July 9, 2019

another cancer update

On Memorial Day weekend, I discovered a lump on the incision site on my right side. Naturally that put me into a bit of a panic. But at the same time I was strangely calm about this discovery. Thinking it more weird and annoying that worrisome. But I called my doctors to let them know and so my breast surgeon sent me in for an ultrasound.


They wanted me in right away so it was the last day of school that I had to rush in to get the ultrasound. The radiologist looked at the ultrasound and was a little bit baffled. You could see the lump and feel it, but it wasn’t showing up on ultrasound. She finally concluded that I have Mondor’s disease. She said it was uncommon, especially so long after my surgery, but quite possible and so her best guess. Similar cording showed up on the left side soon after so I believe that is exactly what it was.

I had to go get a CT scan a few days later so I went in for blood work that same day. Holy moly, that was the worst lab work of my life. My arm was numb and tingly and I had to ice it for a few hours afterwards. I’ve never had it done so poorly.


My CT scan was a few days later and it came back clean! Wahoo!

My hair is super curly and wild and does what it wants to do. I’m definitely in the midst of an awkward stage. But I’m trying to enjoy all the perks of short hair—easy showers, lack of hairdos, comfortable when running and exercising, and nice to swim with. 


My friend posted this on her Instagram and it made my heart burst to see that I was one of the women she walked for.


I decided it was time to trim up my hair again. Maybe it’s just the curls, but it seems to grow slower on the top. I actually think that I prefer wild and free because  I started to miss the wings around my ears soon after I chopped them off. 
We had a follow up with my breast surgeon. That’s when I got the good news about my clear CT scan. She also concurred with the radiologists opinion about Mondors disease. 


This is displayed in the exam room. It was just so fascinating to see the size of the 3 cm mass that was once my cancer. So glad to be rid of that!


My breast surgeon wanted me to follow up with an mri and another ultrasound. I have since done the mri and that came back looking good, too. (And let me just announce to the world that I went to this mri all by myself and stayed calm and mostly anxiety free! Such a big step for me to be able to go to appointments like this by myself). Also, mri’s are my least favorite of all the testing I’ve had to do. 


Cancer doesn’t consume my life quite as much these days, but I’m still going to doctors appointments or testing at least a couple times each month.