Serial Starters

Monday--Good morning all.

AOTD: Stress reduction. Good grocery shopping. Meditation not food for "fixing things".

Busy day. May not be back today.

Lana

Hi All-

Sara- how are you using myfitness? I just bookmark this thread and come to it, I haven't looked at any features.

Lana- I know the street your sister lives on. Yes, if you come out here we should all see each other! Hope you have a great day. If Aetna works out and you are at MSK, I can find the name of the Dr my friend used. I can't say enough good things about the facility. My mom's care was fantastic.

Geri- Welcome!

AOTD: I just finished getting the kitchen set up so my goal is to get groceries purchased and healthy choices of them. I also would like to start walking this week. I had a loop that I did when I lived here and hope to pick that back up. I have been back 10 days and don't want to put off the exercise part.

Have a great day everyone!
Jen

Jen - please send doctor's name and whether doctor is oncologist or surgeon. I seem to be swimming in oncologist names but don't yet have surgeons or plastic surgeons.

I have a feeling though that MSK is going to process me as they see fit/best given all of the schedules of all of the doctors. My sister mentioned that too--they will assemble and coordinate a team for the surgeries, and then we keep rolling after that. Since I don't know to ask for any one person in particular, it really just won't matter. I will be glad to be there.

The next move is waiting to hear from the insurance department of MSK to make sure that everything is in order and that everything will be covered.

And darn it ladies, I could not have put worse stuff in my mouth today. Confession: 1/2 bagel w peanut butter, whole milk; kielbasa (gah!); 6 big pieces of dark chocolate I found in a bottom drawer! and then a healthy salad.

Tomorrow will be better.

Sara - I don't know when tornado starts. I made the first call today; they will process and get in touch with me.

Sleep well everyone~~

Lana

Tuesday late morning....

Hi Sara~~
I have the results from both sides. I was confused at first because my gyno was confused. She was a bit flustered on the phone and she didn't realize that she actually had both results because she just assumed I had cancer in only one breast....

I have invasive ductal carcinoma in the left breast and (not invasive) ductal carcinoma in situ in the right breast.

I have annual screenings every year! It is stunning that I have it now on both sides. Ultrasound found it! Neither of the areas can be felt by the human hand, but I have dense breasts so only a big round lump would be felt. One side is an "area" and the other side is a zillion little bits. Weird. But that's the hand dealt. I have decided I want to go with Memorial Sloan Kettering, which is different than NY Presbyterian. I am waiting to hear back from MSK for when I have my first appointment/consult/whatever.

Meanwhile, work at the theater is going along with all the usual difficulties and annoyances. I hate it today; so many little unnecessary problems and broken things.

I gained a ton of weight in the past two days: scale was over 223 this morning after a 218 on Sunday! No more salty garbage to eat. I have to go grocery shopping after work today for healthy things!! It's been hard.

Thanks for listening~~

BBL

Lana

Morning All-

Lana- I think the surgeon was Gemignani, McCarthy did her reconstruction and Brennan was radiologist. I believe they are all females as well which made her feel more comfortable. The other thing you should check out a bit later on (when you are looking for a little escape). Check out Mary's Place. It's located in Ocean NJ. I took my mom out there for the day. It is a retreat house for women. You can go for the day or overnight and basically you can just be treated nice and with care - get a little TLC. My mom had a nice lunch and the "house mother/innkeeper" is a woman who is a breast cancer survivor. It's completely run by volunteers. Someone came in to make a nice lunch and sit and talked with her. Ladies from a local senior center crochet blankets so she was gifted with a lovely blanket when we arrived. Then she had a massage (once again all done by volunteers). The massage was a special massage as they need to know how to massage when being treated with chemo/radiation (i gather there is a different way/direction) to do the strokes. She then had a nice rest and then had some Reiki session by another volunteer. We later went down (it's not even a block away) to the beach. As this is all run on donations/volunteers, it's only for the person being treated. I was able to hang out in the living room but the treatments are for the person. It's just a lovely get away. https://www.marysplacebythesea.org/

Sara- glad you got some cooler weather. I got down to Half Moon Bay yesterday and saw some whales. It was a great end of my first day of work!

At a conference right now- really have not had much of an appetite. Kind of weird, all I had yesterday was a skinny latte and an egg scramble wrap for lunch, the rest of the day I had such indigestion. I felt terrible and was completely bloated. I didnt want to eat dinner but I thought it might help to get something in my stomach so I had a salad. I don't seem to have an appetite lately- maybe because I just have had so much to do. Not sure what the indigestion is from. Maybe stress -

Well have to get back to my conference- have a great day-
Jen

I can't figure out how to use the quote feature

Sorry

So glad there is a discussion on this! I am coming back after another failed attempt a few months ago and I am just DONE! Ready to stick to it this time and glad too see there is a group here exactly for this!