My Girl

I unexpectedly went to Dallas to visit Tess this past week. There was an urgent significance for my trip to Dallas. I called my doc to see if I could go, and I was told that as long as I didn’t carry over 10 pounds and wore compression socks, I could go. I ordered the best compression socks that I could find (I love you Amazon Prime!), put a change of underwear and socks in my purse and went to Dallas.

I left Tuesday morning and arrived in time for Tess to pick me up from the airport, then head off to work for the day while I snuggled with Tucker. 

Tess took Wednesday off and we spent the day together doing what we do best, dining on patios and hitting up the biggest Target we could find.

I came home late Wednesday night.

Tess and I had decided that we would each write our own blog post about those two days and then share each others post. We thought it might be interesting to have a Mother/Daughter perspective of what took place. After reading what she wrote, I decided to just share her blog with you. 

 

From Tess…..

“I’ve struggled with how to start this post. My mom asked my permission to share this experience on her blog based on all the information she’s been sharing about breast cancer awareness and knowing your body since her diagnosis. Of course I wanted her to share it, but I thought it would be best shared from her perspective and mine. 

This ended up being a long post, so here’s the really important things I think you should take away from it: 

1. Know your body. Do your self breast exams. Feel something, say something. 
2. Advocate for yourself. Ask for the extra test, a second opinion, whatever it takes to ensure you’re comfortable.
3. Let yourself feel whatever your feeling. 

After my mom was diagnosed in July and had her double mastectomy in August, I started being more diligent about (well and actually doing) self breast exams. In September I noticed something hard in my left breast, it was very small, in almost the same spot that my mom’s tumor was. Given how soon this finding was to my mom’s diagnosis and surgery, I was worried I was just being paranoid or that I was doing the self exam wrong. I scheduled an appointment with my OBGYN to talk about my concerns and a refresher on proper self exams. He checked things out and assured me everything felt normal. 

Fast forward a few months: I’ve continued self breast exams, I’ve noticed I can feel certain things standing that I can’t feel laying down and vis-a-versa. So I usually do them in the shower and laying down to ensure I can feel everything that may be going on in there. I noticed the small hard lump I found in September had changed, gotten a little bigger, and started to be painful when palpitated. It was something I could really only feel when standing and wasn’t able to feel as well or as obviously when laying down. 

At the end of March I came home for my mom’s third surgery, her hysterectomy and revisions to her breast reconstruction. We spent the day before her surgery relaxing and making sure things at home were ready for when she came home. Somehow we ended up on the topic of how her new boobs feel and what revisions Dr. Chandler would be making. I asked my mom to feel the lump I had found, I wanted to know what she thought. She said it felt really similar to her tumor and she wanted me to get it checked out with a breast ultrasound. 

We got her through her surgery and I came back to Dallas a week later. The first day I was back I called my OBGYN, told them my concerns and that I was scared. I really like my OBGYN and his nurse. If you’re in the DFW area and are looking for a new doctor, I highly recommend Dr. Gaitonde. He takes the time to get to know you, remember important details about your life, what’s important to you and doesn’t brush off your concerns. They got me in to see him the next day, Thursday. At the start of our appointment, he told me no matter my history, if a patient of his came in with these concerns, he’d order an ultrasound. After an exam, he felt the lump too, said it might be a cyst or normal breast tissue. I went immediately to get the ultrasound. 

Please click HERE to read the rest of our story.

“love the life you live, live the life you love”