Some may wonder if I'm still seeing my wonderful team of doctors. Yes, I am, but not as often. I'm down to seeing my wonderful surgeon twice a year. I have a yearly mammogram on my left breast. I see my wonderful oncologist 3 times a year now. He continues to check my blood tumor marker during my visits. He watches me like a hawk. I like to joke that I'm his favorite! He has told me that I'm his most stubborn patient because I made the decision to only take the Tamoxifen for 5 years instead of the new recommendation that you take it for 10 years. Last year he wanted me to have a CT Scan of the chest and abdomen. They found a cyst on my left kidney. Let's just say from there my wonderful oncologist sent me for test after test to make sure I didn't have kidney cancer. He said that breast cancer doesn't spread to the kidney's so I knew it wasn't from that from the beginning. I had a PET Scan that didn't show any cancer anywhere in my body. I had a Bone Scan that didn't show any cancer anywhere in my body. He sent me to a Urologist who sent me for a MRI that didn't show any cancer anywhere in my body. Basically what happened was a lot of people have a small cyst on their kidney that they don't know about because it isn't causing them any problems. They only find it because of testing that is looking for something else. Finding it was an accidental finding in my opinion. My wonderful Urologist followed up with an Ultrasound 6 months later. Nothing has changed so I will go back again in a few months. If nothing has changed I was told they will release me.
So with all of that along with a few other things last year was a really rough year for me mentally. The day after my last test my precious mom had to be hospitalized. She was released to my care at my home with advanced COPD. I took care of my mom for 5 weeks before the Lord took her on to Heaven peacefully in her sleep. I was not prepared to loose my mom, my best friend and the person who I adored the most in this world. I am still struggling with her loss, but I do know that I will see her again. She's safe now and with Jesus and my brother, my grandparents and having a great time.
I'll try to post a few things that would be of interest to anyone reading this looking for answers of how my breast cancer story connects to theirs. Not every cancer is the same and not every person goes through the same experiences but for the most part the tests and just general advice of how I dealt with it all might be helpful to others so I will try to pass on what I've learned and hopefully it will help others in the process.
Angela
