Cancer Journey-Part 1

This is a blog post that I never imagined needing or wanting to write, but here I am. I have been diagnosed with Lobular Breast Cancer or Invasive Lobular Carcinoma (ILC). It has no medical cure, but thankfully, I serve an awesome God. The doctors can slow the cancer, but my God can wipe away its existence.

Normal Me

I suppose I should start at the beginning to explain my journey to the diagnosis. I am, in general, a very healthy person. Aside from kidney stones and insomnia I have had no real issues. My biggest concern was injury. I will find new and ingenious ways of throwing my back out, tearing a ham string or pulling some muscle.

I would get up at 4:40 am and go to the gym with my husband. I would spend 30 minutes on the elliptical machine then lift weights for the next 25 minutes and then finish with 15 minutes of stretching. I make real food for my family, but may have done a bit too much baking.

Tummy Trouble

In October of 2022 I started to have stomach pains. It began as rolling and churning with most everything I ate. Diarrhea joined in to make things even less pleasant. I thought a probiotic would help. It did a little bit, but then I got even worse pains. It felt like someone was pressing their knee into my stomach right below the sternum. It would set on every couple of weeks right after dinner and stay until about 4 am. I would get out of bed and writhe on the couch until it went away. The all over pain was a daily occurrence.

In January of 2023 Sister finally convinced me to go to the doctor. I called the appointment line and was told I could get seen in April. I explained my symptoms to the lady on the phone and she said that a nurse would call be back. I got a call back the next day, explained my symptoms again and she got me an appointment on Feb 13th. It was a few weeks away, but thankfully just weeks and not months.

Due to my symptoms my husband, Ben, thought that it sounded a lot like when he had gallstones. I was willing to try anything to get relief so, I changed my diet to keep the fats out. It didn’t work.

I put my boss on alert that I was having health issues and that if I didn’t show up for work one morning it would be because I was at the hospital and not just being a flake. She laughed at the thought of my being a flake and let me know that would never have been her first thought. She did let me know that whenever I needed to be out for an appointment or if I just needed to go home it would be fine.

My doctor’s appointment finally came around. I explained all my issues. The churning, diarrhea, and intense knee in the stomach pain were discussed fully. My doctor didn’t think it sounded like a gallstone issue, but a diet issue. He suggested that I eat smaller meals with more veggies and drink more water. I was rather disappointed because I really didn’t think that was it. I was going to do it anyways though, because I was willing to try anything.

Towards the end of the appointment he was feeling my stomach. He eyes went all bugged out and I could tell he was a little freaked. He felt a super strong pulse from my abdominal aorta. He thought that I was a ticking time bomb for an aortal aneurism. If that bursts there is little that can be done unless you are helped immediately. He put me in to have lab work, an ultrasound, and a CT scan. I was told most sternly that if anything where to happen I would need to get to the ER. Well, that freaked me out.

I got all my blood work done that week. The results came back showing anemia. The weird part is that I had plenty of iron and folate and my B-12 was so high it was off the chart. This made no sense.

Ramping Up

The following weekend Sister and I went out shopping. I had to move really slowly because my heart kept hurting. We had to cut our outing short because I needed to get home before something bad happened. We were driving my husband’s vehicle, a manual. While Sister has her license, she has not mastered the stick. If for some reason I wasn’t able to drive we would have been stuck since the rest of the family was out fishing. Once home I rested on the couch and my heart felt better all night.

The next day was Sunday and we were all ready and heading to church. My heart started hurting again so I told Ben that I wanted to stop by the gym and have my blood pressure checked. They only had one of the wrist band types. I sat down, pushed the buttons and it said something ridiculous like 255/131. We took the kids home and Ben drove me to the ER.

I was immediately hooked up to the EKG then taken to the back for the doctors to check me out. We let the doctors know what my doctor had suspected and they got right on it. I had an ultrasound and a CT scan. The good news is that my abdominal aorta is plenty strong. It is just more easily felt than others’. However, they did find lesions on my spine and fluid in my stomach.

One of the many docs that was helping came in and said that those two indicators mean cancer. He wanted to admit me into the hospital so that he could get an MRI overnight. The wait for an appointment was months. Of course, I said “yes” and got wheeled upstairs.

That’s all for this post. I’ll work on the next bit soon. Thank you for reading and please say a prayer or two for me.

To continue on to Part 2 click here.