I'm all done, but I sure don't feel done. I guess because I am a living billboard for cancer. I have this awesome newly fat and mangled physique. Hot stuff I tell you. Maybe it will feel more final when I get my port removed.
So I got my MRI results back for restaging and to look for mets. Here is a Tracey-fied version of what it says:
Patient has had her left boobie lopped off and irradiated. There is mild irregular thickening of the underlying major and minor boobie muscles (pecs)... we know this because we injected some contrast and that area looks all cloudy and feathery with some veins snaking around in it. Also the muscles under the armpit (lats) are swollen. The lower chest and upper abdomen are all poofy too. In the fat layer. She's a little swollen in a near perfect square. Kinda freaky if you ask us.
We don't see any signs of tumors anywhere in the muscle swelling. We also don't see any tumors in the lungs. We did however discover the secrets to space flight hidden in her right kidney (not really true).
Conclusion: Us here MRI readers thing the poofyness is caused by boob removal and radiation. Probably....
We sorta think you should get a baseline PET/CT.
Sincerely,
MRI readers of America.
Huh? PROBABLY caused by radiation... and... and.... SHOULD get a PET/CT scan?! Cant you be a little more definitive than that MRI readers of America?!
My franken boobie hurts. All the time. It has all sorts of interesting sensations..... like tingly, itchy, shooting pains, sometimes feels like it's being prodded by burning pokers... sometimes flaming ninja stars, it ALWAYS feels like I just subjected my left side to a thousand chest flys so it feels sore. I can't move it around that good either because its stiff. I also have this otherworldly tan that happens to be in the shape of a square.
Is all that normal!? Chemotherapy really sucked... and when I say chemo I only mean Adriamycin. Radiation however was the worst thing ever.
Here are some graphic representations of what my frankeboobie feels like...
Is this NORMAL!?
Tracey, with cancer it's REALLY hard to define normal, in my experience. With all the surgery and radiation around all those nerves, I'd imagine your poor franken-booby is feeling pretty put-upon... and is reacting to the trauma. I hope and trust that as time passes, this will all calm down to something much more do-able.
As for the MRI/PET etc., again, my experience is MRIs are "sensitive," but also like a weepy child - OVER-sensitive. And the radiologists don't want to get caught in a malpractice suit, so they shuffle you along for more tests, and more tests, and more tests, "just to be sure" - so take the recommendations for further testing with a grain of salt, because probably they're just being super, super cautious... Anyway, that's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it!! Hope things improve for you very soon - PJH