Small Talk: The Prayer Closet

[Readalot]

@Arwen Evenstar I'm sending prayers of strength and healing for and Mr E. I'm also praying for your medical team that they advise and implement the best decisions for you. Gentle hugs. Fight the good fight. 

[Happyfatchick]

Arwen.  

I got nothin.  I am so sorry you have to go through this. Suuuuuucks!!!  When you are up for it, have Mr E sign up with previously so he can give us updates.  I know he won't b excited to be in our worried chicken coop but we'll go nuts without news.

Is this the thing you didn't tell us before?  I feel like I just landed in the middle of an Elizabeth Berg story.

I love you, I'll pray for you, and I'll mean it.  Suddenly its a little painful not to be able to send real notes and cards.  Have Mr E sign up, seriously.

The bright news is that you never talk bad about him so he won't be blindsided in the hen house.  Tell him there are a few roosters but they're harmless.  XOXO

[Love2dance]

@Arwen Evenstar, sending you love and wishes for your successful battle. You will definitely be in my thoughts. And hoping to hear good news from you when you are able. I also like Happy's idea of Mr. E updating us if he is ok with it. FF hugs to you.  ?

[Temperance]

@Arwen Evenstar  My best wishes for you and your friends and family!

[ChiCricket]

5 hours ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

Hi you guys. Sorry so long, but I've been very sick and not able to be online. Long story short: was diagnosed with a late stage ovarian malignancy. 

Medical team is hopeful I can beat it. God may have other plans (I never presume). Treatment involves 3 chemo. If scans show chemo is working, then I might have surgery (if gyn onc thinks he can remove it without making me worse) and then 3 more chemo.

Will be lurking more than snarking as I need to be sure my affairs are in order in case I can't be helped.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and thoughts.

Mr E has been my angel.

@Arwen Evenstar, thank you for telling us. 

Wishing you comfort and peace, and sending virtual hugs to you and Mr. E.

Edited April 30, 2017 by ChiCricket

[crazycatlady58]

Arwen, many prayers  for you and Mr.E. Wish I could be there in person , clean your house  or something . Take care and know a lot of people  you have  never seen care about you.

[Jynnan tonnix]

Oh, no! So sorry to hear this! Stay positive as much as you can, and know how many people are in your corner! Seconding HFC's idea of having Mr. A sign up here to keep us informed. I know you may not have the energy or inclination to do much writing yourself. 

Keep fighting and picturing all the thoughts, prayers, and other miscellaneous good vibes heading your way. Looking forward to good news.

[Minivanessa]

@Arwen Evenstar - what a gut punch. HFC called it: suuucks. You have the benefit of my infidel prayers and fervent best wishes. I third the idea of having Mr. E drop by with updates. You got yourself quite a posse here, girl.

[pinkie]

((Arwen))

[Barb23]

Arwen, so sorry to hear.  Sending positive thoughts & prayers your way.  Your online friends are here for you. 

[amitville]

ARWEN EVENSTAR   Full Frontal Hugs to you, remeber your online family is here 24 hours a day if you need us.    

[Catlyn]

So Sorry to hear this, Arwen. Sending love, frontal hugs, prayers and positive thoughts to you. Keep positive, snark with us when you're able. Please have Mr E sign up and update. You know how much we worry when someone goes missing even for a little while. 

[Jellybeans]

So sorry to hear this Arwen.  You are in my thoughts as well.  

[BitterApple]

I'm so sorry to hear this, Arwen. We're all thinking of you and sending virtual hugs, positive vibes and prayers. 

[Ownedbydogs]

I am so sorry to hear this Arwen.  Healing thoughts and energy sent your way.  Please let us know how you are doing.

[SuspiciousMind]

Dear, sweet Arwen -- I'm sending you healing vibes and thoughts for your physical and mental strength while you beat this unexpected diagnosis into submission.  And you will.  <3

[ariel]

Arwen - I'm sending you healing vibes too.

[jjane]

I'm so sorry Arwen, I've been through this with my husband and Happy's right, it sucks. But he made it and I pray that you will too. I don't post a lot but I feel like I know so many of you and you have all been wonderful to me when  I needed it. Sending hugs, prayers, good wishes and anything else that might help to ease your mind. You will be in my thoughts. Please keep in touch when you feel up to it and know that we are here for you.

[momofsquid]

Sorry to hear this, Arwen. You will be in my thoughts.

[HooHooHoo]

Sorry to hear this Arwen. Strength and healing thoughts being sent your way. 

[zoomama]

been at the hospital for three days with my hubby. he has been having a-fib in his heart that WILL NOT correct itself. tonight he is doing better so we are hoping he will come home tomorrow on much stronger meds. in the process, we learned that he is severely anemic  - one blood transfusion and one bag of iron transfusion. it hasn't changed much and it does affect his heart. so, i am way behind in reading. hope nothing big has happened that i am missing out on. i will check in later in the week.  

On 4/30/2017 at 3:47 PM, Happyfatchick said:

Arwen.  

I got nothin.  I am so sorry you have to go through this. Suuuuuucks!!!  When you are up for it, have Mr E sign up with previously so he can give us updates.  I know he won't b excited to be in our worried chicken coop but we'll go nuts without news.

Is this the thing you didn't tell us before?  I feel like I just landed in the middle of an Elizabeth Berg story.

I love you, I'll pray for you, and I'll mean it.  Suddenly its a little painful not to be able to send real notes and cards.  Have Mr E sign up, seriously.

The bright news is that you never talk bad about him so he won't be blindsided in the hen house.  Tell him there are a few roosters but they're harmless.  XOXO

please do have him sigh up and then update us!  this was NOT the something big i was referring to above. i am just in shock right now.  so sad. makes my problems seem so trivial. 

Edited May 3, 2017 by zoomama

[EVS]

Delurking to add my thoughts and prayers for Arwen Evenstar and for zoomama's husband. Wishing both of them a speedy recovery. 

[Love2dance]

@zoomama, hope your hubby reacts positively to the stronger meds and iron for anemia.

[Sew Sumi]

@zoomama healing vibes to your husband! It sounds like they've hit on a recovery plan. Hope he comes home sooner than anticipated! 

[lookeyloo]

@zoomama - sending healing and positive vibes through to you and the hubby. I hope by the time you get to read this that you might even be on the way home 

[jjane]

@zoomama, sending prayers and positive thoughts to you and your husband. Hope the doctors get a handle on this and he is soon home on the road to recovery. Take care of yourself too.

[BitterApple]

Zoomama, sending prayers and good vibes to you and your husband! I hope he makes a speedy recovery.

[Arwen Evenstar]

Zoomama, prayers for your husband, too.

Thank you all so much for the good wishes and outpouring of love and prayers. Means so much. I'll keep you posted. 2nd chemo tomorrow so I may be offline for a few.

So far docs are pleased with my progress. Blood counts look good. A week from Thursday, they'll check me again.

[GeeGolly]

Healing thoughts for @zoomama's husband and the other hubbies of posters battling health issues.

And an image for @Arwen Evenstar to think about as she kicks cancer's ass.

[emma675]

zoomama, please let us know how your hubby's doing. I hope things are better today and the stronger meds solve the problem.

Arwen, strong, healing, cancer ass-kicking thoughts headed your way today (and everyday!).

[zoomama]

hi everyone. well we got home last night and he is, against my better judgement, back at work today. they gave him another IV iron yesterday before they released him. he will be on double the heart meds to control the heart rate and hope it is enough. he is going to be seen outpatient to figure out the anemia and where the blood loss is coming from. all in ll, he felt pretty good this morning. 

so glad to be home and back to routine. 

arwen, thinking about you!

[Love2dance]

Almost two weeks ago I posted that my husband was having symptoms of a stroke and was ambulanced to the hospital. We have had an adventure of many, many tests and bottom line he ended up having open heart surgery and a mitral valve replacement Monday. He is recovering now, pretty weak still, but a little better each day. I am very grateful to all the wonderful Kaiser surgeons, nurses and all the staff. 

Reading Small Talk, and other PTV posts, have been a wonderful diversion for me!

I am sending healing thoughts and wishes and hugs to all our wonderful Small Talk family and their family members having health issues. 

[zoomama]

2 hours ago, Love2dance said:

Almost two weeks ago I posted that my husband was having symptoms of a stroke and was ambulanced to the hospital. We have had an adventure of many, many tests and bottom line he ended up having open heart surgery and a mitral valve replacement Monday. He is recovering now, pretty weak still, but a little better each day. I am very grateful to all the wonderful Kaiser surgeons, nurses and all the staff. 

Reading Small Talk, and other PTV posts, have been a wonderful diversion for me!

I am sending healing thoughts and wishes and hugs to all our wonderful Small Talk family and their family members having health issues. 

we were at kaiser too. glad for a positive outcome for your hubby. this stuff is scary!!

[bigskygirl]

{{{HUGS}}} @Love2dance @zoomama and @Arwen Evenstar Sending all three of you good thoughts and best wishes for a speedy recovery for your husbands and Arwen.

I got a personal letter from a Jehovah's Witness in the mail today. A part of me wishes I had the Duggar home address to send the letter to. Yes, I am heading off to the Prayer Closet. I did go in for my annual checkup today. My back and neck have been bothering since Wednesday night. If they both do not start feeling better, I probably will be sent to physical therapy again.

[Love2dance]

31 minutes ago, bigskygirl said:

{{{HUGS}}} @Love2dance @zoomama and @Arwen Evenstar Sending all three of you good thoughts and best wishes for a speedy recovery for your husbands and Arwen.

I got a personal letter from a Jehovah's Witness in the mail today. A part of me wishes I had the Duggar home address to send the letter to. Yes, I am heading off to the Prayer Closet. I did go in for my annual checkup today. My back and neck have been bothering since Wednesday night. If they both do not start feeling better, I probably will be sent to physical therapy again.

Thank you @bigskygirl, and I really hope you feel better, too!

[Barb23]

Boy those dark clouds of health problems seem to be drifting our way again.  I guess as the saying goes, When it rains, it pours.  Hopefully our positive thoughts & prayers will get rid of those clouds.  I'm so glad we are here for one another.

On a different note - For all the Star Wars fans out there "May the 4th be with you!"

[EVS]

I'm adding positive thoughts for Love2dance's husband and BIGSKYGIRL as well as anyone else on this wonderful board going through health issues or a difficult time. 

Edited May 5, 2017 by EVS
Typo

[GeeGolly]

13 hours ago, Barb23 said:

Boy those dark clouds of health problems seem to be drifting our way again.  I guess as the saying goes, When it rains, it pours.  Hopefully our positive thoughts & prayers will get rid of those clouds.  I'm so glad we are here for one another.

On a different note - For all the Star Wars fans out there "May the 4th be with you!"

And Happy Cinco de Mayo.

[Arwen Evenstar]

16 hours ago, Barb23 said:

Boy those dark clouds of health problems seem to be drifting our way again.  I guess as the saying goes, When it rains, it pours.  Hopefully our positive thoughts & prayers will get rid of those clouds.  I'm so glad we are here for one another.

On a different note - For all the Star Wars fans out there "May the 4th be with you!"

My husband bought me a Rey Skywalker fuzzy blanket to take to chemo with me because he thought I needed a warrior woman and we are Star Wars fans! Loved the ninja graphic. That's what I call my new batch of chemo, my new army of ninja warriors.  

In the aftermath of 2nd chemo, so far feeling pretty good.  Learned a lot from first go round and clinic has me on good pain management and dietary advice to help manage nausea and other GI issues.  Switched me to a transdermal nausea gel and it made all the difference. I also know what to expect and anticipate.

@Love2dance, so sorry to hear about your hubs. Due to being backogged, I'm sure I missed many postings of other worries. The love in this community is outstanding and I send it back in thoughts and prayers and good vibes to all of you!

[Happyfatchick]

True story:  I had a PDF file that I messed with for 2 freaking hours the other day.  I needed it to be a jpg, and I couldn't figure out for the LIFE of me how to change it.  I knew it was simple, but I just was blank.  Finally, I called my son, Wade, who said "I could walk you through it, but just send me the file and I'll send it back to you as a jpg".  I said "DEAL!!!  That's what I was hoping you'd say".   I sent him the file and thought I'd go eat lunch while he did his thing.  But no.  I sent him the file and in less than 2 minutes, I had it back.  Ping!  Just like that, I had a jpg.  The conversation below is what happened after that:

me:  Seems to me like you could have made that look a little harder

Wade:  I actually did that on my phone [meaning "I didn't break a sweat or even move from my chair"]

me:  whatever dude.  I'm 713 years old.  You're lucky I still know who you are.

Wade:  :)  xoxo

Prayers still going up to those who are sick and/or tending to others who are sick.  Arwen, I don't think I understood the chemo was going to be back to back.  Your life just SUCKS right now.  No doubt about it.  I know how much it's always meant to me to have this board behind me when I was struggling, and I want you guys (or loved ones) who are dealing with ferocious health issues right now that we love you, we care and we want to be in the loop.

I don't "do" Star Wars (I have a really hard time with on-going sagas, and I'm pretty sure Star Wars didn't even bother to keep going forward - they backed up and covered more ground, right?)  But even though I'm not, I actually "got" @Barb23 and "May the 4th be with you".  I was quite proud of my 713 yr old self for ciphering that code.  I don't, however, know what/who Rey Skywalker is, but if a red fuzzy blankey makes things easier, @Arwen Evenstar, I hope you have 10 in reserve and I hope you kick this stupid disease in the a$$ before you even take 9 of them out of their packaging.  I worry about you all the time.

Where is @MunichNark?  and how's my favorite Maxine, @Micks Picks?  I worry about you every day too. 

And who was that with the dad who made us all want to stick his face in toilet water?  Wasn't that @CherryMalotte?  Where is she?

Group hug, everybody!

[jcbrown]

Sending positive thoughts and energy to all here who need them.

I can use a few next week, too, if anyone has them to spare. We are heading back to my home state this weekend to move Dad into a memory care facility next week and I'll be taking trusteeship of his assets (my sister has his POA). We lost Mom to Alzheimer's ten years ago. Now, Dad's Lewy Body dementia has advanced to the point that it just makes the most sense to move him. He is hallucinating pretty much all the time. He's had 24x7 in-home care for a year but that is crazy expensive and the caregivers are not skilled (no medical training, can't give medication, etc.). The last 18 months have been really hard and this change just feels kind of final, even though I know we still have a long road. I just want to curl up under the covers but that is not the most productive strategy.

[Love2dance]

6 hours ago, Arwen Evenstar said:

My husband bought me a Rey Skywalker fuzzy blanket to take to chemo with me because he thought I needed a warrior woman and we are Star Wars fans! Loved the ninja graphic. That's what I call my new batch of chemo, my new army of ninja warriors.  

In the aftermath of 2nd chemo, so far feeling pretty good.  Learned a lot from first go round and clinic has me on good pain management and dietary advice to help manage nausea and other GI issues.  Switched me to a transdermal nausea gel and it made all the difference. I also know what to expect and anticipate.

@Love2dance, so sorry to hear about your hubs. Due to being backogged, I'm sure I missed many postings of other worries. The love in this community is outstanding and I send it back in thoughts and prayers and good vibes to all of you!

So good to hear from you, @Arwen Evenstar. I'm glad they are keeping you as comfortable as possible. 

We had a couple of minor setbacks with my hubby, and I was getting freaked out, but today is much better and I'm a little more relaxed again. I absolutely love this group and can't tell you how comforting you all are.

@jcbrown, so sorry to hear about your dad. That is truly one of the most cruel diseases of all. May you find comfort and peace with him in his new memory care home.

Hugs and thanks to everyone. It's amazing how you can love people you don't even know.

[emma675]

jcbrown, virtual hugs. My grandmother had Alzheimer's and I know how awful, awful dementia diseases can be. You essentially lose the person twice--once when their minds fail and again when they finally pass away.

MICKS PICKS, ARE YOU STILL AROUND? DID YOU HAVE THE SURGERY YET?

[jjane]

Does anybody have any experience with dense breast tissue? My mammogram came back with abnormalities and mostly the report talks about dense tissue and calcifications. Is this a big deal? Trying not to freak out and people on this board are such a diverse and thoughtful group I figured I'd put the question out there. Have to go back for another mammogram and ultrasound Monday and was fine till I got the report in the mail. Thanks in advance for any information you may have.

[Andalusian]

2 hours ago, jjane said:

Does anybody have any experience with dense breast tissue? My mammogram came back with abnormalities and mostly the report talks about dense tissue and calcifications. Is this a big deal? Trying not to freak out and people on this board are such a diverse and thoughtful group I figured I'd put the question out there. Have to go back for another mammogram and ultrasound Monday and was fine till I got the report in the mail. Thanks in advance for any information you may have.

I've had this happen on my last couple mammograms.  It's hard NOT to worry about it, while you're waiting for results.  Honestly, after I got clear results (twice now) I just sort of forget about it, though I remember enough to mention it at my exams -- I personally find I prefer getting confirmation it's nothing (still).  Partially because I took a biology class that talked about cancer and rates and the breast cancer rate stats were so high.

I don't know if anything I said is HELPFUL though.  But, you're not alone!

[jjane]

Thanks, this was helpful. I tend to worry because all of my parents' siblings and their parents died of cancer. They didn't, however, so maybe I got the good genes. Just worrying because I skipped my mammograms for the last four years, was taking care of the parents till they died and things fell through the cracks. Can't help thinking it might be something bad and I could have caught it early. I'll know next week and go from there. I appreciate the support. This is a great group of people.

[jcbrown]

I think dense tissue just means it is hard to get an accurate read, not that the read is necessarily bad. Hope you can feel more at peace!

[RazzleberryPie]

Dense tissue and calcification are fairly common, and not malignant. Hopefully it's nothing more than that. It's still very scary waiting for exact results, so prayers for peace during the waiting. I'd worry too, until I had final results, but some abnormalities are no big issue. They should find a word besides abnormality that is less scary.

[Love2dance]

4 hours ago, jjane said:

Does anybody have any experience with dense breast tissue? My mammogram came back with abnormalities and mostly the report talks about dense tissue and calcifications. Is this a big deal? Trying not to freak out and people on this board are such a diverse and thoughtful group I figured I'd put the question out there. Have to go back for another mammogram and ultrasound Monday and was fine till I got the report in the mail. Thanks in advance for any information you may have.

My daughter and I both have dense breast tissue. I think I t means a mammogram has a little more trouble finding any kind of lump. My daughter has tomography mammograms (able to find lumps easier than the regular mammogram) and ultrasounds with every mammogram, called a diagnostic mammogram. I have had a few benign lumps which turned out to be cysts or fibrocystic tissue. So I also have had many ultrasounds to go with my mammograms (I don't have the tomography option).

The good news, at least for our area, is that if you have the diagnostic visit with ultrasound, the radiologist comes in right then and tells you the findings. You don't have to wait for a phone call or letter. Hope it is the same way for you.

Please let us know how your appointment goes. Sending hugs and positive vibes.

[Barb23]

I recently had to have a breast ultrasound done because they found a very small nodule on my mammogram. Luckily it was a cyst & I'll have f/u mammo & sono done in 6 months. I've never had any problems with my mammos & was upset I got a call back letter even tho my Dr. said it wasn't something to get my BP up esp since nodule was so small. But I too had let my mammos lapse so that added to my worry. I stayed off looking up info on line cuz that will drive you nuts. But like Love2dance said it's nice having the radiologist check things out and gives you results then.  It was ironic,  I had a Dexa scan done at same time. I was so sure I was going to set off the bells & whistles thinking I was so calcium deficient because of the years of Prednisone I take for my RA & the broken bones I've had.  Surprisingly that came back showing I was deficient but not enough to have to do Fosomax or one of the other drugs.  Then I get letter about needing breast ultrasound which I wasn't expecting. So you just never know.  Hope things go well Jjane, will be sending positive thoughts your way.