A Diet to Die For! Breast Cancer in Canada.

Bloodletting 101.

I wish I had that answer … and certainly wish at times that a vampire would sweep me off my feet. I have so much blood taken out of me so often that living eternally might be poetic justice to cancer … if that makes any sense.

More blood … more doctor visits … and more of the life of living with cancer.

It’s impossible to move forward with my life because I’m reminded constantly that I’m living in pergatory — being stuck on an earthly plane as a prisoner in my own body. Every time I think I’m getting better and can get out and do things, another test reveals just how vulnerable I actually am.

What really hurts my heart is that my friends don’t seem to really care any longer … within a few weeks after surgery, everyone stopped calling to see how I’m doing … I guess they presume that as long as I’m alive, I’m okay.

The last few blood tests (in a matter of weeks) shows I have very high levels of Uric Acid, but I don’t have gout, and a slightly elevated level of Creatnine. Both these results were perfectly normal just a few months ago.

I’m sure my body is protesting its aging process! Yes, I refer to my body in the third person because I’m along for the ride and can’t get off the ride — it’s a very odd feeling to be disconnected from my own body. My body has no other excuse to be taunting me with such ailments — I couldn’t live a more clean lifestyle — almost saintly I am.

Okay so I curse a lot and have a potty mouth … so not so saintly … perfect for a vampire to come sweep me away.

Even though I don’t have a lot of faith in traditional mammography, I will continue to have annual mammograms and go for annual check-ups with my family doctor … and check-ups with my oncologist, too.

I had my annual mammogram for the uni-boob yesterday, together with more blood work … and I still have a lot more blood work to do within the next week or so.

After I shared my story about my so-called normal mammogram a year ago, and a few weeks later I was in a lot of pain, the technican shared her story …

She told me about her mother’s ovarian cancer 7 years ago. She shared with me that her mother did as I do and gets annual physicals and did all “the right things”.

Her mother had her physical, including a pap smear, in February of that year 7 years ago and everything appeared to be normal. A few months later in June, she keeled over in pain while cooking a meal for her family.

Six weeks later, her mother was dead. A tumour had grown so large that chemotherapy could not reduce its size nor save her life.

The technician said in 10 years, I’m the 2nd woman she knows that a mammogram didn’t see the cancer growing inside me. She said she does 21 mammograms a day … over 100 in a week … over 5,000 mammograms a year. That’s over 50,000 mammograms she’s done.

I’ll stop buying lottery tickets now since my odds are really horrible.

I was telling her about my blog and that I want to share as much information with other women as I can who may not be aware of women like me … and perhaps save a life or 2 … or at least get women to ask a lot of questions during annual examinations.

I told her about the digital mammography that’s available and seems to be only available in the USA. She said they are getting their first machine next week! She said there will be lots of false positives because it’s new technology. The images will be so clear that technicians and doctors won’t know what they’re looking at because they haven’t seen such clear images before.

I’ll take a false positive and have multiple mammograms any day over cancer! My life is not inconvenient.

Thankfully digi-tits comes to the Toronto area!