Back to the doctors again...

Episode LXXIV - I'm Back!

I had a few months off - sort of - and now it was time to get back to the cancer doctors...

Time to get checked...

I made my way back to the hospital to visit the Radiation Oncologist. It was nice to see my techs again. They were all happy to see me with hair. They all said I looked younger... being off treatment helped with that! It was awesome to just visit with them and not there for them to blast me with radiation!

Today was an easy appointment. It was a small follow-up to confirm that my skin had grown back healthy and that I was all good. So we covered the basics:

I explained that I still had some residual burning feeling inside a spot of my breast and under the nipple. Apparently, no biggie.

I told him that just a few weeks back I finally caved and removed the very last part of my nipple with tweezers. Seriously, I could not stand the burnt tip of my nipple hanging on and not falling off. So, I took the tweezers and removed tiny bits of crispy skin until it was all gone. I would have stopped if it hurt, but the skin was ready. The nurses face was priceless - she was totally grossed out!

The nurse was like?!?!

We discussed the side effects of Tamoxifen and he told me I needed to see my Oncologist for options. He did remind me the importance of staying on the medicine for my case and that I needed to find other medicines to make my bone pain better. Yep, I know - I do not want the cancer again!

Finally, he was surprised that I had not seen the Oncologist yet and that I did not have any testing scheduled. It seems my left breast was due for a mammogram and my right breast needed one in 3 months. So, we split the difference and scheduled one for in a little over a month. However, I was going to see the Oncologist in a few days and I am sure he will be happy to schedule some tests!

Then I got felt up. We all knew it was going to happen. He had to examine my breasts and my skin to make sure I was healing properly. Everything looked good. I was back to having "clinical affairs" - aka - medical professionals groping and fondling my boobs! Too bad they are not satisfying!!!

In my head...

While it was no fun knowing that I was going to be back at doctors for the next month or so, I was glad that every thing seemed good. I was grateful to be alive and pretty healthy. And I was glad that I was getting some hair on my head...

Spiky-hair?

"Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you."

- Walt Whitman

Episode Reference: Back in the Saddle Again, Aerosmith song
.

Comments

giving your 16 year old scissors

New Traditions Losing my hair - it's going to happen. When I did this in 2013, I waited to cut my hair once I was further in treatment. I didn't want to do that again. I didn't want to do it while I felt sore and bad. This time, I wanted to get rid of my hair before treatment. Since I will have now done this more than once, it can be considered a tradition: cancer haircuts by my kids . Last time I did this, the kids were 6 and 13. So, this time around my son (23) opted not to cut, but watched some. However, my 16 year old daughter leapt at the opportunity to cut my hair. Even though 10 years have gone by, she had to adhere to a few basic rules. Basic Rules: 1. Do not cut my ears. 2. Do not cut your own hair. 3. Do not cut anyone else's hair. These rules still hold up and are the general agreement we make before I put scissors in my kid's hands to chop on my hair! And the tradition isn't the same without going outside (weather permitting) and listening to our

happy birthday to me... almost

Let's rewind a bit and start a few days before my birthday... I had my first cancer treatment day on October 3rd - check it out if you haven't read that blog post yet. Let's just think of it as an early birthday gift since my birthday is October 7th. Great gift, right?!? If I have to hear "Happy Early" or "Late Birthday" from another medical person, I might have to smack someone. Especially, since I have spent most of the weeks leading up to and after my birthday at a medical appointment regarding cancer. Not really loving my birthday this year. Let's just say, on my birthday, I woke up with a special chemo-side-effect-surprise at 2am. That fun surprise I will share later... Rewind a Few Days... Update But first, let's go to October 4th, the day after my grueling 8 hours of immunotherapy and two chemotherapies on the 3rd. I woke up swollen, red faced, and fevering, as well as feeling pretty crummy. I didn't have time to dwell on it since I

More biopsies... where? down there?

Cancer survivors are always wondering and waiting to see if something is going to happen, so it is only natural to worry when something is "off". Then when something turns out to be abnormal more testing and follow-ups are needed. It seems like a continual wave of worries. Sometimes our worries turn out to be issues. Sometimes our worries turn out to be nothing. Either way, we are going to worry... it's just an issue of determining how much and when we should really worry. Finding out my endometrium lining was so thick meant I needed to get a biopsy. What's an Endometrial Biopsy? An endometrial biopsy is a medical procedure in which a small piece of tissue from the lining of the uterus (the endometrium) is removed for examination under a microscope. The removed tissue is examined for cancer or any other cell abnormalities. Lucky me. Right? Now I get to go back the GYN only a few days after my initial exa

TaTa Wars

Search This Blog