Excerpt from YSC post

I spent about 2 hours posting this, and it gives an idea of what I've been up to. These women in my chemo group have been a truly great source of support during my treatment. I "talked" to them just about every day on how I was feeling. Isa and I are really done except monitoring. Heather and Cori will undergo reconstruction in a few months. Karen, who was pregnant when she was diagnosed, already had her healthy baby and is doing chemo. Although Kat is done with chemo, she's having pain from her expanders (reconstruction).

Hi ladies,

I've got no real plans for this weekend so I'm hanging out at lab trying to keep cool. Dh wanted some MD crabs so we may pick some up later. I'm reviewing those grants for the Dept. of Defense so that's keeping me busy.

Jen and Stephen--Great to know that Jen's surgery went fine! Hope you're getting some good rest and healing right along!

Heather--We will definitely be meeting up in Atlanta since you're not coming to Baltimore for reconstruction! Are you still having the numb arm sensation? I wonder if it's neuropathy from the chemo. About a month after I finshed chemo, I would wake up with numb toes, 2 or 3 on each side, but it would get better as I walked around during the day. It didn't hurt though like your arm seems to have been. It's gotten a lot better in the last few weeks. I hope that yours does, too. Has your arm swelled? Someone mentioned that you can check by looking at your elbows. My toes were fine during chemo so it seemed to be a delayed reaction.

On the Farrah show, I cried when the son came to visit, too. I only saw the last bit so I missed the cooking of the liver in chemo juice. yikes! Hope you're having a blast at Busch Gardens!

I checked out the Dr. Junghans article. His work is definitely what I'm interested in: cancer immunotherapy, using your own immune system to fight cancer! I think that there's a long way to go before it's used regularly, but it's great that he's got the funding to go into clinical trial for this. http://pbn.new.adqic.com/detail/41645.html

Cori--Hope your second round of antibiotics does the trick! You will conquer the paper cut! One of my co-workers told me that I should try prenatal vitamins to get my hair growing and lush. Sure enough, my pregnant labmate has fabulous hair. I'm tempted to try...

Isa--My white counts haven't been checked since my last chemo in Feb. They don't check for Herceptin so I have no idea what they are, but I'm feeling pretty good that I think it's OK.

Oh Kat--I'm sorry to hear about your depression and your stubborn clot. There was an article posted on the general board about taxanes increasing clinical depression up to 2 years post treatment. I kept that article in case I had any signs later on. Being in pain certainly doesn't help things any. You are definitely not alone in feeling this way, especially with the correlation between taxanes and depression.

Yes, chemo does affect your vision, but afterwards it should go back. I'm not sure how long that takes though.

Isa--I hope your dh is doing better now. Is he stressed about the classes that he's taking now?...

Steph--Boo to vaginal atrophy! You should definitely combat that while you are in CA.

Karen--Great pics! Happy birthday to Andrew! We will count down your chemo weeks with you. We want to kick cancer's butt so far off that it can never, ever, return. This is annihilation, and you CAN do it! An hour and a half drive is really far off for rads. There isn't another trusted center close by? Rads will be 30 min max per day. You should talk to your surgeon and med onc more about the prophylactic mastectomy vs. your family doc. Don't feel pressured to have the mast right away. You can have it at a later time, if you wish.

Hi to Wendy! Have a fun holiday!

Kyung