Always in the back of your mind

Had an MRI on left shoulder yesterday, see the sports med doc Friday for results. Wasn't really worried until after the test and now have to wait several days. Trying to keep busy, hoping that my instinct is correct that my shoulder issues are really just a continuation of a lifelong battle with tendons and joints.

I don’t think there will ever be a day at least for me when a constant ache or pain isn’t attributed to BC. We’ve been branded with the C word always looking over our shoulders but as time passes not as much. My MO told me if a pain persisted for 2 weeks to come see her. Fortunately I didn’t have any issues.

8 years last August.

Diane

Hello, fellow worriers and warriors! I had a bad headache, for a day, then another day, and a few days later, it had been a week. Pressure on both sides of my head. My MO had trained me after chemo ended to be alert to anything that could be a symptom of various types of mets, and "headache that doesn't get better over 2 weeks" was on the list of something that could possibly be Brain Metastasis. I was debating what day to go see my PCP or MO about this headache. Which doc, how to follow up, how long to Wait And See and Suffer, etc. before getting myself to a doctor.

Turns out, I had gotten new glasses the day before the headaches started, and they were too tight. This was the fastest ever cure for Brain Mets! Of course, during the headache days, I was positive that I had Brain Mets, because every hoofbeat's a zebra, not a horse, when we're living with some (very understandable) worries.

I went back to the optician and asked her to make the earpieces be less snug. Presto, Abracadabra, my brain cancer is cured. No more headache. You would think that I might have thought of this on Day 2 of new glasses, which was also Day 1 of new headache, but I did not. It took a whole week for me to consider this cause for the headache. Apparently, I see zebras everywhere. I know you'll all be excited that I cured my brain cancer so quickly. Ha ha ha, --that sentence must be said with dark, ironic humor......

Zebra is the American medical slang for arriving at an exotic medical diagnosis when a more commonplace explanation is more likely. ... Since horses are common in Maryland while zebras are relatively rare, logically one could confidently guess that an animal making hoofbeats is probably a horse. (Google's explanation)

AnnC2019, if that was included in my genetic screening, then no. Nothing popped for me. My husband says I'm an overachiever to have two cancers with no genetic mutations, which made me laugh.

I did get in w/ the derm for the re-excision today, he took a lot more (and showed it to me, was kind of cool in an oh my that's my flesh kind of way). He also strongly urged me to share the path report with my MO because of that tie to renal cancer. I see the MO's PA the first week of December so I'll have the original path report plus the one from today's pound of flesh removal.

Great post, Hikinglady. Thanks for the laugh.

Hikinglady: zebras are everywhere. When my mom was dying of cancer and we were caring for her in her home, one morning, I noticed her squinting and reaching for things that were not there. I thought, oh no, it’s gone to her brain now. After watching her and feeling devastated, my sister yells, “has anyone seen my glasses?” We had put her glasses onmy mom. My mom was such a trooper, she laughed and then asked whether we put her teeth in her mouth or whether they too belonged to another. She was amazing. And died only one week later. I hate zebras 🦓 but love humour and stoicism.

Haha HikingLady thank you for the giggles! I would have totally been thinking the same

Ann-

How sweet that you are saving for your daughter. We are right about the same stage and I'm hitting 5 years so here' hoping we have decades left!

I looked in the mirror this weekend and still don't know who I am. My eyebrows look like my mom's --but not when she was 50, but when she was 80! Does that mean that this old body is like 80 and will wear out soon? I still think my eyes (browns and lashes) look like I finished chemo a few months ago. I can't get used to it. I feel like I have to balance being here a few more years and not pushing this body too hard, and planning for a regular future with retirement. Save $$ for retirement or pay $$ for complementary treatments and lubrication stuff to make every day an okay day? Oh!