<p>Agree with above–a good friend is an ovarian cancer survivor. The chemo did lead to hair loss, but she was given anti-nausea meds preventively and never had any nausea. Several years later, she’s alive and well (and has beautiful hair!).</p>
<p>A very good female friend, a professor, is a lung cancer survivor, I am a breast cancer survivor, another good friend is head of a great school and a breast cancer survivor, my sis is making it through cervical cancer and my 98 year old mom who just flew high way around the world to live in my home is a breast cancer and cervical cancer survivor and on it goes…</p>
<p>LTS- Many prayers heading your way from a mostly lurker. Your posts have always been inspiring and honest, and I’m certain that you have the strength to win this battle. I agree, from personal experience what so many others have said more eloquently than I ever could. The odds or statistics have never included YOU before. You are a survivor in every sense of the word and I know you will continue to be so.</p>
<p>LTS - I too have a close family member who survived breast cancer and then “unbeatable” Stage 3 ovarian cancer. Like you, she had enormous faith in her doctors and hospital and was unwilling to even consider giving up. </p>
<p>In many ways you remind me of her. </p>
<p>She is an inspiration to others, just as you have always been in your postings.</p>
<p>All the best to you and your daughter.</p>
<p>Latetoschool,</p>
<p>I haven’t been on CC recently as I’m trying to complete a few projects before our family gets sucked into round two of the college search process for S2 (Junior).</p>
<p>I did happen to check in the other night and catch your news. I’m simply stunned. As a big reader on CC, I really appreciate the voices that are full of life. There are many, and yours is among the brightest. Generous posters like you and the others help us all see the world a bit differently. Your “You’ve Won a Cat” is both hilarious and poignant. Your generosity and grace is clear.</p>
<p>I’d like to join in the chorus of well wishers and share a simple philosophy that my H attributes his self-made success to despite incredibly difficult life circumstances. He will say that he is blessed with the single-minded clarity of always understanding what he is fighting for. </p>
<p>I know it is clich</p>
<p>Thank you all so much again, I really appreciate the uplifting words and especially posts of others who have conquered cancer and who are surviving. The first doctor to give me my diagnosis in the hospital - the one finally fired and threw out of my room - told me I am going to die in eight to 15 months, no way around it, and even though I now understand that he is not an oncologist etc. I am finding that I do need some help getting that message out of my head. I believe our brains will more or less do what we program them to do, so, it’s critical that I deprogram that message. So any other survival stories are more than welcome - it helps me a LOT to hear that people do actually win this fight. </p>
<p>The last two days I have been dealing with the hair issue. Long blonde hair and it’s falling out in clumps all over the place. After consulting all over the place my wig is on the way and will be here early next week; meanwhile, this morning I had a long meeting at a client site, and lololol my number one priority is suddenly NOT the interests and needs of my client or the revenue stream or the operational aspects or the technology any other thing but rather TOP priority and VERY important - I decided I absolutely MUST NOT shed clumps of long blonde hair all over the client’s conference room, furniture and carpeting. Everything else is secondary. LOL. The only way to accomplish this or at least minimize the potential for embarrassment was to ponytail my rapidly diminishing hair, and then hairspray it, so, that is what I did. I am reasonably certain that I lost only a few strands in my client’s office, but when I got home, huge sections coming out in my pony tail already. But they’re stuck in the hairspray. I am thinking how fortunate that this is my immediate, priority problem; I am grateful that I am well enough to be worried about what is really such a trivial matter…</p>
<p>3Ks, I am glad you liked the cat thread. I was seriously considering sending such an email, too. It’s probably a good thing I didn’t, considering that the goal is to keep the clients and get more, not scare them off. </p>
<p>My daughter has been visiting JackieO in her new home, and as of last night reports that she is settling in nicely, and is very happy. She now has something like $100 worth of cat toys to play with, and she really likes the two young men. She especially likes sleeping in their beds at night, and my daughter said that when either of them come in from school or work, she is always in one bed or the other. So I am happy that this is the best possible outcome for her…</p>
<p>That’s one of your posts that I remember vividly–the post about how you wash your long long beautiful un-dyed hair with oils. Sure, there was a tiny bit of the thin green dyed-hair monster reading that post, but in the end, I was super pleased to think a fellow 40+ something was still kicking ass with glorious un-dyed hair. </p>
<p>Raising a glass to the necessary sacrifice of that glory, waving on our brave brave girl warrior.</p>
<p>LTS, you are an inspiration to me.</p>
<p>WHile you’re waiting for the wig to come in, if you live near any orthodox Jewish women, go to their stores and buy a “Snood.” It covers the head and comes in every color of the rainbow. WHen they’re not up to wearing wigs, they pop on a 'snood" instead. Probably they’re sold by internet, too. They’re fashion-conscious so some of the snoods are really cute.</p>
<p>LTS,
I made a list of Things I Have to Do shortly after I was diagnosed. This list did not include scrubbing the toilets. 
I had immediate, QOL, short term and long term goals. Every time I check off one of the goals, I add another, long term goal. That sheet of paper has been in my Day-Timer for the past five & 1/2 years.</p>
<p>Reading the Internet was depressing at first, until I started looking up the actual drugs I was taking, not researching the disease itself. Those links were more current than the doom-and-gloom prognosis pages. I also joined a couple of online survivor groups, which gave me lots of access to <em>current</em> info and support. (PubMed is great for this. My sons’ Bar Mitzvah tutor was one of the creators of this resource. It is his life’s work, and I’m sure has saved many a life in the process.)</p>
<p>Nevertheless, there are times that I have to back away from the support groups and get my head into a better place. Instead of cancer as the obsession, I have replaced it with college applications. I predict that over the course of the next month, there will be where I don’t know which is worse!</p>
<p>I understand your anger and frustration with the state of medical coverage in this country. I’m on a drug that keeps me alive and the leukies in their cage, but costs $50K/year. We are fortunate that DH has excellent insurance so the bulk of that is covered, but still, those dollars are funds that could be saving/treating who knows how many lives. There are days I think, “And what makes ME so special?” And that suffices as a good kick in the tail to go out and make every day count.</p>
<p>When I was on Interferon, I lost about half of my hair. It was noticeably thinner (to the point where I wore hats), but I still had enough hair left that people were always wondering “is she…or isn’t she?” Noone was brave enough to ask if I was ill. Mourn your hair if you need to. Put on that wig if it helps you focus on the positive and gets you through your client meetings and to your long-term goals. Cry if you need to. The tears <em>will</em> stop.</p>
<p>My friend who is living proof that you can have lung cancer and survive flew down from Oregon to the Bay Area this summer. She took Bart from SFO and I met her at a station. We hadn’t seen each other in around 5 years and here we were with the sword of Damocles hanging over our heads and much the wiser, sorry to say, for it. She has beautiful curley hair now…it used to be straight. All this can be done. Bless all those researchers, doctors who care, and persitent patients.</p>
<p>LTS, try using this term if you want to look up snoods…
“covermyhair”
put that phrase into the website format</p>
<p>(if you just google the word snoods, it’s been hijacked by a gaming company)</p>
<p>LTS: My relative’s hair that fell out was blonde - actually graying though she was in her early forties - it came back brown with no gray! Bonus! She will admit though, that is is dyed blonde again. (I suppose blondes have more fun … I wouldn’t know.) She never wore the expensive wig - couldn’t be bothered - got through with a baseball cap and said the heck with anyone who doesn’t like it.</p>
<p>My aunt, now a 17-year survivor of ovarian cancer, had her mousy blondish sorta limp hair come back as dark brown with a lovely wave to it. Not saying that you might end up with something better than loooong blonde, but it could happen!</p>
<p>Hang in there! The hair thing must be very dispiriting, but you seem to have a sense of humor plus a realistic attitude about it.</p>
<p>LTS - My mom’s hair is coming in differently too! And fast! Finished chemo in August and eyebrows and eyelashes are full again…and formerly blonde hair is coming in pretty dark. She’s excited about the idea of being a brunette and trying short 'dos. She’s like me though…one hint of gray shows up in that new hair and she’ll be off to the hairdresser for highlights. ;)</p>
<p>She had her head shaved the first time she saw a clump. But everyone is different. For her, clumps were more upsetting than getting a ‘Britney’…lol! She actually looked pretty without hair…younger if you can imagine. I told her she looked like her baby pictures…and she did!</p>
<p>One bit of advice. She was advised against the expensive human hair wigs…they are more trouble than real hair. She bought several synthetic wigs (couple hundred each?) and laughed in the face of our hideous Texas humidity.</p>
<p>Overseas, thank you so much for that, that is exactly what I need to read/hear. </p>
<p>Countingdown, I am sorry to hear that you are fighting the same species of beast. I am so very shocked - not at any specific doctor or any one individual but at the general inefficiencies of the entire system. Just getting my medical records sent to one of the major cancer centers so I can get an appointment secured for a second opinion has been a challenge. I had to go to no less than five separate offices to sign release forms. Then follow up to make sure faxes were sent and CDs mailed etc. Then, the physician’s office at the center I selected called just an hour ago - can I fly up for a Monday appointment? Well, yes, ordinarily I would, and I would do so immediately, however, I have more chemotherapy beginning at 8:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. And I read online - and my oncologist confirmed - that the type of cancer I have DOUBLES in size every 30 days, if untreated. And at the rate flights cancel I will not risk missing/delaying my chemo appointment. So no I will not be flying out of state for a Monday appointment, so, they’re looking for another date for me. But listen to what I’m really saying/posting here - a sizable number of people cannot get around to sign release forms, pound the telephones to make sure pieces of information arrived here or there, look for second opinions, negotiate for their care, or even hop on planes in a moment’s notice. In fact a majority of people have - what - a benefits package of 10 sick days per year? I was in the hospital for eight days… - and, what about people who are too sick to do these things for themselves, or who do not have any support - CC communities or real life or otherwise? Yikes, there just has to be a way to fix this, and it’s going to take a lot of people and a lot of passion, and someone or several someones very, very different in higher political offices.</p>
<p>hmmm, no, sorry, I just cannot quite bring myself to help the stuff along its way to falling out. Plus I’m sort of curious to see exactly how the process happens. But I might go get it cut so it’s not leaving such a mess everywhere…now, that’s a hilarious use of funds - pay someone to cut hair that’s going to fall out anyway. LOL. </p>
<p>Idmom, unfortunately I bought the human hair - I went to a local store here, handled some of the synthetic wigs, and didn’t like them. I have ten days of back to back meetings scheduled the week after chemo, and, some of the people “know” me, and the goal is to look as “normal” as possible. So after a lot of research I bought a wig that is as close to what my real hair looks like as possible.</p>
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<p>LTS, it isn’t just the paperwork. I have been through this with a relative. It required lots of relatives to drive great distances and wait around for hours. The relatives are there, but some live a half day’s drive away from his home, and some have small children who cannot be left unattended. We managed, but it meant days off from work, babysitting for other relative’s kids, spending full days in hospital waiting rooms, and in NY traffic getting there and back. During treatment he could not have driven himself and did not always have the stamina to walk so he would need to be pushed in a wheelchair. It took an army of people. We also needed to prepare food, do light cleaning, get to the post office box for him, get the Rxs filled. What do people without family do? Also, there was pressure because some of us have a limited number of sick/personal days, and some don’t earn an income if they don’t work because they are self employed. Everyone pitched in, and we got through it, but it was stressful at times. There were some great conversations and we all pulled together and made the best out of the situation. Reading this it sounds like I am complaining, but I am not. I am just describing the day to day things that went on for some time. We were not talking about 5 or 10 doctor visits. There were hospitalizations, doctor visits, chemo, radiation, taking care of house cleaning/cooking/shopping, over an exteded period of time. BTW, just so you know, he was able to work. He was self employed and scheduled his appts. for days he was well. He also was able to accomplish a lot by phone. None of his clients, or friends knew that he was even sick (he wanted it that way).</p>
<p>If the drugs are killing the rapidly dividing hair follicles then they are killing the rapidly dividing cancer cells…hair loss is a good thing :)</p>