Check Yourself





Keep your face to the sunshine and you cannot see a shadow.
Helen Keller



October is Breast Cancer awareness month. I've always been open and honest in my blogs and this one is no different. A few months ago I became ill with a serious bacterial infection. One of the places effected was my boob. Not to put too fine a point on it, but it was horrible and extremely painful. I had very strong antibiotics and for the most part it went away. Then a few weeks ago, I was checking myself and I found two lumps. I honestly thought they would go away and opted to wait and see. Then there was a lot of stuff on twitter about breast cancer awareness and it stuck in my head. Last week I had an appointment for a flu jab with my doctor, and when I went in the first thing she said to me was "You're not well". She checked me over and found that my bacterial infection was back with gusto. My lymph nodes are swollen and painful. Then she asked how my breast was. I said not great and so she examined me. That's when she found the lumps. One under my arm and two on my breast. Part of me was relieved that she had found them too and that it wasn't my imagination. Part of me was and is scared shitless that she found them.

This week has been a roller coaster of various tests culminating in more vigorous tests to come. As you can imagine, everyone is worried about me. This year has been eventful to say the least and I really don't need any more stress in my life. Someone forgot to tell life that though. I'm in a strange place in my head at the moment. I'm trying to be positive, trying to tell myself that they're harmless lumps of nothing. Trying to be strong for everyone else that's crumbling. But there's the voice in the back of head that keeps telling me to remember my history, and the facts that 2 of my maternal aunts had breast cancer, and my cousin had to have both of her breasts removed a couple years back due to the same.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm worried sick. Who knows what the future holds. I just have to get through it. I did before and I will again. I'm hoping that it's nothing and maybe they'll have to remove the lumps and that will be the end of it. The most important thing is; That I got them checked. So my reason for writing this blog and being so open and honest is to reinforce the sentiments of all the medical people. Check your boobs regularly. Know what feels "normal" for you. Know what doesn't. Breast cancer doesn't only effect women. Men can get it too. Men, check your balls. Again, be aware of any changes. Don't be afraid to go see your doctor if you're worried. I'm sure they would gladly examine you even to put your mind at rest. Don't put it off. Do it and do it ASAP.
I'm going to get through this, and I'm going to bounce back. Whether there is anything to worry about or not, early detection and treatment is the best course of action.

SharonAnn  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Assumptions

"Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance." Having recently been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, I find I have to plan and prepare myself as much as possible for nights out etc. It can be very difficult to stay in all the time, and I get cabin fever quite often. Most times the best I can manage is the short walk to my local. How CFS effects me mostly right now is in my legs. I can't describe to you the actual weariness and drained feelings CFS brings, and no amount of rest really makes a difference. Recently my legs have been feeling the worst of it, and what happens is they simply won't work. Which can be inconvenient to say the least. As a result of this, I was finding that I was falling down stairs quite often. Quite scary for someone with brittle bones. At home I can rest or stay upstairs, so access to the bathroom is not such an issue. But if I'm out, and the bathroom is upstairs, this can cause a major problem. My local pu...
Read more

One Day at A Time

Image
                                                                                                                                               "Wake up and Live" It's been over a year since writing here so I guess I'm overdue! It's been a hell of a year for me and not exactly in a good way either. Where do I begin? As many of you know, in 2014 I ended up with sepsis due to not looking after a simple infection I picked up, and only for the stubbornness of my daughter I again might not be here. The residual effects have been with me since then, and in 2016 they reached their peak. I had blackouts, occasions where I lost t...
Read more

Introduction

This is my first ever foray into blog writing. I feel like I have lots of information floating around my head and that it would be good to put it out there so to speak. I’m going to start off by talking about my favourite subjects-me and my family!                                I’m a mom of three......I hesitate to call them “children” because at 21, 19 and 15 I regard them more as “adults in training”.  I am a pre-school teacher, having studied early childhood education in college for six years. I have worked my way up from ground level to now owning my own school. I am married to Pat, whom I met when I was 15. He says it was love at first sight but I don’t know if I believe in that crap! I just know I didn’t even like him when I met him first! I actually tried to set him up with a friend of mine at the time! He was having none of i...
Read more