Therapy

I met with the physical therapist yesterday who agreed that it is a strained muscle in my back that's causing so much pain. She lectured me about my posture at work, and showed me a few stretches to strengthen the muscles that are out of whack. Bad news: she said our meeting yesterday starts week one and that it'll be 6-7 weeks before I'm pain free. That means I'm stuck on the stationary bike for awhile instead of the treadmill, but I'm at the point where I'd do almost anything to get rid of the pain. I'm meeting with her again next week and I'm hoping I'm able to say that I've noticed a change!

On and Up!

Not much to report. I finally had an appointment with a general practitioner last week who told me the pain in my back is caused by a strained rhomboid muscle. I was super excited that we finally had a reason for the pain, AND she offered me ways to fix it! It's typically a 6-8 week injury (lucky me, this is week 9!) but my doctor thinks it'll last a little longer (of course). She gave me a few different remedies, one being physical therapy, so I'm crossing my fingers something starts to work, and fast!

Ouch

Thought I was finished with pain (and complaining about it) didn't you? Nope! A few weeks ago, in my quest to prove to myself that I'm physically back to normal, I did a boot camp class, followed by a TRX personal training session a few days later.

An example of one of the TRX exercises I did, except unlike the lady in the picture,
I was sweating like a beast, grunting, and making faces that would frighten children.

Since both were new to my body, I was understandably sore after each session. Once a few days had gone by, most of my aches had subsided, except for an area in my upper back, on the right side. I let it be for a few weeks, begging Jason for back rubs on a daily basis. Finally I decided to see a chiropractor, Dr. Kristin Schaffer. She's been doing some muscle stimulation and adjusting me every-other day for about a week and a half, and Monday she dropped a bomb on me. Because she's aware of my medical history, she brought up the fact that it was possible (but very unlikely) that my breast cancer metastasized to my ribs. I've heard worse news so I didn't immediately panic; we did an x-ray and sent it off to a radiologist for review.

My motto is that if you catch things early, they can be treated, so of course I made an appointment with Dr. Howe (my oncologist) as soon as I was able to on Tuesday morning. Yesterday afternoon I heard back from the radiologist who said they didn't see anything that they'd be concerned about, but c'mon. With everything I've gone through over the last 8 months, I don't think I'd be able to let this go until I get the green light from Dr. Howe. There has to be some reason for the pain I'm having (I'm rating it one step below expansions, to give you an idea of severity), and until we figure it out, we won't know how to make it go away.

I was a little on edge Monday evening (as you can imagine), but have since calmed a bit - I'm 90% sure I pushed myself too hard at the gym and as a result, gave myself an injury. We'll see what Dr. Howe says at my appointment Friday; until then, it's a nice rotation of heat and ice...

Dramatic

As expected, the swelling has minimized significantly and the fears and disappointment I was feeling just a few days ago was all way over dramatic. I'm still not looking the way I'd imagined but it's crazy how far along things can come in just a few days.

The pain is more of just an irritation now, although bending over hurts (thanks gravity) and I'm still not supposed to lift anything over 10lbs or raise my hands over my head (making showering and getting dressed super fun).  I'm at home again today so I'm going to see how things go just taking a few ibuprofen.  The major pain meds put me into a fog and there's no way I'd be able to operate at work tomorrow while on them.

Aside from the "pain," I've been feeling kind of itchy, and not where the incisions are either.  Just the skin, kind of where a tank top would hit.  I thought maybe the skin was stretching but that doesn't make sense either - that's what the expanders were doing.  I'm sure the nerves were irritated while Dr. Heinrich was in there swapping things and that's why I'm getting that sensation.  I have to ask her about it at my post op on Thursday.

That's all for now folks, time for a nap :)

Weekend Wrap-Up

I know I rave and rave about how amazing my support system is (I know that I'm a very lucky girl) but I just can't stop when they've helped my Making Strides Against Breast Cancer team raise $1,270!  Wonderful job everyone!

I know I kind of left a teaser about my BRCA1 and BRCA2 test results (sorry!); they came back negative, which means the reason I got cancer was just the luck of the draw.  While it's a little unsettling to not have a definite answer why, it's wonderful to know that the women in my family are "safe" (I use quotes because they could be "lucky" and get random cancer too (knocking on wood that it never happens)) and I get a little peace of mind knowing that my risk of ovarian cancer isn't elevated.  It is what it is I guess; there's another gene test we can do, but it opens the Pandora's box of diseases I'd be susceptible to (they're diseases we can't watch for or prevent), and I'm not sure I want to carry that knowledge around every day.

Ashley made a great point that technology in this area of medicine is developing so quickly that it's not impossible there's another breast cancer-causing gene out there that no one has discovered yet.

Anyway, I hate to come back to this because it's probably so boring to read about, but I'm still having some pretty intense muscle pain.  The exercises my PT showed me a few weeks ago definitely stretch the muscles, but they're not taking away any of the pain/tightness.  I even went as far as calling my surgeon's office Friday afternoon to see if it's normal to feel this way.  Bad news: it is.  Good news: the nurse assured me I'd feel much better after New Boobs Day (31 days!).  I'm going to bench myself for the remaining 3 kickball games we have and really try to watch what I'm lifting, drink a ton of water, and continue stretching.  I can handle 31 days!

Ma ma ma ma ma ma ma ma madness

I promise I haven't forgotten to update, we've just been crazy busy and have a few more weeks of the madness before things slow down! 

Not much to report on the cancer side of things; I've been waking up sore every day so that's fun. The muscles in my chest and arms have been really tight and I've been trying to stretch as much as possible.  I think sleeping in my in-law's guest bed over the weekend, long jaunts in the car, short walk/runs, and playing kickball are all playing a part in the soreness.  I'm just overall not being very cautious with my body anymore and I think it's telling me to slow down.  Who has time to slow down though, when there's so much fun to be had? 

We got home Sunday night from a great weekend in WI!  We spent time with Jason's parents, cousins and aunt, went to Lauren's (one of the two cousins we saw) bridal shower, and to the Packer's (GO PACK!) v. Redskins game on Sunday with our good friends Andrew, Joelle, Robin and Emily.  It was a packed (see what I did right there?) weekend with little sleep, loads of fun and awesome memories made.

The girls and I dancing with the Tundra Line at Lambeau Field and some snapshots from the game.  We're super excited about our cool new Packer's sunglasses :)

Let the craziness continue (oh, and only 50 days until NBD)!