While receiving the radiation for the bone cancer in my sternum area, I was pleasantly surprised as to how quickly the pain began to subside. What once was a horribly sharp and constant pain quickly began to become less painful within about a week and a half. What a wonderful blessing when the treatments began to work so quickly. Bone cancer is extremely painful. It is something that hurts all the time and then when you move it hurts even more. If you try applying any pressure or weight to the area that is affected, then the pain becomes terribly intense. Even some of the strongest pain medications don’t help all that much. They do make it a little more tolerable. There were times before treatments the pain had gotten so strong I thought I might pass out. This is why I was so surprised and pleased when the pain began to leave so quickly. I would like to add, these cancer spots on my sternum were found pretty quickly. My doctor even made the statement that I had pretty much diagnosed myself. I didn’t care how it was found, just so thankful that it was and again it was something the doctors and technicians could help with.
Once the all clear was given by my doctors, I began to resume the ole familiar appointments every three months. This is just a standard procedure for cancer patients. It’s one of those precautions that the doctors take to make sure that you are well and that they got everything. There are a lot of people that don’t go to these appointments and that is a very dangerous thing for them to do. It’s just so much better if you go to all the appointments so that if there is anything to pop up they can catch it early and take care of it more quickly. The treatments for cancers that are found early are less severe and also last less time as well. I have found it is so much easier to follow the doctor’s instructions. Think about it, chances are they have been dealing with this dreaded disease for years; they have so many studies at their finger tips with the internet. They even have associates that they can confer with. Who am I to question their wisdom, especially when it makes so much sense to me? I have not attended medical school but usually went to the internet to see some of the other doctor’s opinions and treatments for the same types of cancers that I have had. So, I went to these appointments for 9 months.
During the following 9 months, I developed a blood clot in one of my arms. It was in the left arm and being left handed made me act on it pretty quickly. I went to my family doctor immediately. I called the nurse and told her what I was experiencing so they let me just stop by really quickly so they could take just a quick peek at the arm. Sure enough, they were pretty sure that it was a blood clot so they sent me on to the hospital emergency room. Now, you ask, why would they send you to the emergency room and it’s pretty simple, I needed an ultrasound on the arm to see how big, bad and deep the clot was in the arm. When you have seen as many doctors and nurses and technicians as I have, you learn pretty quickly how to read peoples expressions and you can tell pretty fast if they find something. I knew after the ultra sound that it wasn’t good news. Did I mention that I am always the one that has really weird stuff? Well, I do, seems almost every stage of this process what I experience is in the 5% range. Turns out I had deep thrombosis of the arm. It’s supposed to be pretty rare. It’s usually something that happens in people’s legs and it can be very dangerous if the blood clot breaks free and travels to your heart, lungs or brain. There are those that would tell you that if mine had gone to my brain, it probably wouldn’t have caused any problems cause I am a little off in the head anyway. I was put on a regimen of blood thinners and put back on weekly visits to the doctor to make sure my blood didn’t get too thin.
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