Addie

Sneaking in again to say, YES I DO HAVE HIGH AMBITIONS....I WANT TO LIVE A LOOOOONG TIME!! TPBM has sparkling blue eyes and is taller than average.

Unlike how we felt in high school....NOW, the more other people NED hangs out with...the better we like it, eh? Great news. Tell Mom to take NED and go out dancin'!!

Brilliant, Pat, and thanks to Katie for the reminder. I do hope you hear from someone soon. This is odd. I keep checking this post to see if anyone is hearing anything.... DOUG WE ARE WORRIED ....WHERE ARE YOU????????

Is there honor among feather afficionados? And does this mean that since I'm getting radiation, I'm gonna be "fried chicken"? Did ya ever notice how many plays on words there are for chicken-related things? Gotta love it, huh?

Well, first I'm gonna mail a card direct to Fay...but then, hmmmmmmmmmmmm....poultry goods. There ought to be a lot of them out there, huh? If I find something with Fay's "name on it"...you can bet it will go to Becky for hand delivery. I assume Becky will be taking her camera along too...to catch the moment when Fay accepts her Chicken Hazing?

Love it when there is a good plan to look forward too. Really positive news, Tina and Charlie. Looking forward to hearing it's reaped GREAT RESULTS!!

Shelley beat me...have to change my answer. NO I never streaked but my friend Jean mooned a guy out of a car window in high school. Does that count? TPBM has a thing for Chinese food.

Rachel....our Alaskan Princess....I bid you a fond farewell, dear one. You will be greatly missed...but you surely left a stamp on a lot of hearts...both here, and in your personal life. Deepest condolences to Stan and to Ole too...along with all the rest of Rachel's family. To you, Susan, her dearest friend....thank you for keeping in touch with us and for conveying our feelings back to Rachel. I hope she heard them all, even if she couldn't acknowledge. You and Rachel were blessed to have the connection you did. I hope you might feel comfy in stopping by here once in a while, Susan. We feel we've come to know you...and you're always welcome here, if it doesn't make you sad to come here. Godspeed, Rachel. You were one sweet, dear lady.

Sheesh!! I never got a list like any of you mention for chemo....but during radiation there was a booklet with warnings. The one that upset me the most???? NO sprouts!! Like alfalfa or broccoli sprouts...which I love on a sandwich. Guess it's too hard to make sure they are clean??? Oh, and scrubbing the outside of a cantaloup to get all the bacteria/germs off so you don't cut thru into the fruit, contaminating it. I mean, if you have to soak the dang thing in Clorox who wants to eat it afterwards? But re: use of condoms??? Oy vey~! It wasn't in MY booklet!!

My heart is heavy for all of you, Susan....you and all of Rachel's family. I know the value of a long time, special best friend...and I so admire your dedication to Rachel and also how you come here to keep us posted. It can't be easy to watch..let alone have to relate here. Rachel is a special gal. I'm glad she's at home surrounded by love...but I wish like anything that this wasn't happening to her.

Dang...now I'm wishing I hadn't thrown out my feather collection. I could have made Fay a nice bathrobe out of them for her hospital stay! Thanks for all the info, Connie. I hope the hospital employs a beast of burden to cart all the incoming mail to Fay's room. I have a feeling they're going to need one. By beast of burden...I mean: Fay....you like? Meet your new mailman!

Too small (if you're talking about candy bars! ) Which is worse.... ...too hungry or too full?

I would pay off #1 son's mortgage and second mortgage, and make sure he and his girl have the wedding of their dreams. Then I would pay off #2 son's student loans for grad school. I would find/buy/contract to build a house with a main floor master and a room for me to do my crafts and store yarn, fabric, other grimple I need for crafting. I'd secure college for my DH's two grandsons. I'd make a major donation to a couple of pet shelters and rescue groups, our town library (which is 40% funded by donations/fund raisers!!) and then I'd buy hubby a Porsche convertible and buy the two of us a TWO WEEK STAY AT PEBBLE BEACH WITH ALL THE GOLF WE CAN PLAY....TAKING A FEW FRIENDS ALONG WITH US SO WE HAVE A FOURSOME WE ENJOY! If there was anything left at the end of the day...well then just before closing, I'd hit the jewelry store and get me the biggest honkin' Ceylon sapphire set in platinum with diamonds, that I could afford. And anything left after that, I'd split between Praxair Cancer Center in Danbury and LChelp!!

Bri....you give yourself those shots (Neupogen, I'm presuming) and then see how the counts look next week. Only a week won't make a huge difference. Do you get Procrit or Aranesp too, for the red cells. How are your platelets? You must not be low enough to require transfusions...and that's a good thing, although getting the t-fusions really brings the #'s up fast. Red cells, hgb and hct, that is. I get Neulasta the day after I finish each chemo cycle. Just one shot every three weeks....so not the daily shots like you have to do w/ Neupogen. Why not ask Bri's onc about Neulasta? Meanwhile, our little Brat Pack of Two...you know you have every good vibe and wish of mine for Bri to feel better soon and get back on the chemo. You know...sometimes I find bowl of vanilla with caramel sauce SO therapeutic. Bri...do you like caramel?

Jane... Oh, I'm so sorry for what you're going through..but I bet a lot of the emotional stuff is tied to the steroids. Today is day 4 for me of brain radiation...but since I had PCI last November, I am getting lower doses. I too have a "head full"...both hemispheres and in the cerebellum in back. I wasn't/am not particularly symptomatic either...these were found seredipitously by MRI. They started me on 8 mgs daily of Decadron..which I now find out is a HALF DOSE I was a crazy woman...and one who wasn't sleeping. I'm now cut to 4 mgs. and doing much better...but still showing some signs of Decadron Craziness and still not sleeping all that well. The thing is...I refuse to buckle under to this stinkin' disease. I keep putting one foot ahead of the other, leapfrogging as much of the fear or angst as I can...and trying to enjoy my life to the extent my physical abilities will let me. Yesterday, I even played 9 holes of golf with my hubby! Funny you mention a cough...as I've had a throat tickle and cough lately too. Not major...but new...and yet my very recent CT scan shows nothing. I'm stuffier when I get up in the morning too...sort of sinus-y like you say. Please hang in there Jane! This radiation may well have wiped out ALL the little buggers in your head...as I'm hoping will happen with me....and thereby giving us lots more time yet to LIVE and enjoy doing it. Okay...so maybe we'll never feel quite as healthy as we did pre-cancer...but there is still some quality of life to grab and enjoy...so let's you and I plan on doing just that, okay? I keep telling myself...maybe the steroids and brain rad. will sharpen my sense of humor and I'll take this act on the road. I could be the first female, BALD comedienne...huh? People used to tell me I look like Carol Burnette....so why not? Keep us posted, Nana...and for now, just rest as you need it. When you're up and about...push yourself a teeny bit and soon, you'll be feeling lots better. Thinking of you as I head back under the "toaster" today.

I've looked everywhere and cannot find where it says Missy Fay is going to have to spend a MONTH in ICU But I did figure out what ICU stands for. You ready? INTENSIVE CHICKEN UNIT!! Knowing our Fay...it won't end up being a month. She'll drive them up a wall trying to get sprung, won't you, Fay? Lobbing eggs into the bedpan across the room...gluing feathers on the doctor's lab coat as he leans over the patient in the next bed...hollering "C*CK-A-DOODLE-DOOOOOOOOOOO" every morning promptly at 4:45 a.m...screaming, "OMIGOD, IT'S COUSIN GEORGE!!!" when they serve her one over easy for breakfast. Oh, no....Fay won't be there a month. They'll knock themselves out to get her up and running so they can send her home!! And can we blame them? She'll be the only patient in the hospital with a chicken-yellow school bus parked in the ICU lot, full of loud and wild misfits wearing plastic wattles around their necks, eating pulled pork sandwiches and waddling up and down the hospital halls at all hours of the night and day! Don't get too comfy, Fay. The nurses are dedicated to getting YOU (and US) out of there ASAP! (Edited to add...as I laugh my a$$ off, that when I submitted this...apparently A-DOODLE-DOO is alright...but the first word in what a rooster says is "Word not allowed".....so I had to insert an asterisk....all the while chuckling like a....well, like an old hen .....over...."WORD NOT ALLOWED-A-DOODLE-DOO!! ) Don't ever say the censors around here don't have a sense of humor, folks!! Or maybe everything just seems funny at 3:11 a.m., eh?

Had PCI last November, 13 txs. Just started WBR (reduced dosage, same as PCI) and in just days, I am noticing my vision is fuzzier. Actually, it was a bit fuzzier before I started this round of rad from the tumors, I suspect. But the rad is making it more noticeable. Along the way since original dx, even chemo has affected how easily I am able to read and for distance too, when I drove...but I'm holding out too on new glasses. Need to go get another pair of those cheap magnifiers at the drug center. I can still find the caramel filled Milky Ways...so I figure all is not lost yet !

Now see....this is how I feel about the cowboy, Johnnie Mack Brown. Everyone remembers The Lone Ranger or Hopalong Cassidy....but who remembers Johnnie Mack Brown? And....I sorta VAGUELY remember Henrietta and Freddie...but I think more from books than t.v. But....you're younger than I am too. Isn't just about everybody?

I write mostly, too. Till I get my venom to a reasonable level...and then sometimes I send the letter! Mostly I don't though....the writing is just a good purge. Or I vacuum or scrub "terlets". Some form of housework to work out the physical energies of it all. This is a timely question, because an idea for a post has been tooling around my slightly Decadron-influenced brain this morning...and I'll probably post when I get back from radiation. You'll see then, what the link is to today's question.

You're showing your youth, Becky. "Dinosaurs"???? The only dinosaur I know of is that more recent purple, irritating, overstuffed dinosaur that can make me change a channel so fast you don't even see my fingers move! Bring back Alf, Knots Landing and the Electric Company for kids. Now THERE were some shows!

Like Amie, I found the first recurrence far more scary than the original dx. Now I'm on my second recurrence. I wouldn't exactly say I was blase about it but it does strike a chord for the "treat this like a chronic disease" sort of setback. I just keep moving forward with treatment...and hope you and your mom can do the same. Topotecan, as a second line tx for l.c., seems to be very effective. Several here are having good luck with it, including myself. It's tolerable and cleaned out my pancreas, reduced liver tumors to half their size and has held the liver stable ever since. Best of luck to you and Mom....and don't give up hope...there are things yet to be done!

Great letter, Gail!! I feel like "Johnny Come Lately" to this post...but I was just inspired myself the other day to write one on behalf of all those with l.c. I don't normally have/take the time to check this forum too often...but am getting to where it seems more and more important to DO SO! Am glad I saw this. Your letter was well written and I applaud you for sending it out to so many. Surely someone will listen?? It's about time someone (they ALL?) did!

As you well know, dearie...I'm so pleased that the oral Topo is taking such good care of you...and that you continue to feel well. Such a little experimental project, you are! Granted, you're a few cycles behind me and taking it orally as opposed to infused....but let me know if/when you start noticing any itchy neuropathy in your extremities...will you? My left foot (why does that sound like a movie? ) is giving me FITS. Itches to where I want to stick my foot in a paper cutter and lob it off. Left side and sole of left foot and the ankle. Itches all the time. Benadryl helps and benadryl cream....but not 100%

First thought....when my mother was diagnosed 20 yrs ago with colon cancer...she was a bit of an ostrich about how serious it was. It has already spread to the liver and lymph system....and her oncologist gave me what I think is VERY GOOD advice, which may apply to your mom as well. He said, "People will absorb as much as they can WHEN they can!" The point was to NOT force feed my mother the details of her situation. She'd start to "get them" as she was able. My mother too, told her best friend, after surgery to remove part of her colon, that she, "Doesn't have cancer anymore. (She) just has *spots* on the liver". Catch my point? Those spots were tumors. Mom wasn't ready to face that then...but later on, she did accept that she still had cancer. We let her come to it all in her own time. She lived 2 yrs. 3+ months with her cancer and this was a long time ago! Maybe her oblivion to some of it kept her around longer...who knows? Now...from that example....I have small cell l.c. too, limited when diagnosed about 15 months ago. You can read my bio below....but I'm now on my second relapse and it's in my brain. I started radiation yesterday. Statistics on the internet are DISMAL. I decided up front to ignore them, and rather just search for information about treatments, what to expect from chemo, etc. You don't have to tell your mother EVERYTHING you read and find out...because if she really wanted to know, she'd be sitting in front of the computer herself, wouldn't she? But you can learn things that will help her get thru treatment....like drinking lots of water, staying hydrated. Also, keeping her appetite up and eating protein daily during chemo, as that is what rebuilds healthy tissue. If she doesn't have much of an appetite...then let her eat whatever appeals to her...even if it's only ice cream and Fruit Loops! The point is to keep her weight and strength up. I'm sure you'll find it tough having to hedge the full truth of some of this...but you know your mom best and between you and her onc, you should be able to determine how best to help your mom through this while allowing her to maintain some hope. Without hope, I don't know that any of us would survive this stinkin' disease...but other than spending a lot more time at my doctors, or masked/strapped to a table getting my brain toasted...my life isn't all that different than it was pre-diagnosis. I still play golf a little, I knit, I clean house (only when I can't avoid it any longer, though ) and other than being bald...people tell me I look and act the same! Tell your mother to think of this as a chronic illness...nothing worse. You treat it as needed. Stay as positive as you can. That would be my BEST advice. I hope some of this wordiness helped. I'm on steroids these days and it makes me.....ahem....chattier than usual! Best wishes to your mom and you...and let us know how things go.

Such an expressive little face. I betcha she's your mom's BEST medicine!