Sleep Study
Hi everyone, on 9/24/06, I had a sleep study to see what my level of sleep apnea was. Prior to surgery it was 18 with 2 liters of oxygen being pumped in. I don't even have to do another test. My level was 0, I still have to use the oxygen as it did drop some, and my "snore was light sounding". YES no more machine strapped to my face. Pays to lose the weight especially in the chest area. Now I can get rid of that machine for good.
I see the surgeon in the morning regarding the breasts biopsies. The Oncologist said that yes my form of leukemia can and will cause cancer in the breasts because it's a cancer of the blood. So I probably won't know anymore until after the procedure is done. This is not a good way to want to lose weight or get a breast job. I don't recommend it one bit.
My chin is up and hopeful. It's not something for me to worry about since I have no control over this. God has to intervene now, that's his job to make sure it's not cancer.
Love ya all, Kathy
Hi Janie, I haven't been able to use mine for over a year unless I used the full mouth and nose one because of having to have all my teeth taken out over a year ago. Too many bones fragments. Now after surgery I can wear my teeth but they won't stay in because of losing so much in my face and neck. But I promise you, I don't miss it one bit. Less I have to pack when I go see my sons. Most don't have to use theirs after surgery but mine was real high and I was a high risk surgical patient anyhow because my level was high, and I have leukemia.
Here's what I have found out already. I am in catagory 5 on the mammogram. That is cancer in both lymph nodes. I had another diagnostic mammogram done plus slides on the bloody discharge of the nipples, it came back positive of lymphoma cancer. I am having a CT Scan on my stomach and pelvic to check the other lymph nodes to see if it has spread. On the 20th instead of flying to Costa Rica to be with my man, I will be having the needle biopsies on both of my breast lymphnodes. After that, my surgeon will decide just how much or all of my breasts he will have to remove, and my oncologist won't have to worry about me taking anymore chemo pills for the leukemia since my body has rejected them, as I will be on full chemotherapy. Lovely. I won't even have to worry now about reconstructive surgery except in the case of my breasts. Medicare won't pay for reconstructive surgery, unless you have a mastectomy. They paid for my weightloss surgery, and now they will have to pay for me to have new breasts. Ironic isn't it. You have to get cancer to get medicare to pay for a boob job. You have to go on chemotherapy to lose the extra unwanted pounds that you just can't get rid of. OH well, life's strange. I'm just trusting God to see me thru all this as I was not caught in time. He has his reasons.
Best of luck to you, and do yourself and me a favor. Some surgeons don't require it, but get a mammogram, and the next time you have to get a CBC full blood count. Get a copy for yourself. Look at the WBC (white blood count) should be between 4000-10,000 normal range. RBC (red blood count) should also be between 4.2-5.4 and these are based on 1000 like 4,200-5,400. If they are below normal and there's an L for low or H for high, find out why before you have surgery. I have to get my blood work done every month for my wls on my anniversary date, and every week I get it on my potassium and magnesium because my chemo pills eats up the potassium which can cause heart damage.
I never paid attention to my blood counts or blood wor****il I was diagnosed a year ago with Leukemia. My body has now rejected the pills to keep my leukemia in the first stages. It no longer matters now as I will have to go on regular chemo soon. I'm sorry for venting. I truly am. There is a rage inside of me of the unfairness of all this, and I know God has his reasons. I just wish he would let me in on the secret.
I'm ok, truly. I'll be ok. Now I can smoke pot in my home legally for the pain that is inside of me. No wonder the pain pills aren't killing all the pain from the leukemia. No wonder my red cells have been below normal for a year, and no wonder my white cells are now staying below normal. My Dr.'s just figured I had an infection and my white cells were enough to fight the infection. That's because they can't fight back. All the more reason why I need to get the flu shot next week, and every year from now on the pneumonia shot instead of every 10 years. If you nursed your child or children, get a mammogram and have them send you a copy of the report. If there is a catagory with the numbers 0-5, zero being cancer free numbers are questionable and needs an ultra sound done, make sure you get that ultra sound. Last August when I had a mammogram (2005) in 2004 I was catagory 0, last year I was catagory 2 and an ultra sound was recommended. I didn't know this as the imaging place didn't send anything to my PCP and all I received was mammogram was normal. It wasn't normal, this year the catagory is 5, cancer. They should have sent a copy to my PCP and he would have ordered the ultra sound. Not knowing, then plus just getting diagnosed with leukemia, they probably didn't even think it was that important because of the leukemia. But an ultra sound would have been done on my lymph nodes as only 80% of breast cancer is found in a mammogram. I was found too late to do much now but by me time. I would never have had the surgery had I known about the cancer cells. With the leukemia it affects just the bone marrow and blood, so having the surgery would not cause it to spread like open air does to cancer. I'm glad I had the chance to live a more normal life and not fastened to a wheelchair like I was. But at what cost?
Please do yourself a favor and since this is breast awareness month, get your's checked. That is the best thing you can do, and ask for copies of any blood work that was done regarding CBC (complete blood count) and look at the numbers vs normal ranges, it will all be printed on the paper.
May God be with you on your new journey, and getting rid of the mask. Kathy
Hey sassy, where have you been keeping yourself, besides getting beautiful? You look fabulous. What's been going on in your life? Did you reach your goal and how much have you lost? Have you had any reconstructive surgeries yet? I am just tickled pink that you came back on the board. WOW
I have lost 116 lbs, I'm at 159, and only need 29 more to my goal, but that picture showing I was 220.8 on Mother's Day. So I don't want to go any lower and doing everything in my power to not lose anymore. Would like to get the thighs done, but have to wait until Jan. 8 to see the plastic Surgeon at the Nashville VA Medical Center. I was wanting to have my arms, stomach, and breasts done also, but now I could care less. My mammogram, showed possible cancer cells and today I found out I have Lymphoma in both breast lymph nodes. A ct scan on Thursday will show whether or not it has spread to the other nodes in the body, then on the 20th I will be having a needle aspiration on both lymph nodes in my arms pits. I am catagory 5 on a scale of 0-5 as zero being no cancer cells, to 5 being final stages. Both breasts will have to come off, unless it's already spread. Having Leukemia is nothing compared to what I will be facing in the next few weeks and months. I am getting all my legal affairs in order now while I still have the time and chance.
But I stay hopeful even knowing all this. What with new medical techniques coming out every day. I just have to trust God to take care of this and the heart ache inside of me. I just wish I could fine the man of my life. He was in Aruba 2 weeks ago, had an heart attack, and I haven't heard from him since. This tells me, he was flown to Bethesda Naval Hospital, and being hooked up to monitors they aren't going to allow him to email me. I just have to wait and wish him well. When he retired from the government, he gets full services like the President would get if he were at Bethesda Naval Hospital. They don't go thru regular channels when he's been admitted, I called up there the last time, and no one knew anything about him. He's not in the main part of the Hospital because of who he is. He's even given an assumed name on the admission forms for his protection. It has something to do with his being over the witness protection program and yes he's made a lot of enemies, so his name gets changed frequently. His children that he adopted are put in private schools for their protection, and their names don't change to match his. They are not even told when he's in the hospital.
But no matter what I still love him, just wish he was available right now. Listen Terri, quit being sassy and email me. I'm over in Nashville often, Toni Miller and I plus two others always get together for lunch. We'll have to get together some time soon. Told mom now I can smoke pot legally, and I thought she was going to have a heart attac****il I explained that it's thru a prescription and filtered and used for cancer pain. She still wasn't happy about that subject one bit. I don't know why, I thought a little humor would make us both feel better. She didn't appreciate the joke, that I could now smoke pot. She said we will talk about that subject later and hung up on me. I thought it was a riot. Have to get cancer to smoke it legally. Oh well. made me feel better just to laugh and not cry.
Got to go, the pain pills are hitting me, love ya, keep in better touch. Kathy
299/277/159/130
2 yr ago/surgery/current/goal.
Now I don't need a goal, I'll lose it and more before too long. My poor pouch has seen it share of being sick to it from the leukemia chemo pills, now, we're looking at full chemotherapy. My Oncologist now, wants me to quit losing so much because of the leukemia. Wait until she finds out about my breast cancer. Like I don't have enough going on with the leukemia. It happens, life's like a box of chocolates you never know what you're going to get.
Kathy you are in my thoughts and prayers daily ..no we don't always know the WHYs but yes We have to let God be in control . A hard thing to do for those of us who are FIXER by nature . I am not posting daily as I am haveing issues with my neck ..which seams all so minor cmpared to what you are dealing with but the pain pills and Flexoral make me muddle headed .Please Please call me if you need a shouder to cry on and ear to vent to or just want to talk .
May the Good Lord hold you ithe palm of His hand till this storm passes
Laura
Thank you so much Laura, it means a lot to me. Right now my emotions are running too high, or I'm numb. I thought finding out that I had leukemia last year was hard. It's harder now. I know about the pain pills, the Flexerial, the pheneragan, and none of it is helping. I was on Hydrocodone 10/650, then I was dropped to 10/500, until recently when I found out that I can't be on any form of Tylenol. I am allergic to generic codeine, well not allergic to it, but I have adverse reactions to the generic form. Even with Percoset, I bounce off the walls for three days literly. Name brand knocks me out. I'll be going on Name brand Percoset next Friday when I have the tubes put into my ears. I take Flexerial 20mg at bedtime, and I'm immuned to it now, same with the 24mg of Pheneragan twice a day. But give me 12.5 mg shot of Pheneragan while I'm getting my Potassium thru an IV and it will knock me out. So I sleep at the Cancer center every Thursday morning while I am getting my potassium. Laura, I trust God with all my heart, but I have to admit, I am now terrified. After the biopsies on 20th, and he gets the report back, I will have to make some major decisions regarding my future residence. It will all depend on what type of treatment they are going to do whether I will remain on chemo pills just at higher doses, or IV chemo every day or once a month. It also depends on John. I haven't told him, this isn't something I want to tell him in an email. So where I decide to live from December on will depend on him. My sons keep bugging me to move over there closer to them in Nashville, they would be closer in case I need help, and closer to my grandsons. I had planned on doing that next July when my contract with Section 8 expired. John wants me to move to Ashville, NC because Duke University has a great cancer center. He doesn't know about the breast cancer yet, he is recuperating from a heart attack last week and is at Bethesda Naval hospital. He cant have any outside contact what-so-ever, so he can rest and get some of the stress off him. That's why I can't even put all this on him in an email. I want him to not feel pressed to make a decision in his condition. He says he's in for the long haul, but that's when he thought I would be around for a long time to come with the type of leukemia I have. I want him to feel like he's not trapped to stay and can walk away if he can't deal with this extra baggage now. I wouldn't blame him, we are married. If we were, then I would hate him in a heart beat, but we aren't and I want him to be sure because of what I am up against. I should know for sure by the end of the month what is going to be done, then what type of treatment I will have to deal with. Mom wants me to move back to WVa but they aren't in any shape to take care of me, and I would lose my medicade benefits, so I would have to deal with the VA Dr.'s and they don't have a good cancer center or lab. I wouldn't be able to afford a private Oncologist without the help of medicade. Plus if John wants to stay, it would have to be a joint living situation of my being able to see my family in Nashville, and his family in Ashville, NC. I know longer will be allowed to fly, that I have found out since my body has rejected the chemo pills I have been on. My blood counts are too low because of the lymphoma cancer in my breasts.
Right now there's just too many unanswered questions, and so many decisions to make, I don't want to make those decisions without first knowing everything, and talking with John about it first. I feel even though we aren't married, we both love each other, and even though he can't contact me and let me know what is going on, I can at least give him the chance to hear all this and he can go with me to my Dr.'s and hear my options with me before he decides if he's strong enough to go thru it all again. His last wife died of 2 years from Uteran Cancer 16 days after being diagnosed. I don't want him to feel he has to stay. That he can walk away. I also don't want him to stay if I am going to be more of a burden nor do I want to be a burden on my children. So if I move over closer to them, I would apply for a manor apartment that is attached to a nursing home. Then there's help when I need it, yet some independence at the same time. I feel that is fair. I love him that much to let him go, if he comes back, then it's because he wants to and not feel like he has too. If he doesn't come back, it wasn't meant to be.
So if I don't always post over the next few days, please understand I will when I can.
I have a new cell number, I'll send that to you in an email. Again, thanks, and take care of that neck. Love Kathy
Most Active
Recent Topics
