Scanxiety

I had another relief moment today.

I have had shoulder pain since February this year, I've seen a physio who has massaged it and given me exercises all to no relief.  I saw my oncologist and asked her about it, because I found some random case in Singapore of a lady who had the exact breast effected by cancer and the other shoulder developing metastic cancer cells.  To which my Oncologist laughed and said she had never heard of this before and suggested I have an ultrasound to check things out.

I went to have an ultrasound last week, and when I phoned through for the results, the nurse told me that my doctor wanted to see me, but it wasn't urgent.  Now considering where my head has been lately, this was the last thing I needed to hear.  As it was, the sonographer was measuring a suspiciously round blob on my shoulder and then they sent me off to x-ray as well.  My mind has been racing ever since.

Today, I was so relieved to be told by my doctor that it is just calcification that needs a cortisone injection to reduce it so then it can heal. I've never heard of it before so Dr Googled it of course and this is what it came up with. Degenerative or Reactive Calcific Tendonitis........

So a needle will be injected into the site with local anaesthetic first followed by the cortisone injection.

My decision is whether to do it before surgery next Friday or after it, somewhere in between getting a curette for my polyps. I may as well get all this done this year so only pay my excess once. I might save it up for after surgery as I will need to lie on my sides and squashing my shoulder may not be the best thing for it while it is trying to heal itself after the cortisone does its job.

My doc couldn't tell me why it has occurred - maybe from my bat-out-of-hell swimming, with no warm-up before it. Finally, with swimming, I started to get rid of the handbag feeling under my arms after the surgery and possibly fluid build-up or whatever that feeling was. No one seemed to know - not my plastic surgeon, not my breast surgeon, not my GP.

There is a lot to this process that you have to find out for yourself otherwise you'll be left wondering. It has been helpful being part of 'reclaim your curves' Facebook group as there is lots of discussion about the different aspects of the surgery and beyond. But there is also a lot of sadness in that group with many women with metastic cancer or where they had 'early breast cancer' only for it to spread to Stage IV (metastic) where there is no cure only treatment to control it for a period of time.

Anyway, happy news for me today even though I have to have a procedure to deal with it.  Only 1 week and 1 day left of work. My GP did say that I needed to find a balance as too much time on my hands might also be detrimental to my mental health.