this is my second favorite quote from the hobbit. i needed to muster up all of my courage yesterday to go to my six months appointment to check on my breast cancer. it was an appointment with the oncologist- and they did blood work, and went over the results from my CAT scan that i had a few months ago. i thought that i was not nervous until the night before my appointment. it hit me like a ton of bricks. what if the cancer is back? is that why i have a basal cell carcinoma that i have to get taken off next month? i just finished a 10 day treatment of antibiotics for a sinus/throat infection. is my immune system shot? ( really, i feel that i have the immune system of an ant. a very, very small ant). i seem to catch everything coming and going as they say.
i am not afraid of needles. i am not fond of them, either. unlucky for me, i am a " hard stick" as the med techs lovingly refer to people like me. my veins head south- i mean, who can blame them? i did do what my favorite med tech told me to do last time- drink lots and lots of water 24 hours or so before you have to have blood drawn. that " plumps up the veins" so she said. honestly, it seems to work. and yes, i do have a favorite med tech in my oncologists office. she uses a butterfly needle, sounds sweet, but still hurts. not nearly as much as a regular needle though . and this med tech seems to know where my veins are hiding out. she gets one every time! i asked her if she could come down to raleigh with me next month when i have my big thyroid cancer check up. the med techs at my endocrinologists office seem to always dig around in my arm for a while, never strike gold there, and then i end up having to have one of the " man veins" in the back of one of my hands stuck. hand sticks really hurt, by the way. i have such good veins there because of all of the child proof lids i have opened over the years. i have decided that this time, i will just tell the med tech to stick my hand and get it over with.
back to my breast cancer check up. at my oncologists office, it is such a big practice, that you always see a physician's assistant first, then the oncologist comes in the room for the big finish. so, the PA and i went over the basics- and i told her i was doing pretty well except for the medicine that i have to take for TEN YEARS . it blocks estrogen, but one very bad side effect is muscle and bone pain. i am especially sore in the morning, and i look like i am 100 years old when i try to get out of bed. this is a medication that i have to take. period. but, there is another medication in this same category ( they are called aromatase inhibitors for those of you who are interested). my doctor said that about 50% of the women who had bone/joint pain on the anastrozole ( arimidex) did not have this side effect on the other drug, which is called aromasin( exemestane). i am going to research this as much as i can from reputable breast cancer websites, and my research material . but honestly, i have pretty much decided to give it a try. unless i discover some horrible side effect from the new drug. and it is going to have to be something pretty horrible for me not to try it!
my oncologist ordered a CAT scan a few months back. i had quite the scare at first when the radiologist read the x-ray and mentioned that i had a tumor on my liver. the radiologist wanted me to have an MRI to check it out further. i called up my family doctor and talked with him about it. i have mentioned him before- he is the voice of reason. he reminded me that i have had this place, and it is called a hemangioma- just a fancy word for a cluster of blood vessels, for years. it is benign, and can be on the outside of the body, as well as inside your body. my family doctor suggested that i get copies of my other CAT scans and take these to the radiologist so that he could have something to compare the latest picture to. that worked! i did not have to have an MRI.
my oncologist did not know all of this back story, though. he said, well, your CAT scan shows a spot on your liver. i could just see the wheels turning in his head. i imagined that he was thinking something like this: " cancer patient + tumor on liver = cancer??!" he looked pretty relieved when i filled him in. in fact, he looked at me, smiled, and said : Good Job!! i have to give my family doctor some credit, though. sometimes it is good to take a step back, and breathe before making a huge decision. one should not wait too long, but rushing to have a test done that would only give me more radiation exposure when i probably already glow in the dark ( in large part to the I-131 dose i received with my thyroid cancer treatment) would not have been in my best interests. this is another example of being a good patient advocate for yourself.
my oncologists office will mail my blood work results, the ones they were not able to do in the office, to me in a few days. unless something weird pops up in these, i am good to go for another six months. now, i will just dust myself and my trusty sword off and get ready for my thyroid cancer check up next month. going forward is the only way to go.
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