M - Mammogram Again? - A TO Z Blogging Challenge

Last week I had a mammogram. That is something that I have to pray about and sometimes cross my fingers about.
They also asked me to stay and did an ultra-sound. It seemed to be alright, but today I received a letter from the radiologist and I have to have another mammogram in 2 or 3 weeks. This is very disturbing and it is difficult to keep the tears back.


When I found the lump back in January 2009, I walked around in a daze until the surgery the end of January. It was Stage I and the doctor said not to worry. But, when they tested the lymph nodes, the found microscopic evidence of more cancer. So, I had radiation. Every weekday for 28 days. I got 2 little tattoos out of that. The results from the BRACA test came back and we found out that it was not genetic, but environmental. The doctor left it up to me to whether I had chemo or not. The end game was, if I had the chemo, I should not have to worry again, at least not for 10 years or so. 

So, I took my new laptop to the Cancer Center twice a week for 12 weeks and taught myself  how to use Twitter and Facebook. I found some pretty interesting people online. I met people in Australia, New Zealand, the UK, Canada, Hawaii, Alaska, and almost all of the Continental United States. A lot of people in the Far East. 

Our little Beach House

In August, my mother came to visit and we drove down to North Carolina to our Beach House. On the way down, I started to have severe pain on my right side and by the time we got there, Ray had to call the Rescue Squad. We were surprised, but they were there in less than 5 minutes. 

They loaded me in the ambulance and took me to New Bern. I was in the hospital for 10 days. They sent in every kind of doctor you can imagine, even a exotic medicine doctor. They finally decided it must be pneumonia. Every time they tried to take me off the morphine drip, I would be in so much pain, all I could do was cry. They were finally able to get me on to Oxycodone and send me home. Ray drove me back to Virginia as soon as he could.

It was on a Sunday and they had made me an appointment at the Cancer Center for Monday morning. I went and they sent me to the Hospital for a chest x-ray and it showed a problem with my right lung, so back into the hospital I went. I was there for 10 days and it is a blur, just like being in the hospital in NC was. 

Mother, Me & Social Media

Some friends from church would come and sit with me during the day so I would not have to wait for the nurse to come to take me to the bathroom. You are a little woozy on a morphine drip. The pain was so bad, that I could feel it even with the drip and other pain medicines. Finally, it got better and I was able to go home. I am not sure they ever actually knew what it was.

Since I was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) from some of the tests taken in the hospital, they sent me to a Rheumatologist. He did not seem to care about what happened, just was was going on now. I saw him every 3 months since October 2009 until he retired in October 2013. I have a new Rheumatologist now and I like her very much. She is very thorough and did a full exam both times I have seen her. Last time, she told me she suspected the first time she saw me that I had Fibromyalgia, too. Now, after examining me again, she was certain. She gave me all kinds of literature explaining what it is and what are the symptoms. No wonder they could not figure out why the RA was so constant. Normally, you have some respite when you go into remission occasionally.   

During all this time in the hospital and after I got home, I had so many people on Social Media who were there for me. I would chat with people in Australia in the middle of the night when I could not sleep. The ladies at my church made sure that I had plenty of cards and prayers going up to Heaven for me. I received over 250 actual cards while I was sick and that is not even counting virtual cards. I had them all in a basket that I called my basket of prayer. 

I will call tomorrow and see what my nurse at the Cancer Center says, they should have a copy of the letter. I have an appointment with my Oncologist on Monday, so I may have to just live with the "if " until then.

This comes at a time that I am praying constantly for our friend @Livinlime on Twitter, Marie Walker Riddle. She has triple-negative breast cancer and it is Stage IV. I am so sorry that she is having to go through this. No one should have to go through it. I hope they find a cure soon. My son-in-law's mother had breast cancer for 25 years. When she passed a couple of years ago, she did not even weigh a hundred pounds. She went through so much but she had a supportive
family around her, supporting her at every turn.

So, so much for me. I hope you are all well and happy. I am a pretty happy person most of the time. I am nervous about this, but to my joy, I am not afraid. I will be fine because:

GOD IS GOOD, ALL THE TIME!

ALL THE TIME, GOD IS GOOD!

He loves us and everything that happens is for a purpose.