All posts filed under: one

Melanoma and Beyond

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It has been a year since my melanoma diagnosis. My next body check is not until March. I just put away my melanoma black bracelet. It has been seven years since treatment for a rare papillary serous uterine cancer caused by an aromatase inhibitor that treated my breast cancer. It has been eleven years since my stage three thyroid cancer and breast cancer diagnosis. Milestones. I have also had several basal cell cancers. All these cancers were onetime events. I thought my number was up with the melanoma. But I have come to the conclusion that my body doesn’t screen out new cancers very well. But then, I have had no repeats. No metastasis. It is better at preventing recurrences. I am grateful for that. The treatments were brutal for each cancer. I always felt cured when I was done. I realize that it only takes one cell to start the whole thing going again. I have learned to live with that. A new cancer can be just around the corner. At the same time …

Melanoma and bracelets

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There is a company called Choose Hope. It has color coded cancer. I have wristbands for each of my cancers. They were eventually put away after I put my  uterine cancer to bed five years ago. I have gotten them out with my newest cancer- melanoma. I have added a black wristband for the melanoma. I have also added a pink camouflage hat with the black melanoma ribbon. It is a process for me. Adapting to another cancer diagnosis.   My first thought was that this melanoma is going to kill me. Is my time up? After all this is cancer number five. Time passes. I dealt with the surgery. Tests. Wound care. Bought my hat and my wristbands. In a few weeks I will have a full body scan and my concern will be settled for the time being. I will be grateful for a negative report but if it is positive, I will manage the next step. It is not about fighting cancer. It is about making choices and being grateful for any …

When you have had enough treatment

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I have had three entirely different cancers and three different  radiation treatments all within four and a half years. I had to count that twice on my fingers to actually believe it. My first set of radiation treatments was for breast cancer. It was this set of treatments that came back to haunt me this winter. But that is not my focus now. My treatments were at Kaseman’s MD Anderson. I went every day for three weeks at double dose instead of the usual six weeks. I had been  reassured that the results were the same. I had to drive across town. It was like a field trip. I knew that once I got there, I could have a good cup of coffee. They had a Keurig coffee machine. It was a carrot for me, and it worked. I would sign in. Change into a gown. Lock up my wallet. Then I would sit with other patients to wait my turn. This is the part that sticks with me. It was in this room that …

Complications from Breast cancer treatment continues

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I am recovering. Surgery was done  on 13 December. It was a surgery to debride an abscess caused by necrotic breast tissue due to radiation. As I said before, it was day surgery at Presbyterian Rust Hospital in Rio Rancho. I have had several surgeries there and always feel safe and well cared for. There was not much in the way of post op pain, so the start of my recovery was good. The scary part, especially with breast surgery, is when you take off the bandage for the first time to see what you have left. It is not like it is  in the movies where you are seen lying in your hospital bed and the doctor gently removes your bandages. He looks at your wound in a reassuring manner and you feel that you will be okay. You are home. Alone. In your bathroom. You have a blue binder holding you in. You also have the addition of a drain that must be managed. The drain is called a Jackson Pratt. It is …

Cancer and more surgery

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My surgery will be coming up soon. When I learned I would need it, I felt depressed. I had been going to the wound clinic once a week and I was irrigating and packing the wound twice a day for several weeks now. I thought these measures were working. They weren’t. I remember the doctor saying if I needed surgery that there would be little left. Another dip into depression. So, I continue the care and await the upcoming surgery. I had breast cancer in October 2013. I had surgery and then a series of radiation treatments in 2014. The radiated tissue has become necrotic. A common occurrence that I didn’t know about. The dead tissue needs to be removed. This surgery is considered a ‘day surgery’. I will go home the same day of the surgery. My son becomes the nurse. The cost of a nurse or nurses is eliminated when patients are sent home the same day of surgery. It is a big improvement on their profit. I am fine. My body is …

Radiation of the breast can cause the tissue to become necrotic.

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Radiation of the breast can cause the tissue to become necrotic. I learned this a couple of weeks ago when I developed a foul smelling lesion on my right breast six years after radiation for breast cancer. The breast cancer surgeon knew instantly what it was. I had dead, rotting tissue in my right breast. The formation of necrotic tissue following radiation is a common occurrence. I was sent to a wound clinic. A wound clinic manages wounds that are hard to heal. These nurses are the experts. They know everything there is to know about the care and healing of difficult wounds. My wound is about an inch in diameter and it is quite deep. Initially, it was foul smelling. It still is but not as bad. I was given the equipment to treat my own wound.  I irrigate the cavity with a blunt needled syringe loaded with  Dakin’s solution, an antiseptic liquid. Then I insert gauze dampened with the solution and laced with Santyl and cover the wound with a dressing. The Santyl …

Breast cancer complications

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I have survived three cancers, rheumatoid arthritis and a hip replacement.  I expected that I would eventually have another cancer. The disease seemed to be written in my stars. However, I wasn’t expecting another complication from my breast cancer treatment. My first complication was a rare uterine cancer called uterine papillary serous cancer. It is a side effect of being on tamoxifen.  This cancer is aggressive and behaves similarly to ovarian cancer in that it is aggressive and can be deadly. It is never caught early. I was fortunate because it was picked up by my rheumatologist on a lower back MRI. So, I spent the entire 2018 with a biopsy, then major robotic surgery, followed by a summer of chemo, finished off with vaginal radiation for the holidays. My complication was a breast abscess formed in necrotic fat tissue as a result of radiation for breast cancer. Any surgery or radiation will cause scarring in the healthy tissue. I had a hard lump in my breast after surgery and radiation. I understood it to …

Mary Mann Cancer Journal

Fireplace, quail block and cancer

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November 8, 2019 Cancer Journal A grey fog has settled over the city. I can’t see the mountains. I can only see the neighborhood. The temperature is supposed to hit the sixties here in Albuquerque, but I doubt it. We need the sun to warm us up. Winter seems to have hit us suddenly. We turned from green to dull winter brown almost overnight. The quail block outside my bedroom window has been very busy. Lots of birds. Fat quail families making their regular visits. The squirrels have left the old tomato plant and are happily munching the quail block with the birds. I haven’t seen the chipmunks lately. Life in the backyard. I enjoy winter here in Albuquerque. I enjoy my fireplace. Yesterday I had my afternoon coffee in a comfortable chair by the fire. I read another chapter or two from my current library book on my kindle. I am reading Ken Follett’s Pillars of the Earth. It is a seven hundred page book. The story draws you in and you feel the …