From the first moment my wife discovered she had breast cancer, there was a deafening silence from the men I know. Even ones whose wives, mothers or girlfriends had breast cancer seemed to have received a gag order from some Central Cancer Command and did little more than mumble about the experience. Not one to shut up for any known reason, I started this blog…(Sorry this is late today, but my new granddaughter was born on Thursday and we just moved the newly expanded family home this afternoon!)
A few days ago, my wife and I took off a day from work to visit doctors.
It’s been almost a year since the initial diagnosis, so this is sort of a “1 year check up” as well as the “6-month since the end of chemo” (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/09/end-to-chemotherapy.html) check up.
The morning session was with at the cancer treatment center with the doctor who performed the biopsy and gave us the news. While he’s very efficient, he’s not…our friend, so to speak. He’s a busy doctor and has many patients to see. However, my wife went armed with a list having heard from her former doctor that when people come with dozens of questions, they effectively “snow” the doctor. So she had a brief list: hand, eyes, legs, armpits.
The hand question was deferred and the doctor determined that it was NOT related to the leg issue. In fact, in discussing it, he noted that the symptoms my wife was experiencing: hand pain, thigh pain and armpit pain didn’t present in the way that the drug she will be taking for the next five years usually presented as side effects. See the drug, anastrazole (http://breastcancerreaper.blogspot.com/2011/12/next-five-years-anastrazole-whats-it-do.html) will give you joint pain, but it’s a general joint pain and effects every joint in your body (oh, joy…) and isn’t specific to the hand or even the muscles of the thigh.
It was something else.
When the blood work came back, it was clear to them that the liver numbers were good, a previous bone density scan had turned up no suspicious spots, and a lung x-ray hadn’t shown any spots. Unfortunately, there isn’t any real way to “scan” the brain – but there’ weren’t any symptoms that come with brain cancer.
We left the cancer clinic somewhat relieved but now wondering how to deal with the muscle pain. Of course, the doctor had suggested “exercise” while at the same time giving no hint whatsoever as to the KINDS of exercise or frequency or how to overcome a loathing of exercise…(read my next post for a continuing discussion of THIS subject!)
We stopped at Sears to look at exercise equipment and looked specifically at Elliptical Trainers because my wife had heard good things about them.
SHEESH! $$$$$$ We’ll see what happens with this.
At any rate, I bailed on the next appointment which was the dentist. Prior to chemotherapy, the cancer center had recommended a thorough cleaning of teeth and a checkup, which my wife did. It was time for her to go now that her body had gotten rid of the last traces of chemo drugs. She was concerned that because her gums hurt, they had been damaged by the chemo. She was thrilled instead to find out that while the pain WAS chemo-related, it was called DRY MOUTH. The dentist quickly supplied a mouthwash and toothpaste that would care for that problem! Her teeth were in great shape and she came home to rest before the last appointment of the day.
Regular clinic: on Thanksgiving Day in 2011, she had jammed her hand against the wall; specifically, her pinky and the finger next to it. There had been no swelling or bruising so she figured that ice and rest would take care of it, though we watched for lymphedema because the injury was to her right hand, and that was the arm where they’d had to remove a cluster of lymph nodes.
Recently, she developed something called “trigger finger”. The clinic doctor explained that an injury to the hand caused the swelling of the tendon that connected the finger to the wrist. That same tendon has to pass through a narrow opening at the base of the finger and when it was swollen, it would get stuck in the opening thereby “freezing” the finger. He recommended a shot of cortisone and an aluminum splint for the finger, immobilizing it for at least four days.
We’ve reach day 4 today and the finger, when my wife has tried to move it, it barely moveable. Hopefully that is from being splinted and the stiffness will disappear as she continues to work it.
So there you go, the One Year/Six Month Report. You'll notice that we never got to the "armpit" question. *sigh*
Even so, all seems well; as I said, it seems to be All Quiet On The Western Front and I pray continuously that it remains so. That being said, I’m pretty sure there’s STILL lots to talk about because guys NEED to talk about breast cancer – everything from the shock waves of the initial diagnosis through learning to live with it.
Later.
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