Sunday, January 29, 2012
Slow Start......
Just realized the reading is going slow. My goal was to read 100 books in 2012. I love Pixels of Ink. I have downloaded so many free books to the Kindle and I pad. Also, I got two $25 gift cards for Christmas. Thank you Beth and Lindy. Back to the hundred books. That would be 8-1/3 books a month or two a week. I have time. My Lymphedema really limits what I can do and reading is good. I can do it with one hand with the bad one raised. I am past 3/4 of the next book so I will be at three books in January........Slow start........
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
Best Christmas gift ever
You may wonder how I typed that last post with the problems with my arm and hand. For Christmas my husband bought me a computer program called Dragon naturally speaking. It is speech recognition software. My entire last post was talked into the computer like dictation, I didn't have to use the keyboard at all. I'm sitting with a headset on and my arm elevated on a pillow. I'm wearing a compression sleeve and gauntlet and a special insert in the gauntlet to help the lymph fluid drain.
People had suggested to me that I blog through my treatments and cancer journey. It wasn't something I was ready to do. I did send out some newsletters, that as time went on the lymph edema developed and even writing the newsletters became very difficult.
I hope to blog more frequently now. I laughed yesterday because my neighbor sent me an e-mail asking about my pattern I had used to make a loopy scarf on the loom. It has been several years since I made those and it was going to try to look up the pattern for her by googling. By the time I got her e-mail, there was a second e-mail that said she had googled it and found it on my blog. Thank you Judy for reminding me that there's a lot of valuable stuff on my blog and it now than I can speak and post I can have a lot more to say again.
This software would be an excellent gift for a college student. I sure wish I would've had this when I was in college. It was me taking notes a lot easier. I have to say this is the best Christmas present I have gotten. That says a lot because two years ago for Christmas I got the Addy Turbo interchangeable needle sets. LOL
People had suggested to me that I blog through my treatments and cancer journey. It wasn't something I was ready to do. I did send out some newsletters, that as time went on the lymph edema developed and even writing the newsletters became very difficult.
I hope to blog more frequently now. I laughed yesterday because my neighbor sent me an e-mail asking about my pattern I had used to make a loopy scarf on the loom. It has been several years since I made those and it was going to try to look up the pattern for her by googling. By the time I got her e-mail, there was a second e-mail that said she had googled it and found it on my blog. Thank you Judy for reminding me that there's a lot of valuable stuff on my blog and it now than I can speak and post I can have a lot more to say again.
This software would be an excellent gift for a college student. I sure wish I would've had this when I was in college. It was me taking notes a lot easier. I have to say this is the best Christmas present I have gotten. That says a lot because two years ago for Christmas I got the Addy Turbo interchangeable needle sets. LOL
2012 is going to be a better year and where I've been since 2010
September of 2010 started a whirlwind change in my life. From the day that Labor Day weekend that I found the hardness on my right breast which turned out to be stage III breast cancer, everything changed.
Turns out my finding that hardness on my breast saved my life. My cancer did not show up on a mammogram or ultrasound. The type of cancer that I have is called lobular. Only 8% of breast cancer is this type. Most breast cancer occurs in the milk ducts of the breast. Those tumors are formed by cells that divide and form a sphere. For example, the tumor starts as a few cell which divide to form a small spheres, imagine pea. The kind of cancer I have is different than that and much harder to detect. When these cells divide, they divide flat, imagine a piece of paper. It is not until there are enough of those pieces of paper, thick enough to be seen on a mammogram or ultrasound. I was fortunate enough to have doctors that did not follow the standard course of waiting and watching for six months, but instead sent me for a breast MRI.
The MRI showed a 6 cm tumor. It also showed a couple of other suspect spots on that same breast and on the other. Next on the schedule was two separate biopsy days. Each breast had to be biopsied separately because the biopsied had to be under MRI assistance. There is an IV required for contrast and I would've needed too high a dose to do both biopsies on the same day. Luckily the spot on the left breast was benign.
We scheduled surgery to remove the right breast along with a sentinel node biopsy. At the time of the surgery the sentinel node biopsy was positive so I had 25 lymph nodes removed as well as the breast. I had a breast expander put in and over the next several weeks it was filled with saline and had some minor surgery on the left well. By the time of the surgery, the tumor had grown to 9 cm. When I saw the oncologist, he told me that I was very fortunate that the doctors pursued the suspicious hardness that didn't show on the mammogram or the ultrasound because I would have been dead in three months.
Unfortunately one of the consequences of losing the 25 lymph nodes was that I develop lymphedema in my right arm. More specifically the lymphedema is in my right hand, arm, and chest wall. There is way more to the story but that's all you need to know for now. I have to wear compression garments 24 hours a day seven days a week. The lymphedema Dr. will only allow me to knit 15 min. twice a day. I always considered myself a pretty fast knitter but you're not getting much done in 15 min. twice a day. And to be honest, even with the pain medication it is really hard to get those 15 min. in.
Dont worry, I'm strong. Don't forget I was born to knit!!!
Turns out my finding that hardness on my breast saved my life. My cancer did not show up on a mammogram or ultrasound. The type of cancer that I have is called lobular. Only 8% of breast cancer is this type. Most breast cancer occurs in the milk ducts of the breast. Those tumors are formed by cells that divide and form a sphere. For example, the tumor starts as a few cell which divide to form a small spheres, imagine pea. The kind of cancer I have is different than that and much harder to detect. When these cells divide, they divide flat, imagine a piece of paper. It is not until there are enough of those pieces of paper, thick enough to be seen on a mammogram or ultrasound. I was fortunate enough to have doctors that did not follow the standard course of waiting and watching for six months, but instead sent me for a breast MRI.
The MRI showed a 6 cm tumor. It also showed a couple of other suspect spots on that same breast and on the other. Next on the schedule was two separate biopsy days. Each breast had to be biopsied separately because the biopsied had to be under MRI assistance. There is an IV required for contrast and I would've needed too high a dose to do both biopsies on the same day. Luckily the spot on the left breast was benign.
We scheduled surgery to remove the right breast along with a sentinel node biopsy. At the time of the surgery the sentinel node biopsy was positive so I had 25 lymph nodes removed as well as the breast. I had a breast expander put in and over the next several weeks it was filled with saline and had some minor surgery on the left well. By the time of the surgery, the tumor had grown to 9 cm. When I saw the oncologist, he told me that I was very fortunate that the doctors pursued the suspicious hardness that didn't show on the mammogram or the ultrasound because I would have been dead in three months.
Unfortunately one of the consequences of losing the 25 lymph nodes was that I develop lymphedema in my right arm. More specifically the lymphedema is in my right hand, arm, and chest wall. There is way more to the story but that's all you need to know for now. I have to wear compression garments 24 hours a day seven days a week. The lymphedema Dr. will only allow me to knit 15 min. twice a day. I always considered myself a pretty fast knitter but you're not getting much done in 15 min. twice a day. And to be honest, even with the pain medication it is really hard to get those 15 min. in.
Dont worry, I'm strong. Don't forget I was born to knit!!!
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