I didn't hear no bell (Hello again!)

PaulaWallaDingDong
PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,647 Member
edited December 1 in Introduce Yourself
Hello, friends! 41/f here. I am NOT new here, but it's been so long, and I've been so all over the place that I figured I might as well re-introduce myself. Any OG members who remember me, please let me know you're still here. 🙏

I started out in January 2015 on my journey from 250 lbs to 135 lbs over about 3 years. Once I moved in with my bf, I started picking up some of his habits and falling back to some of my own and started regaining a bit. Then the rona happened, I was on furlough,.not knowing if I would get my job back, and I basically panic-ate my way back to 225 by the time I was re-called. But from about 2022 to the summer of 2023, I was doing pretty swell, back down to 185 and counting. Amazing! Everything's butterflies and rainbows from here on out, right?

Nope! In October 2023, I was diagnosed with stage 1 ductal carcinoma. Well that all sucks, but at least it's easily treatable, and people don't gain weight during cancer treatment, right? ...WRONG! It turns out, if there's way to gain weight under any circumstance, I'll find it! My brain had fully checked out from my weight and fitness jOuRnEy and I could ONLY deal with the cancer. I didn't have many side effects from the chemo. No nausea, diarrhea, etc. Some fatigue, but nothing major. So I just ate and ate and ate, being praised at every doctor's visit for not losing. I got back up to 237 WHAT!? The docs have been very kind, happy to let me use hormone suppression, and that once-a-week-for-12-weeks dose of dexamethasone as excuses for my weight gain. Unfortunately, I know better. I adjusted my calories for a post-menopausal woman, and the difference was only like 40 calories. And I've been off the dex since March 2024. So yeah, it all still begins and ends with consistently making good choices for myself.

I'm down about 8 lbs in the last month, doing all the things I learned from the first go around. Keeping out of the cafeteria (I've never managed to make good choices there), bring food from home to eat at work, checking calories on items at the drive-thru, pre-logging as much as possible. Keeping moving when I'm bored or anxious. I taught myself to be able to run while obese, just for the sake of always being able to. I HATED losing that ability, and I'm never giving it up again so long as I'm well enough for it.

So.... How y'all doin?

Edit: get a load of this nightmare 😅

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Replies

  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,647 Member
    edited December 1
    Oh and speaking of OG members, there used to be a website that got posted here a lot, that was basically a comedic description of Alli "side effects," and I can't find it. The search feature isn't helping much. Does anyone have it saved somewhere? Edit: nevermind I found it! https://thewvsr.com/alli.htm
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    edited December 2
    Hey, @PaulaWallaDingDong: Yeah, I remember you! Welcome back!

    I joined MFP a few months after you (July 2015). Does that make me an OG? :D

    I'm also a cancer survivor (stage III breast cancer, way back in 2000). Yup, those onco docs don't want us losing weight while in treatment. I might've lost a little, but not much. (I was sicker than most are these days from the specific chemo I had, judging from others' experiences heard in my breast cancer support group. But "alive" is a good start on the rest of my day, so I'm not complaining. :) )

    What am I doing? Just chugging along I guess, mostly maintaining these days, spending too much time chatting in the Community here, usually still active with exercise but right now at a looooww level because recovering from a recent stupid fall (small skull fracture and small brain bleed 🙄😬).

    Hoping to see you around here going forward, and crushing your goals besides. Best wishes!
  • PaulaWallaDingDong
    PaulaWallaDingDong Posts: 4,647 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Hey, @PaulaWallaDingDong: Yeah, I remember you! Welcome back!

    I joined MFP a few months after you (July 2015). Does that make me an OG? :D

    I'm also a cancer survivor (stage III breast cancer, way back in 2000). Yup, those onco docs don't want us losing weight while in treatment. I might've lost a little, but not much. (I was sicker than most are these days from the specific chemo I had, judging from others' experiences heard in my breast cancer support group. But "alive" is a good start on the rest of my day, so I'm not complaining. :) )

    What am I doing? Just chugging along I guess, mostly maintaining these days, spending too much time chatting in the Community here, usually still active with exercise but right now at a looooww level because recovering from a recent stupid fall (small skull fracture and small brain bleed 🙄😬).

    Hoping to see you around here going forward, and crushing your goals besides. Best wishes!

    I didn't realize you joined after me! Maybe it's just because I wasn't in the forums right way, but I always regarded you with a higher level of authority, so I think I assumed you'd been here since the inception :D

    I'm glad you were able to beat your cancer <3 . The chemo drug I was on is called Taxol, with the addition of another infusion drug called Herceptin. It wasn't a great time, but it could have been a lot worse. I'm definitely grateful that I'll be able to look back on this as a really weird year in my life. I have one infusion of Herceptin left on Jan 3, and then I get to have my port taken out. The only thing that's still in question is whether the hormone suppression is actually working, on account of some symptoms I'm having. Because nothing can ever be simple. :s *sigh* Eventually, things will calm down. In the meantime, they just keep ordering tests and treatments, and I just keep showing up :D
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,617 Member
    PaulaWallaDingDong wrote: »
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Hey, @PaulaWallaDingDong: Yeah, I remember you! Welcome back!

    I joined MFP a few months after you (July 2015). Does that make me an OG? :D

    I'm also a cancer survivor (stage III breast cancer, way back in 2000). Yup, those onco docs don't want us losing weight while in treatment. I might've lost a little, but not much. (I was sicker than most are these days from the specific chemo I had, judging from others' experiences heard in my breast cancer support group. But "alive" is a good start on the rest of my day, so I'm not complaining. :) )

    What am I doing? Just chugging along I guess, mostly maintaining these days, spending too much time chatting in the Community here, usually still active with exercise but right now at a looooww level because recovering from a recent stupid fall (small skull fracture and small brain bleed 🙄😬).

    Hoping to see you around here going forward, and crushing your goals besides. Best wishes!

    I didn't realize you joined after me! Maybe it's just because I wasn't in the forums right way, but I always regarded you with a higher level of authority,

    🤣🤣🤣

    Yeah, no. 🤣

    . . . so I think I assumed you'd been here since the inception :D

    I'm glad you were able to beat your cancer <3 . The chemo drug I was on is called Taxol, with the addition of another infusion drug called Herceptin. It wasn't a great time, but it could have been a lot worse. I'm definitely grateful that I'll be able to look back on this as a really weird year in my life. I have one infusion of Herceptin left on Jan 3, and then I get to have my port taken out. The only thing that's still in question is whether the hormone suppression is actually working, on account of some symptoms I'm having. Because nothing can ever be simple. :s *sigh* Eventually, things will calm down. In the meantime, they just keep ordering tests and treatments, and I just keep showing up :D

    Yeah, I had Taxol, too - 4 times on 3 week cycles, after 4 x 3 weeks Adriamycin/Cytoxan. No port, all done via IV, right arm only because lymph nodes removed on the left.

    No Herceptin, because it was before HER2 status was generally tested, or Herceptin used, around here. I was ER+, PR+. I did 2.5 years of Tamoxifen, 5 of Arimidex (anastrozole), no Lupron (leuprolide) because the A/C pretty much put me in menopause at 45. Those were the hormone suppression meds in use at the time.

    The word I finally settled on for chemo was "sub-recreational" ;):D

    And yes, I agree - not simple. I hope you'll soon be through the worst of the treatment, with good test results, and the whole thing getting smaller in the rear-view mirror. At the time that it's happening, you're right, about the only thing a person can do is . . . do it. Whatever seems needful.

    I still have the occasional alarm bell, most recently some lung nodules that showed up on an X-ray (but that have remained stable so likely aren't cancer-related, we think, rather just some weird aging thing).

    Hang in there: I'm sending well-wishes!
  • Alatariel75
    Alatariel75 Posts: 18,349 Member
    Hi Paula! I remember you :)

    What a kick in the pants you're going through! Sending you a ton of good wishes.

    Much like you, I joined back in the day, got serious around 2014/2015, lost a heap of weight, felt great, and then put it all back on. I've been back seriously since July and am watching that downward trend again, finally.

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