Ellen in PA
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Posts posted by Ellen in PA
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"Kasey"]Hey Ellen!!! I am having a difficult time picturing you 50 lbs. heavier. You are such a tiny thing!!!! You need to eat more at Kildaire's
!!!Kasey
Oh you sweetie. But I'm glad you're having difficulty picturing me 50 lbs heavier -- it was not a pretty sight. Sort of like a button mushroom in Birkenstocks.
Ellen
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Hi. I took Neurontin following botched back surgery and fell asleep in the middle of the day while passing another car on I-95 -- and wasn't even feeling tired. I flushed the pills down the toilet as soon as I got home. I don't know how active your MIL is but please tell her to be careful (and definitely not drive). Good luck.
Ellen
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Hi folks.
Wow, never heard the term 'ta-ta' before (except as baby-talk for 'thanks'). Ya learn something new everyday! Thanks, folks.
Ellen
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Hi Patti. That's incredibly wonderful news about your scan results! It's so easy to get hysterical at every deviation from the norm -- and so nice to learn it's unrelated to the Big Issue.
Re the hip, how long has it been since you finished the rx treatments? I had radiation to my hip and a vertebra -- the vertebra felt fine halfway through (14 treatments in all), while the hip didn't feel any better till several weeks after the radiation was over. Maybe hips are just stubborn. Hope that's your situation.
Btw, while I was having hip pain, the best pain med for me was ibuprofen, 800 mg as needed (which was up to 4 times/day). If you take it, be sure to take famotidine with it so you don't hurt your stomach. (You can get 800 mg pills by prescription -- but they're huge and I much prefer taking 4 of the OTC 200 mg pills.)
Be well.
Ellen
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Hi CMilo. Welcome to our world.
I see you've been 'shown around the place' and given all kinds of good advice. I have just one question: Who or what are the 'Ta-Tas'? Thanks.Ellen
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Re Zometa, I just recently read somewhere -- I think maybe grace.org but not sure -- that Zometa seems just as effective every three months as every month and with fewer side effects (like necrosis of the jaw, ugh). I was just going to ask my onc about that when I see her next week since Zometa is my only 'treatment'. FWIW, she seemed quite insistent about my taking it, not to stop the cancer but to avoid fractures in the bones already weakened by bone mets, present and future.
Ellen
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I just wanted to say that, after having failed on nearly every diet under the sun, I lost 50 lbs over the period of a year (7/04-6/05) on the Atkins diet and it was really painless, and I've kept it off. If anyone's interested in knowing more about it, please feel free to PM me. And good luck to everyone.
Ellen
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If I want to see a scan or pathology or lab report before my next appt with the relevant dr, I just drop by his/her office and pick up a copy. I've never really thought about doing it any other way and it works for me...
Ellen
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Hi Teardrop.
I had several bone mets (spine and pelvis) at dx but they weren't bothering me at all -- no nerves or moving parts involved. Then about 6 months later I began to have pain in my hip/groin and also sciatica. A new bone scan (or was it an MRI?) showed new mets in a vertebra and in the pelvis and these were treated with 14 sessions of radiation. During the treatments I was very tired (slept 14 hours/day) and nauseated but that cleared up about a week or so after the treatments were over. And the pain disappeared -- the sciatica (from the vertebra met) about halfway through the treatments and the hip/groin pain about 2 or 3 weeks after the treatments were over. Since then I get a monthly infusion of Zometa to strengthen the bones in order to prevent stress fractures. So far, so good.
I hope your sister's treatment is not too unpleasant and turns out to be a total success.
Ellen
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Thanks, everyone, for all the kind words! Have a Bailey's (or the drink of your choice) on me!
Ellen
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Hi folks.
Well, December 26 was one year since I was dx with Stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the lungs, with mets to lymph nodes, pelvis, and salivary gland and later to the L3 vertebra. My treatment has consisted of 14 radiation sessions to the pelvis and spine (for pain and to prevent fractures and nerve damage) and monthly infusions of Zometa (since the rad tx). Oh, and a few weeks ago I had the salivary gland removed because it was bothering me and only afterward learned that it was malignant. (The original biopsy a year ago was negative, because they didn't go deep enough, duh.) I still feel fine, still have no cough or breathing problems, and am still enjoying my Marlboros.
Of course, this is all subject to change without notice -- but that's always true with LC, and so I'm very grateful for the advice I got that helped me decide to forego chemotherapy and chest radiation and all the attendant nightmares. I know we're all supposed to be 'fighters' so I guess I'm fighting by enjoying this period of my life.
Happy New Year to you all.
Ellen
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Congratulations, Kasey!!! And you LOOK fantastic too! (Hard to tell from your photo with your face covered!)
One Bailey's, neat.
Ellen
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Happy belated birthday, Ginny! I see you were a nice income tax gift for your parents!
Hope you're mending quickly and painlessly.
Ellen
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LOL!
Not being a social butterfly either, I'm fine with all those dates as well.
Ellen
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Hi Amie.
I am so sorry about your mother's situation. But I understand her point of view perfectly, as it is the same as mine. The 'statistics' question she might want to ask is not how long the average person in her situation can be expected to live but what is the average DIFFERENCE in survival between those who do all the treatments and those who do none. That, after all, is what the treatment can be expected to be 'buying her'. In my case, the difference was under two months. And, for me, submitting to all the misery of chemo and radiation was certainly not worth those extra few weeks. Btw, the average survival for someone in my situation at diagnosis, with treatment, was 8 months. I've had no systemic treatment and passed my one-year mark last week -- and still feel fine. So I'm very pleased with my decision!
Disclaimer: I'm not advocating any course of action, just suggesting what I believe is a very useful question for someone with priorities like mine.
Ellen
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Hi Amie.
I've had radiation to the pelvis and spine (L3) and it worked beautifully. And I have NSCLC (adenocarcinoma, stage 4). So tell that to your pessimistic doctor.
Good luck.
Ellen
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Just for the record, that Ellen isn't me.
Ellen, who is not now and never has been Virginia57.
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Hi again Dina.
I just wanted to say that I agree with Judy 100% and apologize for making it look like I was advocating psychiatrists to the exclusion of other mental health care providers. It was a mistake owing to the fact that *my* mental health care provider is a psychiatrist but he's a very old-fashioned one (maybe because he's over 80
) and is definitely into 'talk therapy', as it's now called. I would NOT recommend the kind of psychiatrist that just writes prescriptions and sends you for blood tests every 6 months to see if the drugs have damaged you yet. So I amend my former plea to 'find a good talk-therapy mental health care provider'. Good luck.Ellen
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Hi Carole! Great to hear from you! I think of you often, all good thoughts.
Take care.
Ellen
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Hi Dina.
I'm afraid that 'spilling your guts to a brand-new doctor' is just what you need, assuming it's the right kind of doctor. Think of it this way: if you broke your leg, you'd go to an orthopedist; if you had a detached retina, you'd go to an ophthalmologist. For depression, one should go to a psychiatrist -- it's in their domain of expertise. Plus, your depression is not just from some screwed-up neurotransmitters in your brain, which is what anti-depressants aim to correct; your depression is no doubt intimately related to your grief (as you recognize). The best thing would be to talk about those feelings with a professional. So, if I were you, I'd call the family doctor (or have someone else call him) and ask him to recommend a psychiatrist. (If you're in the Philadelphia area, I'd be happy to recommend mine! Feel free to PM me.)
Good luck.
Ellen
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Hi folks.
It just occurred to me that I"m about to deal with my third irrelevant physical problem that has cropped up in the time since dx. Each one seemed like it was a sign of the cancer spreading but turned out to be not cancer at all. Scary tho, till I found that out! So I was wondering how many other such tales are out there -- has any physical problem popped up since you (or your loved one) was diagnosed that turned out to be benign and unrelated to the lc? Here are my three:
1. While I was still in the hospital getting diagnosed last Dec/Jan, a fairly large lump suddenly appeared on my neck, just under the left jawbone. Oh whoopie, a malignant lymph node, I thought -- as did my oncologist. (They'd already found malignant lymph nodes in or between my lungs.) So they swooped me down for a biopsy and it turned out to be (a)not malignant, and (b)not a lymph node -- it was a calcified or whatever salivary gland. Wahoo! My joy was slightly dampened by the fact that a few times a day, for not more than a half hour, it hurts like hell -- stings, throbs, even itches. But since I figured I'd be dead in a few months, I decided not to deal with it. Well, here I am nearly a year later and it's very annoying so it's going to be removed this Wednesay. I can't wait.
2. Three weeks after I came home from the hospital (i.e. last February) I suddenly couldn't keep any food down. After 3 days of useless home remedies, I went to the ER and they admitted me (of course). Everybody was worried that the lc had metastasized to my intestine, even tho that's very rare. Only the surgeon had his doubts and kept me for 10 days with a naso-gastric tube (yuck!), hoping the intestine was merely twisted and that it would 'resolve itself'. Well, it didn't and he finally operated -- he had to remove about a foot of small intestine which had gotten messed up by adhesions resulting from two (botched) anterior back surgeries I'd had 7 years before. Everything was benign, as he'd suspected.
3. All of a sudden this past fall I saw spots before my eyes. Actually it was a bunch of spots and it was only in front of my left eye. And they didn't go away. Eek, a brain met, I thought. I mentioned it to my onc at my next visit and she told me to go see my eye doctor, which I did. Nope, no evidence of any brain tumor -- it was just 'floaters', a normal part of the aging process (and which my husband has had since his 30s).
I should add that I've been a pretty healthy person and, aside from the back surgery in 2000 and a heart attack in 2001 (not unrelated, I believe), I haven't had any physical problem aside from the lc dx. So this is pretty weird. I've decided all my body parts are jealous of all the attention my lungs have been getting and decided to get some attention too.
Have any of you also had 'jealous' body parts, scaring the **** out of you till you learned it wasn't what you feared?
Ellen
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"ginnyde"]I'm showering just for you.
ROTFLMAO!!! Your femur may be messed up but your sense of humor is sure in fine form!
Hang in there.
Ellen
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Poor Ginny! What a shame! I'll be at Kildare's on Saturday and hope someone can kidnap Ginny and bring her there too!
Ginny, if you're reading this, I really hope you can make it. Either way, I wish you a very speedy and complete recovery -- please PM me if there's anything I can do.
Ellen in PA
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Hi. Sorry to be responding so late but I wanted to tell you that I had radiation to two sites, the pelvis and the L3 verterbra. The pain caused by the met in the vertebra disappeared by the time I was halfway thru the treatments (14 in all). The pain caused by the met in the pelvis stayed with me all thru the treatments and for about two weeks after they were completed -- and THEN disappeared. So there's real variation, even in one person! Good luck to your mother.
Ellen in PA
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Question for NED
in JUST FOR FUN
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Hi Ned.
What a clear reply! My husband and I were talking about this just the other night (as I'm sure millions of others were too) and I tried to think of all the reasons but didn't come close to the real ones. I just forwarded your reply to hubby. Thanks!
Ellen