The Colposcopy adventure is over and a piece of my cervix is off to some lab in Bethesda, MD. It will be two weeks before I hear anything (according to my Doc) so I am left to my own devices and sending "healthy vibes" to my sample. While Dr. Tabibi was doing her thing, she told me that everything looked okay to her but she wanted to send samples out just to cover all the bases. I would have prefer not giving a sample but I appreciate her thoroughness. We talked about if she had "ever" heard of Melanoma metastisizing to the Cervix and she said "No" so I am holding onto that nugget.
Later in the day, I saw Dr. Butler, my Oncologist, for my monthly checkup and unloaded all my stress right onto him.
"Blah Blah ... Colposcopy ... Blah Blah ... Night Sweats and Itching ... Blah Blah ... New Moles... Blah Blah ...Recurrence??"
Dr. Butler took the time to listen and ask questions and told me that he would test my blood a little more this week and make sure that there were no "odd" markers indicating problems. He looked at my new skin things and said "They look pretty benign to me so just keep your appointment with the Dermatologist in 2 weeks and have her look at them" and then reassured me that he had never heard of Melanoma metastisizing to the cervix.
He also was kind enough to tell me that all the anxiety of the last week was "perfectly normal" and he had been waiting for me to come to him and be "sick of it all" for a few months now. He commended me for being upbeat for as long as I have been.
All in all, Dr. Butler answered my questions and make me feel better. This allowed me to let go of some anxiety and really think about how I wanted to approach the next 20 weeks of treatment.
Last night while talking with Jim, I finally realized ::I have been coming to this for a while but last night it was "CLEAR TO ME":: that I am going to start treating my weekly shots the same way I treat my daily vitamins. It is just something I need to do 3x a week. Obviously I still need to be vigilant in doing weekly mole checks, but how is that any different than the monthly breast exams that we all should be doing as well?
No different.
For all intense purposes, I am CANCER-FREE with NO EVIDENCE OF DISEASE and have been since my second surgery on May 4th, 2005.
It is time to get back to Training, Working and Enjoying Life in General. I'm imagine my blogging will reflect more of my TRI training and racing adventures as well as the final countdown to this particular treatment year and I hope you will stick around as I transition, dear friends. It might bit a bit of a bumpy transition but I'm ready for it...
Living STRONG all the way.
9 comments:
I'm smiling. Life is just one great big transition, isn't it? Way to go to be so brave during this week. I'll keep you in my thoughts during the next two weeks. :)
I am not going anywhere...you couldn't get rid of me if you tried!!!
Rock on, sister!
You go, girl, you HEALTHY TRIATHLETE!!! :-)
AWESOME NEWS!!! Yep, time to enjoy life...you deserve it.
Wooohoo...healhty :)
This is great (the C-free part!)! Your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to GET ON WITH YOUR LIFE. That nasty *C* word should be AFRAID to come anywhere near you. You are vigilant, you are prepared, you are dealing with it and moving forward.
keep goin' holly! live strong!!
Live strong, Holly, my friend.
You inspire me with every breath you take, with every thought you share.
You're simply awesome.
Holly... you have more guts than the rest of the world all put together. Ever hear the country song "You're Somebody's Hero"?
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