Skip to main content

Just a Touch of cancer

There it is, in black and white and on the Internet.

 So it must be true.

 I have a touch of cancer. (A tumor, 3 mm to be exact, in my left breast).

 I discovered the lump, when it was but a babe, maybe half the size, last August. I had had a mammogram scheduled but cancelled it.

 WHAT????? I can hear you all screaming at me now. You cancelled your mammogram after you found a lump? And you have two sisters and two aunts that have had breast cancer? WTF??? (for my kinder, gentler readers that WTF stands for Well That's Freaky).

 Yes, I cancelled the mammo because I had a trip of a lifetime planned for October with my handsome hubby of 30 years. And I did not want to:
A. Possibly cancel the trip of a lifetime;
B. Put a possible cloud of doom and gloom over Ireland while on our trip of a lifetime;
C. Let my wonderful hubby of 30 years know about the lump because he would have worried and fretted and argued vehemently (He's an attorney after all) that the trip should be postponed until we knew if the lump was cancer.

 And we went to Ireland and London and had a most wonderful time. If you saw the gazillion posts and pics on Facebook, you know how wonderful.

 And when we returned, I made the call to schedule another mammo. But when a few weeks later it was getting larger and tender, I made the calls to switch it from a routine mammo to a diagnostic one that included an ultrasound. The appointment was for Christmas Eve. The doc reviewed the images and told us that it was highly likely that the tumor was malignant, based on my age and previous MRI images from less than a year ago when there wasn't a any sign of a growth.

 Merry Christmas. Not sure if the three not so little Piggins thought this same way, but John and I were grateful they were all home so we could share the news. 

 Unfortunately, they have had to deal with sick parents on too many occasions. Besides my MS, John's throat cancer 9 years ago and his heart attack four years (or was it five?) ago- they've weathered their unfair share. I hope this means that when we're old, we'll be a breeze to deal with!! Know what I mean??

 It's good it's early, stage II, and breast cancer treatment has come a long way.

 But the best part, for me, is that I got that trip to Ireland before the diagnosis so now I know where I want to go to celebrate recovery. Or I think I know, Galway or Adare or Waterford?????
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

It's not a popularity contest, but ...

Friday Night Lights

Friday night lights were blazing last week - when for the first time in the history of our little town, the Saugatuck Indians clinched the district title! You can see the sheer joy on Matthew's face and the pride in his father's eyes in the picture above. Leading up to and during the game, there were several things that made the victory even more sweet. The first being that the sports writers in the area, to a person, all predicted the opponents, Climax-Scotts, to win. They'd had a perfect season - until Friday. The second was that we had to travel quite a distance (nearly 90 minutes) to get to the game. And the weather was frigid and snow was blowing - thankfully it was blowing towards the Climax-Scotts stands and was at our backs. And then our quarterback injured his shoulder and had to sit out for a good portion of the game. Thankfully, the replacement quarterback (a sophomore called up for the playoffs from the junior varsity team) did not let the stress effect his ...
3 comments
Read more

Vulnerability hangover

I recently blogged about my own #MeToo experiences and then went silent. (At least on the blog). Those posts have been read by over 1000 people, and that's a lot for this tiny little blog about living a life with MS and God and with a sense of humor. Suddenly, I felt like I was living in a world where people that read my blog had x-ray vision and could see my nakedness - but I didn't know who they were. It wasn't a good feeling. And then I heard someone discuss Brene Brown, in particular what she describes as a 'vulnerability hangover'. It's essentially the feeling of regret, like after a night of binge drinking, when you think "What did I do/say?" and then "I think I'll just hide out from the world." If you've never had that experience, kudos to you. It's shame, pure and simple, ugly and raw. So, now I'm on a Brene Brown binge, including all of her TED talks. Including this one on shame:  Brene, listening to shame ...
Post a Comment
Read more

When being negative is positive and other wonky 'things' in the time of Covid

The world is upside down and back ass-ward. Know what I mean? I was chatting with a cousin the other day and her potential exposure to the corona virus. I wrote, "I'll say prayers for negative results for all. Don't like negativity but these days negative is a positive." Back ass-ward. Remember when we first went in to shut-down mode in mid-March? We were told that it was to flatten the curve of hospital admissions so that our ICU's didn't run out of capacity and to ease the virus' spread. It felt then like we were in this together, all of us were going to help beat this virus and stay home. (Aside from the run on toilet paper!) We were committed, or so it seemed, and our closets were going to be cleaned, our junk drawers were going to be a thing of the past, our garages/basements/and other yucky places were going to gleam. We were going to read "War and Peace" or "Hamilton" or other weighty tomes that we'd always wanted to read. We...
Post a Comment
Read more