CT Scan March 26, 2025

Welp. For over two weeks I had some stomach pain and was constantly using the bathroom...you know what I mean without saying the actual word "diarrhea". I finally went to my primary care doctor, who I LOVE, Capital Family Medicine at Wakefield and Jennifer Gamache, PA. She did an exam of my tummy and whoa...that was some kind of painful, but I just figured I was swollen and sore from using the bathroom so much, so the pain was not unexpected. So, she ordered a CT with Contrast for my abdominal area.

WITH CONTRAST! Ugh... I knew from experience that meant an IV and so I was gearing up by drinking a lot water and keeping my one arm warm. I can't have IV or a blood pressure cup or blood draws on my right arm because my breast cancer 14 years and 345 days ago was in my sentinel lymph node and they removed all 11 of my lymph nodes on my right arm. On the "good arm", the left arm....I had my 4 rounds of chemo in my arm way back then in 2010 and my veins are a little shot and very small...every medical professional has trouble with getting blood and a IV usually takes an ultrasound machine to find my vein. I wish I had asked for port to be implanted in my chest, but I didn't know all the things to be thinking about then. Don't get me wrong. My oncologist, breast cancer navigator and radiologist were some of the best in the area and probably the country. Because of our teaching hospitals at UNC and Duke, we are pretty lucky around here to have amazing medical care in general. They did it the right way....4 rounds of chemo is usually just in the arm, not a port.

So anyway, I arrive to do my CT Scan on March 24, ironically it was my son's 34th birthday. The waiting room was packed, more than normal. I knew it was unusually busy because I've been here before and know the drill. An hour later, I'm still sitting and a young, really pissed off lady jumps up and starts yelling "get my mother back there now you fuckers!!!" She was loud, mad and a little scary - she kept going and going in massive raging cussing loudness - her mother left out of embarrassment. I locked eyes with the receptionist, and mouthed "you gonna call security?". Finally the patient mother came back in and they called her back. She was just doing a chest Xray so it was fast and they were gone. Thank God. Just a note on advocacy for your loved ones....YES, every patient needs someone(s) to be their advocate to make sure the healthcare system works the way it should, but you don't have to be a scary jerk about it.

About 20 mins later they call me back and then want me to drink the contrast liquid drink for an hour and then they might get me back to the scanner in 2 hours. The radiology tech told me their other location nearby had their CT Scan go break down and sent all their patients there and they were way behind. I said, "hey....I can come back and that will help you get caught up". Plus, I just didn't want to be there that long. I wanted to go home....I had so much work to do.

So, I didn't' have my CT Scan on my son's birthday.

I went back two days later - March 26th - Wednesday. I was hydrated again and got the warm compresses on my good arm so my tiny veins would pop out. I had the A-Team IV guy and he got it in with only 2 sticks. Woo hoo! Scan complete at 1:30pm!

I have a Facebook group that I started in my area 15 months ago and there are 1400 women in this group. It is amazing. Fierce in the Forest is a women's social and community service group and we have events and clubs that a lot of women enjoy and need! I have a Podcast club and 13 women were at my house on March 26th 7-9pm. We were having a lively, thoughtful discussion on the podcast on Joe Rogan with Gary Brecka, a human biologist.

My dog Henry, a sweet little narcissistic dog that I love so much, grabbed a napkin off the floor and took off for my bedroom with it. I run after him, "Henry, give me that napkin now"....I try to grab it from him and he bites the crap out me! Nope....he's NEVER done that. I'm bleeding...my friends call for Chuck to come downstairs (he's working upstairs, hiding from all women downstairs haha!) I doused my wound with alcohol, bandage it up, sit back down to join back in the discussion and MyChart sent me an alert and I looked....the CT Scan results were in.

"New lytic/destructive focus in the right iliac bone since June 13, 2019. This is nonspecific, but concerning for osseous metastatic disease given the history of breast cancer. No additional osseous lesions are identified. Consider further interrogation with biopsy, PET/CT or body bone scan."

I immediately went upstairs to Chuck and we read the full report together. We were trying to understand and googling "lytic/destructive focus and iliac bone".

It was at that point that we knew, I was probably in trouble and it was at that moment, that Chuck and I became ONE.