Complicated: an addendum

Complikated is what I named this blog, because it’s life, and it’s me. It’s everything, really; nothing is ever simple, or what it seems.

Complicated now perfectly describes my mind’s relationship with my body. Am I strong or weak? Did I survive or surrender? Am I young or old? And does any of it matter?

It seems like this setback is about a miscarriage – although can I even call it that? I was three days attached to an idea, I’m not sure if that even qualifies. But that could just be me selling myself short, as I always do – my births don’t count because they were C-sections, my breast cancer doesn’t count because I only needed a lumpectomy and am now cancer-free. That latter is a topic for another blog, though, so let me return to the topic at hand. This is and isn’t about a lost pregnancy, or the idea of a lost pregnancy. That is what put me here, back inside a dark space, groping for answers that don’t seem to exist. I am grieving, yes, because as stupid as we knew it was, we were making plans. But that’s not the whole of it. Not nearly.

I am living inside a body I no longer feel connected to and that I do not understand. Before cancer, my period came reliably – every 26 days before birth control, every 28 days after. It was the same period every month, light, then heavier, then a day of nothing, then a final day. My skin always broke out the week before. I always thought I looked thinner when it was over. It only disappeared when I was pregnant and came back soon (too soon) after I was not. I knew the cramps. I knew the mood swings. I knew my body and what it was doing.

Then cancer. Why? Who can say. Too much milk as a kid. Years of birth control. Eighteen years of second hand smoke. Adverse Childhood Experiences.  A gene they have yet to identify. Dumb luck. But suddenly my body was a stranger. Some part of me had turned against itself and I didn’t know why or how. And to treat it, I had to abuse myself, first with surgery, then with poison, then with more poison. I had to make decisions based on data, not on what my body was telling me, because I could no longer trust my body. I COULD NO LONGER TRUST MY BODY. This body that has walked me through 39 years, two marriages, three pregnancies, two children, life, love, depression – it had been keeping secrets from me and I could no longer believe what it had to say. I could no longer assume fresh air and plenty of vegetables and walks in the woods were enough. I had to take up arms against my own body, and so I did.

I think I knew all the possible long-term effects. No, that’s not true, I didn’t. I didn’t know about tendinitis and IBS, two issues that now plague me post-chemo. I did know about the fertility issues, but I think I didn’t believe. So reliable, my period. Besides that ruptured tube, my fertility was a given. It was never could we have a third child; no, we were so naive, so oblivious to our privilege – it was would we, as in, did we want to. As though it would happen based upon our whims. As though we could control it. Even before chemo. Even after.

I feel myself growing long-winded and obscure now, so I will just stop meandering and get to the meat of the issue, which is that this is one more indication that my body still operates on a separate plane from my mind, that it is still unreliable and untrustworthy, a cage I now feel trapped in instead of a vehicle my spirit is at one with. Somehow my butterfly of a heart got it into its head that it was free, and in so doing, bashed itself against the walls of its cage until its wings were broken and the cage floor covered in dust. And so it is about the miscarriage, of course, but only because it brought my mind back down to earth, reminded it of who is in charge, that it should expect nothing joyous anymore from this deceptive shell.

I know this is dark, and I feel the need to apologize for that, but as I said, this has cast me back to a dark place. A slap across the face to bring me back to the reality of my situation, which is that I have survived, but only just, and that I cannot count on anything.

One Year Later – Cancerversary Post

September 11th was my one-year cancerversary. (pause for applause)

I don’t really know how I feel. And I don’t even know what I’ve covered before and I don’t feel like going back and looking so I’m just going to start fresh here. Some of the things I say might be repeats – just take it that I still feel the same, as opposed to me repeating myself.

Well, first, I had my first post-treatment mammogram yesterday. When I had my pre-treatment mammogram, it was nbd. I mean it wasn’t something I’d choose to do, it didn’t feel good, but it wasn’t awful.

Yesterday was awful.

I don’t know why and I haven’t yet googled it, but the mammo on my right breast (RB, or Ruby as she came to be known) was excruciating. It didn’t help that it had to be done at three different angles and then twice more with a magnifying lens. If you haven’t had a mammo, you probably only have a vague idea about what it entails. Essentially she took a shot of each breast with me sitting and facing the machine, one boob at a time smashed between a plastic tray and a metal tray, which are pressed together by a machine and then given a final hand crank. I then stood for all of the remaining shots, which also involved smashing. By the final shot, which was the very most painful, I started feeling nauseated. As soon as the shot was over I sat down and put my head between my legs so I didn’t pass out. Then I got all whiny and emotional and why me for a second and started to cry before I glanced at the People magazine I had been reading on the counter, which was open to a blurb about how the remains of an 11-year-old kid who’d been abducted at gun point 27 years ago had finally been found. And suddenly I realized breast cancer is honestly far from the worst thing that could happen to me.

Something I know I haven’t touched on before now is that my period came back that one time, but hasn’t returned since. The hot flashes came back with a vengeance and I definitely experienced some real sadness, verging on depression, as a result of the way my body has been affected. It’s hard because the symptoms I continue to experience aren’t from cancer, but from chemotherapy and/or radiation – I had no symptoms from cancer. So there are times when I think, maybe it would have been better if I hadn’t found it. Maybe I should have just let nature take its course and allowed the cancer to do what it was going to do. Of course that’s absurd, but sometimes the physical remnants of the treatment make me a little absurd.

I do wish they had prepared me better for what to expect after, but I suppose that would probably drastically reduce the number of people who would be willing to go through treatment, thus drastically reducing survivorship. My last chemo was March 30, so my 6-months out date will be September 30th – but if you’re really counting when that chemo was totally finished, probably more like mid-October. Six months is significant because the general consensus is that all chemo-related symptoms should resolve between six months and a year post chemo.

Symptoms I continue to struggle with include sore hips, knees, and back, stiffness after sitting, swollen, painful hands and trigger finger in the morning, hot flashes and loss of fertility, digestive issues (enough said), and of course the aforementioned tender right breast. I also have soreness and scar tissue buildup at my port incision site and also along where the catheter was so that when I stretch my head back it looks like the catheter is actually still in my neck.

All these things may sound trivial on their own, but when combined, they have presented a difficult hurdle for me. I was very strong and (I thought) healthy prior to my diagnosis and treatment, so to go from a mom who could do everything with her kids to a mom who struggles to go from sitting to standing has been a real blow. And funny enough, HAHA, I left loss of mental acuity and ability to plan and organize out in the paragraph above because I thought that was finally resolving, but AS I AM TYPING THIS my therapist just called because I was supposed to be at her office at 2 and it’s now quarter past – I completely forgot. So yeah, safe to say my brain is still being affected.

This has been an incredibly whiny post and for that I apologize. I guess the crux of what I am getting at is this: yeah, it’s over, but it’s not OVER. I have hair and eyelashes again, my mammogram was clear, I’m six months out of chemo, but I’m still affected every day, both physically and mentally. So I guess – just don’t expect rainbows and unending gratitude from breast cancer survivors. Getting the cancer out, getting through treatment, that’s a battle. But I’m still fighting the war, and I think in some ways I will be for the rest of my life. Just because cancer didn’t kill me (yet) doesn’t mean everything is back to normal. This is a longer road than I anticipated.

But I’m walking it, and I’m grateful to be doing so with so many people who love and support me.

AGHHH

60-second frustration vent.

My house is a mess because I was incapacitated half the time during chemo and the other half the time was trying to be a good Mom. (And to be honest, it wasn’t exactly especially tidy even before that, but at least I could get all the basics done.) Finally done chemo and have the time and energy to clean, but moving my right arm results in discomfort/pain/friction.* If I go without a bra, my shirt rubs on my right nipple and causes discomfort/pain. If I wear a bra – even a nice, comfortable sleep bra – it chafes at the radiation burns under my armpits and causes friction/pain. Meanwhile my port incision continues to weep.

AGGGHHHHH I AM SO DONE WITH CANCER AND TREATMENT. I WANT MY BODY AND MY LIFE BACK NOW.

*I am supposed to avoid friction at all costs because that is what causes skin breakdown and blisters, and once the blisters open I am subject to infection. And I am not sure the skin would close again until after radiation which is not for ANOTHER THREE WEEKS.