This was taken a few weeks ago at a Kool and the Gang Concert. We had so much fun and I was fortunately able to ignore the pain for this night with the help of some ibuprofen.Well actually a kind of big scare. A few weeks ago I started to have some occasional left chest pain, right around my heart. I have had post surgical pain from the chest tumor removal (sternotomy, the one smack dab in the middle of my chest) in 2009 but it has always been concentrated to the right side of my chest. Imagine my panic when I started to feel pain else where. I tried to ignore it, sure that I had pushed to hard in my bikram yoga class. After all we do some crazy things in there and I was sure that I had just gone to far. Fast forward two week and the pain in increasing and now radiating to my neck, jaw and arm. Sounds kind of scary right, kind of like a heart attack scary. By this point I was so anxious that I was sure I was making what I was feeling even worse. I have had my heart monitored since the last round of chemo in 2010 because I received a chemo call adriamycin that can be very toxic to the heart. All of my tests have been good since then and some have even improved, so I really didn't think it was my heart but at this point I knew I had to get checked out. One family practice doctor, a cardiologist, chest x ray and an echo cardiogram later I am cleared on my heart. I am soooo relieved but also a little nervous about what may be causing the pain. I find that as being someone who has dealt with cancer, recurrence is always in the back of my mind. I'm constantly hoping for the best. My chest x-ray was clear so that makes me feel a lot better. I will have CT scans in Houston in a few weeks. I always get a little restless around this time but I just try to stay focused on what I need to do and look at all of the blessings I have in my life. My hubby will be going with me this time. No matter how crazy and nervous I get he can always calm me down and make me laugh. I am a lucky girl and so thankful for him.
