Am I or Will I Get Better?
I get asked often, am I getting better? Have any of my doctors found a miraculous treatment for me?The answers are and always will be a big fat ' no ' .There are different kinds of ailments out there. They are (in my non medical terminology):Acute - an ailment which happens and gets better. Think a cut, the flu, appendicitis, Lyme disease.Chronic - an ailment which occurs and lasts and lasts and lasts. Think things like arthritis, fibromyalgia, degenerating disks, etc.Terminal - an ailment which will kill you. "Terminal illnesses or infections are consideredincurable when there are no conservative therapies available which...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 26, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments chronic conditions medical treatment pain management Source Type: blogs
Stepping Back to the Big Picture
Sometimes I just need the big picture and skip the details. Yesterday I saw my knee doctor. I asked him to update his notes on my appointment on the big picture state of my knees. I need this information for my SSDI application and I sometimes just need the big picture for myself.The status is, and I quote, " At some point they will end up being bone on bone and we will need to talk knee replacement. That could be in ten years or two. " In the meantime, I can continue to get steroid injections in them and possibly arthroscopic surgery to clean up the right one.I hate all this medical crap. Sometimes I get too bogged down i...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 25, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: doctor questions knee pain medical crap Source Type: blogs
When Are We Done Healing and Grieving After A Cancer Diagnosis?
Is there supposed to be a secret moment that you reach and realize that you are done healing and grieving after a cancer diagnosis? I know there are the five stages of grief or whatever where you end up at acceptance. But does that mean you are done healing and grieving and don ' t carry around your emotional and physical scars?I think probably after a good 20 or 30 years or so most surgical scars are pretty much invisible but I am not sure about the emotional ones. We carry those around a lot longer. We may reach acceptance but that doesn ' t mean we are emotional healed. The wounds run very deep.This summer marks 36 year...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 24, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: acceptance cancer bonds grief healing Source Type: blogs
The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly
So my life is having its normal ups and downs. There are definitely the good, the bad, and the ugly.What is good? A whole bunch of things:I actually got enough sleep for a couple of nights. I slept late two days this week which helped. Spring is actually springing. I planted some spinach and peas. Both are cold weather tolerant. Spinach actually will not grow in the heat of the summer. I finally see some progress on my SSDI claim. This means I actually heard back from SSDI for more information for the first time in six months. My husband and I went to the beach for a day last weekend when it was 80 degrees.&...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 22, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient life Source Type: blogs
Making Treatment Decisions
A recentarticle on making dialysis decisions prompted me to start thinking. Basically, just because a treatment is available, do you really want it? Its your choice. I know dialysis is not a cancer treatment but my point is there.I am a strong believer in that doctors give you advice and how you choose to follow it is your decision. I usually follow my doctor ' s suggestions with medications and tests and other recommendations. But if something isn ' t making me happy I ' m quickly going to stop it - and inform my doctor ' s office of my decision.My quality of life is very important to me. I don ' t have a great quality of...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 20, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: medical decisions treatment options Source Type: blogs
Thoughts on Not Blogging
I get up every day and say to myself ' I am going to blog this morning before I do anything else ' . As you can tell this hasn ' t been happening. Why? Well there are lots of reasonsI have been distracted by spring time and gardening (finally).I have been routinely over doing things which has tired me out (because I was trying to have fun). I have been lazy.But the biggest reason is I haven ' t felt an overwhelming need to blog. My blog was set up to give me a way to express my thoughts on issues relating all my medical crap. I guess I haven ' t had huge medical crap to deal with right now.On the plus side is I really...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: blogging medical crap relaxed Source Type: blogs
Hanging Out with My Peeps
If I take a look backward, I realize that I have the best time hanging out with my cancer friends, or ' my peeps ' . Sometimes I feel like I hold back on my health with everyone and more so with people who don ' t have cancer - a/k/a the people who don ' t really get it. I mean they try.I have many friends with varying understanding of what its like to live with cancer. One friend, who has RA and has lost a husband to cancer, is very, very close to understanding the life I live. Then I also have friends who barely know what fibromyalgia is.Part of it is me. I tend to not be very open about my medical stuff until I am ready...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 14, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer bonds friends knitting Source Type: blogs
I Was Thinking
I ' m sorry, I know I shouldn ' t spend time thinking because it can cause all sorts of problems. I know. I should stop spending so much time thinking. I ' ll think about that for a while.Anyway, I was thinking because I read an article on the giantRheumatoid Arthritis Time Suck. When you have RA you spend a lot of time going to the doctor to deal with doctors for RA and then all the time dealing with the side effects of your RA medications. And your low immune system which makes you high risk for everything. And blood tests every 8 weeks. And more and more.But then I get to add in the fibromyalgia time suck which causes t...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 13, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments thinking time Source Type: blogs
No Tofu for Me!
I hate tofu. I have never been a fan. And now I have reasons for not starting to eat it.There has been a lot of discussion on whether soy is good or bad for breast cancer. Now finally,new research has exposed the answers.If you have always eaten a lot of soy your breast cancer risk is lower, and your recurrence rate is also lower.If you have not always eaten a lot of soy, your breast cancer risk is at normal levels (whatever they are but I didn ' t want to use the word ' worse ' when talking about cancer rates).If you have not always eaten a lot of soy, starting to eat soy after a breast cancer diagnosis, doesn ' t help yo...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 12, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer cancer risk soy Source Type: blogs
A Care Plan?
A long time ago, back when I was in a support group weekly, I was offered a care plan to complete with my doctor to make sure I kept track of my cancer treatment.... It was several pages that were copies of copies of copies and difficult to read. I got the point but decided to skip that.There were several reasons (besides starting with the s-word) that I avoided it.First of all, it only covered your cancer diagnosis. It didn ' t include other issues, like additional cancer diagnoses, and other ailments. It only covered one cancer treatment.Second, I keep better records than my doctors. I started a spread sheet of my medica...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 11, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer history medical records Source Type: blogs
Another Try At Being A Normal Person
Yesterday wasn ' t the greatest day. Between going to the walk in clinic for my stupid tick bite and the antibiotic that upset my stomach, I wasn ' t as productive as I might want to be. So today I plan on attempting to be a normal person again. It shouldn ' t be that difficult but you never know with me.My plans are to warp my loom for another project, meet a friend at noon to go see another friend ' s new garden center, and then maybe one more errand when I get home from that. Any bets on whether I can make it?I just get very frustrated by trying to be a normal person and ending up spending a day or two or three recoveri...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 9, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: annoyance frustration normal Source Type: blogs
Being High Risk
Normal people get exposed to something and they get told ' call us if there are any changes in whatever it is that is bothering them ' . They get sent home basically with a ' take two options and call me in the morning ' .Me? I ' m not a normal person. With my medical history? Of course not.We live in a wooded area with lots of deer and mice outside. Our two cats like to go in and out and in and out and in and out. They bring us home presents and usually leave them outside. But sometimes they don ' t.Yesterday I came home from the gym and took a shower. The cats went in and out and in and out. I decided it was time to trea...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 8, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments Lyme disease Source Type: blogs
Sleep Problems, and Solutions
I might have mentioned before that I have problems sleeping. This isn ' t new. I have had problems sleeping since my 30s. But its only recently that it has gotten much more complicated than just a bit of insomnia. Add in things like:Back pain so it can be really hard to get comfortable to sleep at all.Fibromyalgia which causes both fatigue and insomniaRheumatoid painSleep apnea and an evil CPAP machine which keeps me awakeShould I go on? I can....In the past, I have been known to get up and wash the dishes and clean the kitchen in the middle of the night because I couldn ' t sleep. Trust me, I have been all over the house ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 6, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: lack of sleep Source Type: blogs
Note To Self: Stop Playing Doctor and Self Diagnosing
I have no medical training whatsoever past what I have learned from my doctors in their appointments. So why do I waste any time trying to figure out what is wrong with me? Last night I was lying in bed and trying to decide what was causing the pain in my ankle? Was it referred pain from my knee or hip? Or is it a new pain and what could be the source? Is it worthy of going to the doctor any sooner than my scheduled appointment at the end of the month? I really don ' t want any more doctor appointments but pain is pain.And am I trying to self diagnose myself so my doctor can just confirm what I thought it was?I have no ide...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 4, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cure dreams pain relief Source Type: blogs
Treatment Changes
As I near a decade (how the hell did that happen?) since I was diagnosed, I have noticed how much breast cancer treatment has changed in the ensuing years. When I was diagnosed, it was slash, poison, burn. There was potential new treatment in the future but it was looming years ahead.I remember being in a support group meeting and we were all overjoyed to be told that cancer was now being treated as a chronic as opposed to being a terminal disease. That was a great shift in the treatment protocol in our minds. We still mentally held our hands as our friends went through chemo, radiation and surgery. We hoped for treatment ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - April 3, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: breast cancer treatment treatment options Source Type: blogs
