Health Update

As some of you who read this blog knows, I have been having some new health issues these past few months. I haven't really mentioned them on here because I just hoped they would go away. Plus, let's face it, I seem to always have something to complain about and I didn't want this blog to be all about what is wrong with me today. Well, this problem is not going to go away without another trip to the hospital.

Long long story short - I started taking tamoxifen two years ago right after I finished chemo. I'll take it for three more years. It was prescribed for me since my cancer was 100% estrogen positive and tamoxifen blocks the effects of estrogen. So, I take it to decrease my chances of having cancer return. Now, like all cancer "treatments" that the medical industry recommends, there are all sorts of nasty side effects of taking tamoxifen - more than I want to list here. All of the literature says that the benefits of tamoxifen in treating breast cancer far outweigh the ricks of serious side effects. Two of those side effects though are endometrial cancer and/or ovarian cysts. Especially in women who were pre-menopausal when they were diagnosed with cancer.

Starting in August I started showing the symptoms of potentially having one or both of them. I got into a doctor pretty quickly. She right away did a biopsy that day and sent me for an ultrasound. The biopsy results came back inconclusive and the ultrasound showed something wrong with my ovary (I've only had one since the other was removed in my 20s) plus an enlarged uterus. She then signed me up for out patient surgery so she could go in and get a good cell sample for another biopsy and so she could take a look at the ovary and the uterus. This was a couple of weeks ago. She said that if I did not hear from her by the next Wednesday, the biopsy results came back OK.

I have a side not here - I have obviously not had good news from biopsies in the past. Would it have been so hard to give me a call either way just to let me know? It would have saved a whole bunch of us a lot of worry.

We met with her two weeks later and as soon as she walked into the room she told us that there was no sign of cancer! Great news! On the other hand, she said, my ovary is pretty much rotten and needs to come out pretty quickly. And since I then won't have any ovaries, there won't be any reason to keep the uterus. Plus if I don't have the uterus removed now I will continue to have the issues I am having, they will continue to get worse, and it will lead to more problems probably sooner rather than later. So, she says I need to have a hysterectomy to take it all out. (I asked her for any cons to have my uterus removed and she could not give me any other than not being able to have kids which I won't be able to have anyway. I will be doing some research to see if there are indeed no other cons.)

It means I may need up to six weeks off work to recover. I asked her when it needed to be done and she said she would want the ovary removed by the end of the year. I asked if we could hold off until mid-January because now is a super busy time at work and she agreed to that time frame if I have another ultrasound before then and now. As long as the ovary has not gotten worse, we can wait; if it has gotten worse, we do the surgery early December.

So, those are my exciting upcoming plans - an ultrasound the week before Thanksgiving and a hysterectomy in January.

I am so tired of surgeries and medical bills and missing work and worrying, that I am really bummed about the whole thing, but by golly the news could have been much worse. I truly believe I just need to get through this last dip and it will all be uphill from here. It has to be, right?!