Why Did I Feel So Bad?
I have good days and bad days. Little changes, like a poor night ' s sleep, can cause me problems for a few days. I realize that. Forgetting medication can really mess me up. Last winter I had a horrible cold and forgot to take my Lyrica for a few days. Then I started feeling even worse - the Lyrica hangover.... But then I figured it out and went back on it and felt better instantly.I have been feeling bad off and on all week but mostly with in reason. Until yesterday. I woke up achy and sore. I didn ' t sleep well because I couldn ' t get comfortable. I had a throbbing headache. My hands were really sore on Friday - I cou...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 3, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: brain cells pain levels pain management Source Type: blogs
I've Been Sliding
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I have been lazy this summer and taking it easy - in terms of not taking care of myself as much as I should. Why not? Summer time is nice weather. There is no snow and ice to trip me up. I usually feel better during the summer. But just because I feel better doesn ' t mean I can stop taking care of myself.With every doctor appointment, there are the reminders to eat healthy, blah, blah, blah. I usually reinforce my intentions. But I have been sliding, I have been lazy and haven ' t been taking care of myself. I have been pushing myself too much and not resting enough. I ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 2, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being healthy diet food Source Type: blogs
An Educational Conversation
I had an interesting conversation. I am doing some research on hospices and palliative care (for someone else, not me). I met with a social worker who used to work for a hospice. She was very helpful.I had no idea how hospice care worked, especially at home. Basically hospice care includes palliative care. If you have hospice care at home everything comes to you. Doctors, nurses, social workers, and more. It lasts for up to six months. If, at the end of the six months you are still alive, you can be recertified for more hospice time (I think) unless you are too healthy and stable and then its back to reality.Hospice c...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - September 1, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: dying hospice palliative Source Type: blogs
I Forgot To Keep Quiet
Everytime you go to the doctor they ask if you have fallen recently. Do you know why they ask you this? Its not because they want to check if you have skinned your knees or ask if you want an ice pack. They want to know if you are at risk of injuring yourself by falling. Or really are you a fall risk.... Which is very bad.But you say its only a little yellow bracelet. But no it ' s not. It means they label you as a fall risk until you can balance on your toes on a paddleboard, a million hours of PT, or something. Its hard to get rid of that label on your medical chart.Yesterday afternoon, I ran into a particularly slippery...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 30, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: doctor questions falls knee surgery Source Type: blogs
How Did I Get So Lucky?
Somehow I got the ' lucky ' card in the health department. Somewhere in my genes I ended up with the crapshoot of everything. I do know I have my mother ' s bad back and Rheumatoid Arthritis but I also got my father ' s hair (which is still not completely gray at 89). But the rest of it, I have no idea.So I always look for hints of how I could have gotten these lovely ailments. Then find an article that asks 'Can Trauma Cause Fibromyalgia?' But I am not so sure I understand how it would help me. They list:" The traumatic experiences that are usually correlated with fibromyalgia are the following:Certain types of virus...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 29, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: aggravation ailments frustration Source Type: blogs
Doctoring Between The Lines
I don ' t know about anyone else but I have a primary care and then an oncologist, breast surgeon, endocrinologist, rheumatologist, pain management, orthopedic surgeon, meds therapist, social worker therapist, dentist, and periodontist. They all have their own specialties and focuses on specific portions of my body. But I swear they like to color outside the lines.Last week my rheumatologist started commenting on my regimen to control my acid reflux from my hiatal hernia. How does heart burn relate to my rheumatoid? And why did I need to explain it to her?In the past six months my pain management doctor has been messing wi...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 27, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient doctors Source Type: blogs
Digesting
One of the big reasons I started my blog in 2007 was to allow time to digest news as I received it through my breast cancer diagnosis and treatment. I also didn ' t want to have to repeat the same news over and over in replies to both phone calls and emails. This blog allowed me time to digest any news before retelling it here. I needed that time to digest my latest news. To this day I still do.Any medical news I get now, I digest it and maybe discuss it with my husband before retelling it. I need that time. I don ' t know how anyone else deals with their medical news but this is what I do.I can give many examples of this ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 26, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient coping medical news Source Type: blogs
Frustration
In the world of continual medical research and advancements - that every day allow us to get improved treatments for ailments - I feel very frustrated. No I am not on top of all research that is going on so I am sure there is a lot that I am not aware of. But from a patient ' s point of view it can get very frustrating.For example, yesterday I read something about how acentury old vaccine for something else is being tested to see if it would work as a vaccine for fibromyalgia. That sounds great. A way to prevent others from getting fibro - which is no fun.Ahem, but where is the cure? Just because they can prevent some...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 24, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer vaccine fibromyalgia frustration medical research Source Type: blogs
New Research Says
How many times when you are talking to your doctor have you heard them say ' new research says... ' or ' recent studies have shown.... ' ? I get it all the time. And I am not sure I like it. Or how it makes me feel...I realize being a doctor or other medical professional takes a lot of work and study just to get there and then they need to constantly work at staying up to date so of course they are reading research and following studies. But when they shove it in my face by saying that the new research told them this, I feel like they aren ' t practicing medicine but reading research.I realize a lot of new information come...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 22, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: being a patient clinical trials medical research uncertainty with doctors Source Type: blogs
Ailments and Their Add-ons
You get one ailment, and it always seems to bring along its ' friends ' . A few examples are cancer with chemotherapy causes digestive issuesand temporary baldness. It can sometimes also cause long term cardiac issues - which can eventually kill you. With rheumatoid arthritis you can get things like Sjogren ' s Syndrome which causes dry eyes and other fun things. Afew examples are:" ... [RA]inflammation can result in conditions affecting skin, heart, lung, eyes, mental health, etc. Conditions likeosteoporosis, cataracts,depression, cancers, etc. are more common. And add to that infection based conditions like influenza, p...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 21, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: ailments being a patient comorbidities Source Type: blogs
Cancer Discrimination and Bias
We live in a society full of bias which leads to racism, discrimination, fear and hatred. The media recently has reflected this with headlines full of racism, bias, discrimination, alt-right vs alt-left, protests, anti-protests, riots, deaths, fear, hatred and more. But it reminds me that there is bias, fear, and discrimination for those of us with cancer.We are born one way and learn about bias, fear, and discrimination based on where we start. With a cancer diagnosis, all of this is turned upside down and we learn about more bias, fear and discrimination based on that single word ' cancer ' .First, let me say times are c...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 20, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: bias cancer bonds discrimination fear of cancer Source Type: blogs
All I Wanted Was Some Sleep
Sleep and rest are very important to me. I can ' t tell you how much. But if I don ' t get enough my inner pit bull/space alien shows up and makes everyone unhappy.Yesterday I was very tired by the time I got home. I am still recovering from my travels where I was definitely in the ' weeds ' on sleep and rest as well as the stress of late plane flights and time zone differences. I did sleep in a bit and got caught up on stuff at home before going to the gym. By the time I got home at 330 (and reset all the clocks after a (damn) power outage), I took a shower and put on my pajamas. I was going to go to bed early. I ditched ...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 19, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: annoyance cats husband lack of sleep rest Source Type: blogs
What About Our Brains?
So cancer didn ' t kill us. Our cancer treatment didn ' t kill us. But our brains no longer function as well as they did before.At my knitting group at a cancer support center we routinely forget each other ' s names.... and claim chemo brain.I think there are several causes of chemo brain. The biggest and most important one is the so called ' cognitive dysfunction ' as a result of the lovely chemicals they pour into us during treatment. There is a lot ofinformation on this as well as the awareness (finally) of the need to do something about this.I strongly believe that another cause of chemobrain is the stress and ensuing...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 18, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: cancer diagnosis cancer treatment chemo brain emotional toll ptsd Source Type: blogs
Breaking In A New Doctor
I was disappointed when my endocrinologist left for a new hospital. But I can understand that as the mother of two small children she needed a shorter commute to be able to achieve a good work/life balance. However, that meant I needed a new endocrinologist. I met him yesterday.Before I met my endocrinologist after I had an appointment with my rheumatologist who is a nice woman in her late 50s/early 60s who has been a doctor for many years. In contrast my endocrinologist joined the hospital in early July after his residency. This means he is a kid, literally. I think I have clothes older than he is.When I met him, my first...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 17, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: doctors endocrinologist thyroid cancer young doctors Source Type: blogs
A Big Break
So I have mostly been off line since the end of July. I stayed in one house which had no wifi and iffy cell phone service at best. Then I went on vacation with my husband and stayed in more hotels with iffy wifi and sometimes cell service. You know the two-three bar places where if the wind is blowing in the right direction you can actually connect. The most important thing I used my phone for was for directions and as a back up we had a paper map.This meant I was really behind on emails by the time I got home. I also hadn ' t been on facebook or here on my blog. And I didn ' t get a lot of phone calls or messages. Best of...
Source: Caroline's Breast Cancer Blog - August 16, 2017 Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: relaxed unplugged vacation Source Type: blogs
