Get connected day!
Hi all!
Welcome to all our new members, and here's our first Get Connected Day post for 2011.
The purpose of the Get Connected post is to provide a place where you can introduce yourself if you'd like to widen your connections.
What to do...
Comment to this post (use the comment form at the bottom of the page) with a short note about yourself and who you're looking to connect to. Easy!
If you see someone with experience similar to yours, who you'd like to connect to, then just click their username (in their post) and you will end up on their profile page. Then all you need to do is look on the left side of the page under their picture and you'll see an "add contact" link and follow the prompts.
Why connect to others?
One of the good things about connecting to others, is that all of their blog posts will show up on your homepage in a reading list. So if you haven't visited the site in a few days, you'll still see what everyone is up to!
Important note
Remember to check your own privacy settings on your "edit" page. There's no need to reveal anything personal or private, but if you want others to connect to you, you should make some of your My Profile settings "public" so others can find out a bit about you (eg. 'my story', 'about' me' and 'breast cancer experience').
If you're not sure what to do, you might like to read this post on how to change your privacy settings.
Have fun!
Di
(if you want to go back and browse the old 'get connected posts' to find out a bit more about our members, just click on the 'get connected' tag).
Comments
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wow!!!..what a great idea..i'll start the ball rolling..
i am sam. I am almost 42 yrs old and i live in rural victoria. I am a mum to 3 (daughter 14,twin boys aged 6) and have the best hubby in the world (altho i'm sure some of u may disagree). i have secondary cancer (primary in the breast..secondary to the liver, lungs and neck nodes).I was diagnosed in dec 2009 (primary) and jan 2010 (secondary). After mastectomey surgery I rec'd 8 doses of taxotere along with herceptin and continue still with herceptin now. All scans are showing great results and i am feeling well (apart from the usual aches and pains that comes with getting older)..would love to make some more connections. I have made a couple already
as i am feeling well i am happy to provide support and a laugh whenever i can 0 -
Thank you Di for creating this site. I'm slowly learning to use it and it's great. It's truly a wonderful thing you are doing.
Mel, sorry to hear about your difficult news. Most of us here have gone through or are going through a very similar experience and whilst it's shocking and scary at first, things settle down after a while and you get on with doing what you need to do to survive.
You will meet loads of extraordinary people who are battling cancer just like you and whilst there will be no shortage of sad and frustrating times you'll be surprised at how many wonderful experiences you will have as well. This has changed your life forever but your new "normal" will encompass many positives as well. You'll see.
Stay strong and all our love to you,
Galaxy Sue.
BTW - I can remember thinking I'd just cut out the cancer and move on too. It's not naivety, most of us don't know much about cancer until it touches us personally. Try to keep smiling.
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Hi Mel and welcome to you, too!
Glad you found the site and feel free to ask if you need a hand finding your way around. If you want to read some basic info on getting started, then take a look at the Help page -- that's a good place to begin. Otherwise just have a browse around and comment where you like, there's no right or wrong here.
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Hi Galaxy Sue -- glad you're finding your way around, but feel free to keep asking if you get stuck. Especially in this group which is all about finding easier ways to do things!
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Welcome Girls
Mel, they reckon socks and jocks are a crappy Christmas present?? I reckon I would trade BC for socks and jocks any day!!
Samantha - Great that you have made some connections already! and hoping you will make many more. Mmmmm, a 14 year old daughter?? I would imagine she is at the lovely age where she is 14 going on 24??? and twin boys??? WOW, I have just spent the last week taking care of my sisters baby and she was really demanding (but way too cute for words) and I can not imagine that times two?????
And last but not least Sue, great to see you contributing already with some really great advice to others. Your posts are informative yet passionate at the same time and I personally look forward to reading more.
Welcome to you all and sorry we had to meet under the circumstances (BC) but look forward to chatting to you all some more soon.
Tanya xx
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Morning everyone,
Has been ages since I've been on here. Have been hiding behind the job of just "being busy" and getting through the day-to-day stuff. But a quick update - oh and a huge thankyou to everyone for their kind thoughts and support from my last blog, if I missed anyone. I had my surgery (bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction immediately) and everything went really well, to the point where my doctor decided to do the first saline injection into the tissue expanders then and there. So when I woke up from the surgery, I wasn't as flat chested as I expected, which helped with image issues, I guess. The huge shock was for the amount of pain and inability of movement for the first few weeks, I was in a hard place as I can't take codeine or morphine so they had to play around with pain management but we eventually got it worked out. All my labs came out fine, no sign of compromised lymph nodes, no other cancer cells showing up anywhere. While relieve, I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and some-one to say, no it isn't going to be as easy and straighforawrd as this. I feel blessed, especially when reading of other stories and blogs on here and the huge amounts of chemo and radiation that women are going through. Sure, I went through a short round of chemo and lost my hair but it doesn't seem to be even close to the same league as what others have gone through. It all seems almost too easy, if that makes sense?
Everything was going fine until we got the first fill up. Somehow managed to get a faulty tissue expander and the magnet had been placed in the product upside down. So when my doctor was trying to find the injection site, the magnet finder was going crazy. Came to the decision we give it a go and see what happend but unfortunately, best as we can figure the scenario, there was actually a fold in the expander so she nicked the main part of the expander and it sprung a leak - within two days I was totally lop-sided, LOL. Got back into surgery for replacement within 2 days but it set me back mentally as I really didn't want more surgery than I had been told to expect :O( But not really a choice so it went ahead and everything has been fine, phew. I've just had my last fill up - I have cleavage again!! My next surgery will be replacing the expanders with permanent implants which is scheduled for the 1st April - appropos for me, according to my friends, to have it done on April Fool's Day...LOL
So health wise, I am bouncing back really well. Mentally is a little tougher. None of my friends want to talk about it, I can understand that on one level, it is really confronting to think that a normally healthy and active 33 yr old woman can get this disease, maybe it could happen to them too. Nobody wants to confront their inner fears and mortality. But that makes it harder for me. I want to talk about it, I want to be able to talk it out and process it with someone other than my shrink. My breast care nurses have been amazing but they also have so many other patients, so much worse than me and still needing much more individual attention. I feel guilty about taking any time away from them. So my solution has been metaphorically putting my head under the pillow and waiting for it to all fade and go away. Of course it isn't going to, aside from the fact that I have several more surgeries and am reminded every time I look in the mirror, get dressed or shower. But sometimes, pretending it happened to someone else lets you get through the day until you get to that real pillow. My husband has been great, has dealt with the whole thing much better than expected. My children have been the best of all, not even making an issue of how Mummy looks different, just allowing for the fact that I am sore and don't have as much energy or ability to run around like I normally do. My youngest, Sam, is nearly 3. My last baby who was so attached to Mummy's boobies he didn't stop feeding until he was two :O) He has never hesitated about touching my chest since the operation, just more tender and careful about where he puts his hands. He still settles and soothes himself with his hands on my chest and I think that has been one of the best tonics of all.
Still trying to find a local support group to bodily meet with. Have tried contacting the person listed on this site but not able to get connected. So I will keep trying, in a city this size, surely there is someone else who would like to meet for coffee once a month or so and share positivity and support...
Hope this finds everybody happy and if not totally healthy, on the way towards it...
Ree xox
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Hiya Di,
Thank you for the link. I'm not sure whether it was me being a technophobe or just not looking int he right way but I have now found a few groups out my way (I'm more Barrosa Region of Adelaide) that I will contact and see if I can join their groups. The map hint was fantastic!
Cheers, Ree
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Hiya Di,
Thank you for the link. I'm not sure whether it was me being a technophobe or just not looking int he right way but I have now found a few groups out my way (I'm more Barrosa Region of Adelaide) that I will contact and see if I can join their groups. The map hint was fantastic!
Cheers, Ree
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Oh, fabulous!
...and it's definitely not you being a technophobe, this is something we just built as new functionality and launched shortly before Christmas, so yay! for it working the way it should!
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Yea I have just passed my 8 years since diagnosis, treatment (surgery, chemo, radio, ovaries out, etc) and
This time of year always throws up doubts about those check ups we have so I have organized to have mine at a different time of year!! As if it is not busy enough with all the usual Xmas stuff. A big thank you to BCNA who althogh were in their infancy when diagnosed have grown to an amazing network now with wonderful members and many valuable resources. You guys mawwwhhhh know I love you! Seriously the network has been fabulous and helped me and our support group in sooooooo many ways. Hope 2011 is a great year for us all. xx0 -
Yea I have just passed my 8 years since diagnosis, treatment (surgery, chemo, radio, ovaries out, etc) and
This time of year always throws up doubts about those check ups we have so I have organized to have mine at a different time of year!! As if it is not busy enough with all the usual Xmas stuff. A big thank you to BCNA who althogh were in their infancy when diagnosed have grown to an amazing network now with wonderful members and many valuable resources. You guys mawwwhhhh know I love you! Seriously the network has been fabulous and helped me and our support group in sooooooo many ways. Hope 2011 is a great year for us all. xx0 -
Hi Jacqueline and welcome!
I'm really glad you found your way here and have had a bit of a look around. Just ask if you need a hand with anything (except the roof -- mine leaked this week, too, and trust me -- you don't want my help with home repairs! 0 -
I cannot explain how good it felt to get your reply to my post, I do have good support from my family but unfortunately they are all a long way away and the added burden for my husband when we have to travell 3 hours each way for the operations and then back the next week for the results does take its toll. Anyway thank you once again,for your message, we are hoping that 3rd time lucky tomorrow when I have the operation, at least there are no unpleasant procedures beforehand this time,so am lucky there.
Jacqui
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Come back and post any time you like, Jacqui -- there's nearly always someone around. And if you make a post in your own blog (see the My Blog link in your profile), it will show up on the 'All posts' page where everyone can see it (if you have your blog set as public, that is).
If you want to read the 'All posts' page, you can find it here: http://www.bcna.org.au/node/all/blog/network. I find that the easiest way to catch up on what everyone's doing.
Best wishes for tomorrow -- let us know how it goes.
--Di
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Hiya Jacqui...
So glad you have found this web site. I have found so many to be open and welcoming, I have no doubt you will find someone to help you through or share experiences with. As for your fraud comment, what snot, as my 8 yr old son would say, if you would excuse me for being blunt. Any news along these lines throws a lot of turmoil into lives that are planned and organised and if that doesn't give you the right for a bit of a pity party for a while, I don't know what does. Take time for yourself, curl up with some great chocolate, a better book and zone out for a while. Or take a bubble bath. Or whatever your favourite indulgence is. Take the time to acknowledge what is happening and then start to move forward. But I can see you are resiliant, I'm not sure that I would have faced all those things happening with a grin, like you seem to have done. I would offer my services to fix your roof (I'm a carpenter by trade) but not quite up to it physically :O) Hope you find someone before more rain comes...
Good luck with your operation. Let us know how you go, if you want to share...I'll be thinking of you tomorrow....
Ree
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