One down...11 to go

LPack

nancy591 said:

prayer
I feel the same on a lot of what you said. Sometimes it is hard to focus soley on the success stories and sometimes they seem so far and few.

I don't know if I'd want a crystal ball. I am 1.5 years from diagnosis. Thinking about dying too soon from this disease doesn't terrify me anymore like it did initially. Although I hate the thought of leaving my young kids motherless I've come to realize they will be ok, taken care of and loved. It's taken me a year of therapy to come to terms with this.

Before my recurrence I couldn't wait for the next blood work or CT because I just had to know. Now I wish I could keep my head in the sand for a little while longer.

Prayer...I've been meaning to start a thread on this. I am catholic...12 years of catholic school. I know there are a lot of Christians on here. I still cannot pray for God to 'heal' me. I just cannot speak those words. I pray of strength..for me and my family. I feel, when I pray, that my problems are so small in the 'big pictutre'. When I feel like asking God to please keep me here until my boys get older I think about all the suffering in the world etc. I feel that I've lived a good life and I should be grateful for that. I wasn't born in third world country, I had a happy life. I feel like it would be selfish of me to ask God to 'save me'. Does anyone feel the same? Is it wrong to pray for more time here on earth?

Intercessory
Nancy,

That is why it is so important to have those interceeding on our behalf. Having a prayer support team pleading our case, that is Biblical.

In James 5 verse 14,15 the Bible says, "Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up......" Verse 16, "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." NIV

In the Bible there are scriptures where David asked God for healing. The woman with the blood issue knew she only had to touch Jesus's cloak and she would be healed. I believe and know that God still heals and performs miracles. Prayer is not a way for us to control God; it is a way for us to put ourselves under His control.

Sometimes a physical healing does not take part until those of us who are believers are in Heaven. What is important here on earth is that we have a spiritual healing. I take the Bible literally. So I ask God to heal my body of disease, renew my mind, forgive me of my sins, but I also ask not my will but His be done.

It is NOT about me, but all about Him.

Living for Eternity,
Libby

msfanciful

marleyboo2 said:

Just for the record
I did continue to see the Drs. for 3 yrs. after I was diagnosed with no reocurrance. But then I asked myself why....if I did have a reoccurance I could not /would not do the Chemo. By that point I had already racked up a bill of roughly 30,000 not covered by insurance. I KNEW I would never leave my husband in that bind again. So I just wanted you to know I did go...I just decided it was not for me.

Hi all,
Special note to
Hi all,

Special note to Carlene... I just had my first taxol treatment on Monday. I have to say it went pleasantly well? I felt a little tired once I returned home, so I took a nap woke up and was ready for work?

I felt just a bit lethargic all day but nothing I couldn't handle (YEA!)

My doctor's nurse called Tuesday to check on me and she feels that I shouldn't feel too much worse than I do now. So for the next 2 weeks, we will continue the taxol maintenance and at the end of three weeks if it appears my numbers are lowering we may continue. My doctor is a stickler about the numbers :-)

So my question to you Carlene, how and when did you and your medical team determine that the taxol maintenance was for you? Did you have a 3-week trial period as I am currently under to see if your numbers were dropping first; and once you saw them lower was this what determined you to continue?

If I can continue this maintenance and go into remission, sign me up.

Much Love,

Sharon

Hissy_Fitz

msfanciful said:

Hi all,
Special note to
Hi all,

Special note to Carlene... I just had my first taxol treatment on Monday. I have to say it went pleasantly well? I felt a little tired once I returned home, so I took a nap woke up and was ready for work?

I felt just a bit lethargic all day but nothing I couldn't handle (YEA!)

My doctor's nurse called Tuesday to check on me and she feels that I shouldn't feel too much worse than I do now. So for the next 2 weeks, we will continue the taxol maintenance and at the end of three weeks if it appears my numbers are lowering we may continue. My doctor is a stickler about the numbers :-)

So my question to you Carlene, how and when did you and your medical team determine that the taxol maintenance was for you? Did you have a 3-week trial period as I am currently under to see if your numbers were dropping first; and once you saw them lower was this what determined you to continue?

If I can continue this maintenance and go into remission, sign me up.

Much Love,

Sharon

Sharon.....
My doctor first
Sharon.....

My doctor first mentioned Taxol maintenance to me arund the 4th of my 6 carbo/taxol infusions. I was surprised, since all along, he kept saying, "Wait until the treatment is over and we check your scan and your final CA 125, then we'll talk about what to do next." By round number 4, I think everything was looking like I would be NED when the time came for "the talk". When he ordered the CT scan, he told he beforehand that he expected it would be "clear". And it was.

Anyway....when he first mentioned the Taxol therapy, he told me the government had pulled the plug on the study, so there is no data to suggest how much good it will do. His personal opinion is that it MIGHT push back a potential first year recurrence. The choice was entirely mine. The other option was "watch and wait" - regular lab work and holding our breath to see what my CA 125 does, month-to-month. No, thanks. I opted for the Taxol. I'm just very pro-active by nature.

I did not have a trial period. My CA 125 was already fairly low (13), and had been "normal" since the mid-point of my chemo. My doctor's protocol is monthly infusions for one year, reduced dose, as long as everything looks okay (no neuropathy, etc). If my number stated going up, I imagine he would stop the Taxol and switch me to something else - probably a second-line chemo cocktail, at full strength.

Some doctors subscribe to the Taxol as maintenance theory and some don't. I figure that as long as the side effects are minimal (biggest ones for me seems to be some fatigue and no hair for a long time to come), it's kind of the chicken soup of cancer treatment: it can't hurt, and it might help.

Carlene