Archive for September 29th, 2010

A few months back, I sat in my breast surgeon’s waiting room and overhead a woman say, “They should have taken my entire left arm when they took the breast”. 

I knew I had to be careful with my left side because of the lymph node “patch” that was removed as part of the mastectomy.  As my body adjusts to not having the usual “full system” in place, I’m more prone to infections, swelling and other complications.  But, I’ve been feeling great and have really spared my left arm, lifting everything with the right and in general, nearly hiding the arm from harms way.

Well, this past week I had a scare.  I awoke at 5am to head home from a business trip and there was a brusied “bubble” on the inside of my left palm.  Something I’ve never seen before, super tender to the touch.  I had slightly extreme pangs of worry wondering what it was.  I had not had an injury to that hand and in fact know I baby it completely. 

Could this be a sign of a blockage, an early indicator of something else? …do I get on the flight? 

I’m not one easily paniced, so I kept calm, but on airport arrival, quickly logged on to search vigorously through photos of such bruises.  Nothing.  That actually made me feel good, but I thought, let me be safe.  I snapped a photo of it on my phone and sent it to my breast surgeon, life long friend paramedic and to my husband to forward along to a very valued general practitioner for his input.  This way, by the time I landed in NYC, I’d have some input and it was delightful to have received it on arrival –thank you phone a medical friends, you know how much I value you always being out there for me!

As for what it was and to make a long story short, it was a spontaneous blood vessel that had burst.  No health issue, BUT it had great purpose.  A strong purpose to make me completely aware of what I might need to act on fast, and that I can no longer just wait for things to go away. 

So, good thing I adore my medical professional team and medical friends, and pleased to feel it’s reciprocal.  I’d say let’s keep in touch, but there might be reasons to stop by periodically to say hello, and can you look at this?