From this time on, I will not be writing about travels but about a different type of journey. On Wednesday of this week I received the call that anyone dreads in that I was told I have a tumor in the muscles in my thigh. This has been an interesting last few weeks and I have decided that I need to journal it for a number of reasons. If anyone is interested in how things are going in this process they can always check here. But since not a lot of people read this blog, this will be my outlet to vent, virtually scream, rant, joke, or whatever emotion needs to be released on the day of writing. I warn you, I tend to take this all with a sense of humor. Please don’t think I am flippant about it, but it can be the way I cope. David and I both like to think of this quote from Mr. Mom as we process this all: “Keep your sense of humor, it’s critical”!
Let’s Start at the Beginning
In June, I decided I would try playing bocce ball at Carefree. They have an organized play at 2pm on every Friday. I have seen it a number of times, but always seemed to have a schedule conflict. Even though it was one of those warm summer days we had this last year, and there is very little shade on the field I thought it was a good day to try it.
The play went well and my old bowling routine seemed to work well with this competition. And yes, it was quite warm out there and all the players were seeking shade wherever they could. The play went well and I did not have any aches or pains….and really, how could you have aches and/or pains in playing bocce ball!
That night I was laying in bed reading and noticed that my left thigh had a huge lump on it. I had David look at it and he agreed something was off. Called the nurse line and after discussion with them, took at trip to the Monticello hospital. Hindsight now, maybe the longer drive to Methodist would have been a better option. 🙂 I could barely walk on that leg and David had to help me. After almost a 2 hour wait we saw the doctor…he was the only one on duty in the ER! He measured it and took pictures of it and decided to do an xray to make sure there was no blood clot. I think he also did some blood work to make sure nothing was off there. Everything came back fine and he said if it continued I might want to see my regular doctor.
The next morning, the swelling had gone done to where it was just a little small hill rather than a mountain as it had been the night before. There seemed to be just minor pain and that Saturday was the Board meeting where David and I run the Zoom call. Again I got around fine, really no pain, no black and blue, just a very small lump so I kind of let it go and forgot about it. ….that is until August 31 when I had my yearly check up with my oncologist, Dr. Cathleen Chen.
Dandy Ventures 