[2023-04-28] Health news
As I've gotten beyond the intensive and extensive treatments I needed for ovarian cancer and perianal skin cancer, the number of interactions I have with the medical system has dropped to 2 or 3 per month from a minimum of 2 or 3 per week. I'm not complaining, as I now have more time for other pursuits.
The past two weeks, however, were especially busy. I had my annual physical with my family doctor, blood work twice (once for my ovarian cancer follow-up and once for all the other stuff that my monthly test doesn't cover), a breast ultrasound, and a vaccine for pneumonia.
This morning, when I got my pneumonia vaccine (Prevnar 20), the nurse who administered it commended me for doing what I can to reduce the chance of developing disease. After two bouts with cancer, I'm more committed than ever to staying on top of my health, and getting ahead of possible illness. That includes healthy living, regular checkups, vaccines and diagnostic tests.
One of the most recent diagnostic tests I underwent was a breast ultrasound, which I had yesterday afternoon. As I've done on other occasions, I chose not to talk about it in my blog until I got the results. There was a little part of me that thought, "What if?" What if the mammogram and breast MRI I had in March missed something that the breast ultrasound found in April? What if my talking about my test (before the results were known) led my loved ones to worry needlessly?
This afternoon, I received a call from my doctor's office. The nurse stated that Dr. Daverne had received the results of my ultrasound and had asked her to call me to share the outcome. Before I had a chance to climb the what-if tree, the nurse told me the results: negative, normal, everything is OK. I thanked her for calling and for reaching out so quickly. It's not every day that we hear back when a test result shows no reason for concern. In fact, we often have to tell ourselves, "I guess no news is good news." However, given my high risk of breast cancer, I suspect that Dr. Daverne wanted to give me the gift of peace of mind, which this call did.
Even yesterday's test result—a 9 on my CA125 after more than two years at 7 or 8—provides some peace of mind, as the number could have been even higher. So while going for tests and appointments and checkups is time-consuming and often the least fun thing I do in a day, it is right for me. I would rather know what's going on in my body than not: a good result provides peace of mind, and a bad result provides information, which enables me to take action.
