This is a lot to read but it is important. My Dr. wants me to get into a genetic program at a research hospital, he has mentioned OH State and the University of Michigan. I see him tomorrow and I am taking him a copy of this report.
It is still so hot out, high of 95 degrees beats 105! Still to hot to do much of anything. Impossible to work in the yard. We are hoping for rain without major thunder storms that could knock our power out! We have lots of very old trees that topple in such storms. SO I am crossing my fingers for simple rain.
I feel a bit better everyday~ my legs still hurt ~ guess I will find out tomorrow what the leg discomfort is about . This morning I did drive to the drug store and stopped and got some fruit and salad from the salad bar at Remkes Market. The first time I have driven since my trip to Krogers LOL and their salad bar:) I ave been knitting and spinning some yarn.
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In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
By GINA KOLATA
Published: July 7, 2012 222 Comments
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ST. LOUIS — Genetics researchers at Washington
University, one of the world’s leading centers for work on the human genome,
were devastated. Dr. Lukas Wartman, a young, talented and beloved colleague, had
the very cancer
he had devoted his career to studying. He was deteriorating fast. No known
treatment could save him. And no one, to their knowledge, had ever investigated
the complete genetic makeup of a cancer like his.
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So one day last July, Dr. Timothy Ley, associate
director of the university’s genome institute, summoned his team. Why not throw
everything we have at seeing if we can find a rogue gene spurring Dr. Wartman’s
cancer, adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia, he asked? “It’s now or never,” he
recalled telling them. “We will only get one shot.”
Dr. Ley’s team tried a type of analysis that they had
never done before. They fully sequenced the genes of both his cancer cells and
healthy cells for comparison, and at the same time analyzed his RNA, a close
chemical cousin to DNA, for clues to what his genes were doing.
The researchers on the project put other work aside
for weeks, running one of the university’s 26 sequencing machines and
supercomputer around the clock. And they found a culprit — a normal gene that
was in overdrive, churning out huge amounts of a protein that appeared to be
spurring the cancer’s growth.
Even better, there was a promising new drug that might
shut down the malfunctioning gene — a drug that had been tested and approved
only for advanced kidney
cancer. Dr. Wartman became the first person ever to take it for leukemia.
And now, against all odds, his cancer is in remission
and has been since last fall.
While no one can say that Dr. Wartman is cured, after
facing certain death last fall, he is alive and doing well. Dr. Wartman is a
pioneer in a new approach to stopping cancer. What is important, medical
researchers say, is the genes that drive a cancer, not the tissue or organ —
liver or brain, bone marrow, blood or colon — where the cancer originates.
One woman’s breast
cancer may have different genetic drivers from another woman’s and, in fact,
may have more in common with prostate
cancer in a man or another patient’s lung cancer.
Under this new approach, researchers expect that
treatment will be tailored to an individual tumor’s
mutations, with drugs, eventually, that hit several key aberrant genes at once.
The cocktails of medicines would be analogous to H.I.V.
treatment, which uses several different drugs at once to strike the virus in a
number of critical areas.
Researchers differ about how soon the method, known as
whole genome sequencing, will be generally available and paid for by insurance —
estimates range from a few years to a decade or so. But they believe that it has
enormous promise, though it has not yet cured anyone.
With a steep drop in the costs of sequencing and an
explosion of research on genes, medical experts expect that genetic analyses of
cancers will become routine. Just as pathologists do blood cultures to decide
which antibiotics
will stop a patient’s bacterial infection, so will genome sequencing determine
which drugs might stop a cancer.
“Until you know what is driving a patient’s cancer,
you really don’t have any chance of getting it right,” Dr. Ley said. “For the
past 40 years, we have been sending generals into battle without a map of the
battlefield. What we are doing now is building the map.”
Large drug companies and small biotechs are jumping
in, starting to test drugs that attack a gene rather than a tumor type.
Leading cancer researchers are starting companies to
find genes that might be causing an individual’s cancer to grow, to analyze
genetic data and to find and test new drugs directed against these genetic
targets. Leading venture capital firms are involved.
For now, whole genome sequencing is in its infancy and
dauntingly complex. The gene sequences are only the start — they come in
billions of small pieces, like a huge jigsaw puzzle. The arduous job is to
figure out which mutations are important, a task that requires skill, experience
and instincts.
So far, most who have chosen this path are wealthy and
well connected. When Steve Jobs had exhausted other options to combat pancreatic
cancer, he consulted doctors who coordinated his genetic sequencing and
analysis. It cost him $100,000, according to his biographer. The writer
Christopher Hitchens went to the head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr.
Francis Collins, who advised him on where to get a genetic analysis of his esophageal
cancer.
Harvard Medical School expects eventually to offer
whole genome sequencing to help cancer patients identify treatments, said Heidi
L. Rehm, who heads the molecular medicine laboratory at Harvard’s Partners
Healthcare Center for Personalized Genetic Medicine. But later this year,
Partners will take a more modest step, offering whole genome sequencing to
patients with a suspected hereditary disorder in hopes of identifying mutations
that might be causing the disease.
Whole genome sequencing of the type that Dr. Wartman
had, Dr. Rehm added, “is a whole other level of complexity.”
Dr. Wartman was included by his colleagues in a
research study, and his genetic analysis was paid for by the university and
research grants. Such opportunities are not available to most patients, but Dr.
Ley noted that the group had done such an analysis for another patient the year
before and that no patients were being neglected because of the urgent work to
figure out Dr. Wartman’s cancer.
“The precedent for moving quickly on a sample to make
a key decision was already established,” Dr. Ley said.
- 1
In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
Published: July 7, 2012 222 Comments
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Ethicists ask whether those with money and connections should have options far out of reach for most patients before such treatments become a normal part of medicine. And will people of more limited means be tempted to bankrupt their families in pursuit of a cure at the far edges?Sid Hastings for The New York Times
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“If we say we need research because this is a new idea, then why is it that rich people can even access it?” asked Wylie Burke, professor and chairwoman of the department of bioethics at the University of Washington. The saving grace, she said, is that the method will become available to all if it works.A Life in MedicineIt was pure happenstance that landed Dr. Wartman in a university at the forefront of cancer research. He grew up in small-town Indiana, aspiring to be a veterinarian like his grandfather. But in college, he worked summers in hospitals and became fascinated by cancer. He enrolled in medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, where he was drawn to research on genetic changes that occur in cancers of the blood. Dr. Wartman knew then what he wanted to do — become a physician researcher.Those plans fell apart in the winter of 2002, his last year of medical school, when he went to California to be interviewed for a residency program at Stanford. On the morning of his visit, he was nearly paralyzed by an overwhelming fatigue.“I could not get out of bed for an interview that was the most important of my life,” Dr. Wartman recalled. Somehow, he forced himself to drive to Palo Alto in a drenching rain. He rallied enough to get through the day.When he returned to St. Louis, he gave up running, too exhausted for the sport he loved. He started having night sweats.“I thought it might be mono,” he said. “And I thought I would ride it out.”But then the long bones in his legs began to hurt. He was having fevers.He was so young then — only 25 — and had always been so healthy that his only doctor was a pediatrician. So he went to an urgent care center in February 2003. The doctor there thought his symptoms might come from depression, but noticed that his red and white blood cell counts were low. And Lukas Wartman, who had been fascinated by the biology of leukemia, began to suspect he had it.“I was definitely scared,” he said. “It was so unreal.”The next day, Mr. Wartman, who was about to graduate from Washington University’s medical school, went back there for more tests. A doctor slid a long needle into his hip bone and drew out marrow for analysis.“We looked at the slide together,” Dr. Wartman said, recalling that terrible time. “It was packed with leukemia cells. I was in a state of shock.”Dr. Wartman remained at the university for his residency and treatment: nine months of intensive chemotherapy, followed by 15 months of maintenance chemotherapy. Five years passed when the cancer seemed to be gone. But then it came back. Next came the most risky remedy — intensive chemotherapy to put the cancer into remission followed by a bone-marrow transplant from his younger brother.Seven months after the transplant, feeling much stronger, he went to a major cancer meeting and sat in on a session on his type of leukemia. The speaker, a renowned researcher, reported that only 4 or 5 percent of those who relapsed survived.“My stomach turned,” Dr. Wartman said. “I will never forget the shock of hearing that number.”But his personal gauge of recovery — how far he could run — was encouraging.By last spring, three years after his transplant, Dr. Wartman was running six to seven miles every other day and feeling good. “I thought maybe I would run a half marathon in the fall.”Then the cancer came back. He remembered that number, 4 or 5 percent, for patients with one relapse. He had relapsed a second time.This time, he said, “There is no number.”His doctors put him on a clinical trial to try to beat the cancer with chemotherapy and hormones. It did not work.They infused him with his brother’s healthy marrow cells, to no avail.A Clue in RNADr. Wartman’s doctors realized then that their last best hope for saving him was to use all the genetic know-how and technology at their disposal. - 2
In Treatment for Leukemia, Glimpses of the Future
Published: July 7, 2012 222 Comments
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After their month of frantic work to beat cancer’s relentless clock, the group, led by Richard Wilson and Elaine Mardis, directors of the university’s genome institute, had the data. It was Aug. 31.Dilip Vishwanat for The New York Times
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The cancer’s DNA had, as expected, many mutations, but there was nothing to be done about them. There were no drugs to attack them.But the other analysis, of the cancer’s RNA, was different. There was something there, something unexpected.The RNA sequencing showed that a normal gene, FLT3, was wildly active in the leukemia cells. Its normal role is to make cells grow and proliferate. An overactive FLT3 gene might be making Dr. Wartman’s cancer cells multiply so quickly.Even better, there was a drug, sunitinib or Sutent, approved for treating advanced kidney cancer, that inhibits FLT3.But it costs $330 a day, and Dr. Wartman’s insurance company would not pay for it. He appealed twice to his insurer and lost both times.He also pleaded with the drug’s maker, Pfizer, to give him the drug under its compassionate use program, explaining that his entire salary was only enough to pay for 7 ½ months of Sutent. But Pfizer turned him down too.As September went by, Dr. Wartman was getting panicky.“Every day is a roller coaster,” he said at the time, “and everything is up in the air.”Desperate to try the drug, he scraped up the money to buy a week’s worth and began taking it on Sept. 16. Within days, his blood counts were looking more normal.But over dinner at a trendy St. Louis restaurant, he picked at his chicken and said he was afraid to hope.“Obviously it’s exciting,” he said. “But Sutent could have unanticipated effects on my bone marrow.” Maybe his rising red blood cell counts were just a side effect of the drug. Or maybe they were just a coincidence.“It’s hard to say if I feel any different,” Dr. Wartman said.And the cost of the drug nagged at him. If it worked, how long could he afford to keep taking it?The next day, a nurse at the hospital pharmacy called with what seemed miraculous news: a month’s supply of Sutent was waiting for Dr. Wartman. He did not know at the time, but the doctors in his division had pitched in to buy the drug.Two weeks later, his bone marrow, which had been full of leukemia cells, was clean, a biopsy showed.Still, he was nervous. The test involved taking out just a small amount of marrow. Cancer cells could be lurking unseen.The next test was flow cytometry, which used antibodies to label cancer cells. Again, there were no cancer cells.But even flow cytometry could be misleading, Dr. Wartman told himself.Finally, a yet more sensitive test, called FISH, was done. It labels cancer cells with fluorescent pieces of DNA to identify leukemia cells. Once again, there were none.“I can’t believe it,” his awe-struck physician, Dr. John DiPersio, told him.Dr. Wartman, alone in his apartment, waited for his partner, Damon Berardi, to come home from work. That evening, Mr. Berardi, a 31-year-old store manager, opened the door with no idea of Dr. Wartman’s momentous news. To his surprise, Dr. Wartman was home early, waiting in the kitchen with champagne and two flutes he had given Mr. Berardi for Christmas. He told Mr. Berardi he should sit down.“My leukemia is in remission,” he said. The men embraced exultantly, and Dr. Wartman popped open the champagne.“I felt an overwhelming sense of relief and a renewed vision of our future together,” Mr. Berardi said. “There were no tears at that moment. We had both had cried plenty. This was a moment of hope.”Hunches and DecisionsDr. Wartman and his doctors had fateful decisions to make, with nothing but hunches to guide them. Should he keep taking Sutent or have another bone-marrow transplant now that he was in remission again?In the end, Dr. DiPersio decided Dr. Wartman should have the transplant because without it the cancer might mutate and escape the Sutent.Meanwhile, Pfizer had decided to give him the drug. Dr. Wartman has no idea why. Perhaps the company was swayed by an impassioned plea from his nurse practitioner, Stephanie Bauer.Dr. Wartman’s cancer is still gone, for now, but he has struggled with a common complication of bone-marrow transplants, in which the white blood cells of the transplanted marrow attack his cells as though they were foreign. He has had rashes and felt ill. But these complications are gradually lessening, and he is back at work in Dr. Ley’s lab.His colleagues want to look for the same mutation in the cancer cells of other patients with his cancer. And they would like to start a clinical trial testing Sutent to discover whether the drug can help others with leukemia, or whether the solution they found was unique to Lukas Wartman.Dr. Wartman himself is left with nagging uncertainties. He knows how lucky he is, but what does the future hold? Can he plan a life? Is he cured?“It’s a hard feeling to describe,” he said. “I am in uncharted waters.”Monday: Promise and heartbreak.
A version of this article appeared in print on July 8, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: In Leukemia Treatment, Glimpses of the Future.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Recovering from chemo treatment for breast cancer
I realize my typing is not the best, even though I do spell check I have miss- spelled words. When I previewed this posting some of the back ground words are white not pink. Beats me LOL. I will blame it on the chemo brain/head. he he
I have discovered that there is not a lot of information on " how long it takes to recovery from treatment and how you should feel after you complete your chemo treatments". I am realistic after my trip to Krogers last week - it takes time. But my legs hurt a lot and by the end of the day it is worse, climbing the stairs is excruciating and requires a pain pill or two. Which I hate to have to take. I do not want to turn into a drug induced , inactive woman with white curly hair on top of my head. ( I think I am going to look like a q-tip) I want to be back to my active life style or at least able to walk a mile.
It has been way to hot to walk the dog. I am doing 30 in the door frame push-ups daily and I walk up and down the stair at home many times a day.Also I am using the Tai Chi and other energy methods that I have learned. Cancer society has classes but they start at 7 PM - which I plan on returning to when my energy level is up. ( I am tuckered out by 7 PM) I am getting some exercise. The good thing is It is impossible for me to sit still!
I am scouring the cancer sites " for how am I suppose to feel!" A larger percentage of cancer patients maintain jobs. How do they do this? I am going to find this information and share it on this site. I feel this is very important.
What I have learned.
1. There is no normal - you are living with cancer.
2. Depression is very common. ( I am not depressed:)
3. It takes months to recover!
4. Recovery times from chemotherapy vary with each person. Remember that chemo is a systemic treatment that will affect your entire body. You should plan on 1-3 months of recovery time per each standard dose of chemotherapy once your treatments are over.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
======================================================================
August 31 I am heading to the beach, Panama Beach in Florida with my friends and brother and brother-
in- law. I do not want to have sit at the pool , I want to be able to walk from the condo to the beach, walk on the beach and do my favorite thing, to sit in my beach chair, read a good book and chat with the people I love. This is a celebration of my recovery. This is my short term plan! A good thing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I have discovered that there is not a lot of information on " how long it takes to recovery from treatment and how you should feel after you complete your chemo treatments". I am realistic after my trip to Krogers last week - it takes time. But my legs hurt a lot and by the end of the day it is worse, climbing the stairs is excruciating and requires a pain pill or two. Which I hate to have to take. I do not want to turn into a drug induced , inactive woman with white curly hair on top of my head. ( I think I am going to look like a q-tip) I want to be back to my active life style or at least able to walk a mile.
It has been way to hot to walk the dog. I am doing 30 in the door frame push-ups daily and I walk up and down the stair at home many times a day.Also I am using the Tai Chi and other energy methods that I have learned. Cancer society has classes but they start at 7 PM - which I plan on returning to when my energy level is up. ( I am tuckered out by 7 PM) I am getting some exercise. The good thing is It is impossible for me to sit still!
I am scouring the cancer sites " for how am I suppose to feel!" A larger percentage of cancer patients maintain jobs. How do they do this? I am going to find this information and share it on this site. I feel this is very important.
What I have learned.
1. There is no normal - you are living with cancer.
2. Depression is very common. ( I am not depressed:)
3. It takes months to recover!
4. Recovery times from chemotherapy vary with each person. Remember that chemo is a systemic treatment that will affect your entire body. You should plan on 1-3 months of recovery time per each standard dose of chemotherapy once your treatments are over.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From: "Matthews, Cheryl" <Cheryl.Matthews@VerizonWireless.com>
Date: June 22, 2012 3:05:47 PM EDT
To: <SUSANPI@aol.com>
Subject: RE: Good News No Radiation - Blog update
Oh Susan……………….YOU DID IT!!!! I couldn’t be happier!!! Are there any side affects with the oral medication? Are you up for something on Sunday, if we are in the shade?Thanks for sharing your life ~ I learned so much from your strength, and I believe I will be able to handle difficult situations in my life better, because of you. You are truly an inspiration Susan. You know how we wonder sometimes why things happen the way they do? In your case, your cancer may have been God’s plan, and other’s will learn great things from your experience. Good things will come out of this, besides your own recovery, which I am so happy for!!!Can’t wait for the beach!! Let me know your thoughts about Sunday.Lotsa Love,CHERYL MATHEWS – ETE96
Business Account Executive
Phone: (513) 659 6124
E-Fax: (614) 356 1151Post Sales Business Support Team:
Business Support Center: 800.922.0204
Wireless Data Technical Support: 866.788.9387Verizonwireless
======================================================================
August 31 I am heading to the beach, Panama Beach in Florida with my friends and brother and brother-
in- law. I do not want to have sit at the pool , I want to be able to walk from the condo to the beach, walk on the beach and do my favorite thing, to sit in my beach chair, read a good book and chat with the people I love. This is a celebration of my recovery. This is my short term plan! A good thing.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Recovering from chemo
- By Neely · January 15, 2011 at 9:55 pm · 4 replies
- In Side effects of treatment
- Recommend Problem
- Shared with the public
Hi all, my partner is one of the lucky ones who found her cancer at stage 1c. She had her chemo almost 6 months ago but still feels bad fatigue. What makes it worst is she has a really good day & thinks she's going to feel better from then on & then the next day or two she's really tired again. Does this sound right for chemo? And I know this must be so normal but ever time she feels a little off she thinks she's sick again. There is one support group where we live & it's full. She's on the waiting list. Anything I can tell her? Thank you so much!
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- By kristymay
- Reply 1287422
- January 16, 2011 at 6:32 am
- Report post
Post Cancer Fatigue is a medically recognised syndrome and some percentage of people get it for quite a while after treatment ends. It's natural to think it's the cancer coming back but most times it isn't.
- By Kellyr1 (Inactive)
- Reply 1287623
- January 16, 2011 at 9:58 am
- Report post
The fatigue is normal. If she had any type of surgery before her chemo that will also play a role. For a hysterectomy it may take a year or more and then add chemo on top of that, wham. I think I read somewhere for that every session of chemo there is a recovery time of like 1 month. Maybe someone else will know the answer. Best of wishes and just have her listen to her body, if she feels tired take a nap, we do our healing when we sleep.
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She might want to walk a little bit every day. That might help the fatigue. Also I would use a small kitchen timer to only take 1 hour naps and then force myself to get up and do something. It is very easy to just be a couch potato or lie in bed sleeping all day due to the fatigue. Some days it is overwhelming. If I didn't set the timer, I could have easily slept 4 hours.