Howdy all.
Having a pretty crappy week on the one hand, but on the other hand I'm glad to be alive and kicking although I am struggling to keep it together.
I'm at my one year mark and within the last few months I'd say that about 85% of the feeling has returned to the orchiectomy incision site.
What is weird, though, is that I feel a tightness and some pressure there. I had radiation, and it is my understanding that it is virtually unheard of for cancer to return in the radiated field (and this scar is within that field, or pretty much right on the border of it. in fact, i remember they were concerned it was too close to the border of the treatment area and they "threw some extra radiation" where the border met the scar. I am not making this up).
So, I am wondering 1) is some pressure or some tightness normal? 2) Could I just be feeling more there because feeling, in general, is returning and after all I was cut open there? 3) Would it be normal for the scar area and several "layers" underneath to feel as though there are lumps and bumps?
They do seem to conform more or less to the shape of the scar.
I know that my current facial paralysis is not related to the cancer, but I sometimes wonder if perhaps I could be trying to live healthier? I mean, are all of these things warning signs or something? Should I be eating nothing but tofu and honey, drinking nothing but green tea with spirulina and sleeping on a biomagnetic futon? I always thought I was reasonably healthy, but now I don't know anymore.
Sorry for the unusually down post. I just found out that my next door neighbor (whose diagnosis of nasopharynx cancer led me to do a self exam on myself and possibly spared me much greater grief) has suffered a recurrence. She has it in several locations now -- under the arm and in the chest, and is undergoing chemo (taxol, i believe). Made me feel pretty s--ty for being concerned about something like my face this week (and I was relieved to learn that it was not a stroke or tumor, but bell's palsy), but on some level I still worry that perhaps all of these things are related to my overall health.
Bah.
Having a pretty crappy week on the one hand, but on the other hand I'm glad to be alive and kicking although I am struggling to keep it together.
I'm at my one year mark and within the last few months I'd say that about 85% of the feeling has returned to the orchiectomy incision site.
What is weird, though, is that I feel a tightness and some pressure there. I had radiation, and it is my understanding that it is virtually unheard of for cancer to return in the radiated field (and this scar is within that field, or pretty much right on the border of it. in fact, i remember they were concerned it was too close to the border of the treatment area and they "threw some extra radiation" where the border met the scar. I am not making this up).
So, I am wondering 1) is some pressure or some tightness normal? 2) Could I just be feeling more there because feeling, in general, is returning and after all I was cut open there? 3) Would it be normal for the scar area and several "layers" underneath to feel as though there are lumps and bumps?
They do seem to conform more or less to the shape of the scar.
I know that my current facial paralysis is not related to the cancer, but I sometimes wonder if perhaps I could be trying to live healthier? I mean, are all of these things warning signs or something? Should I be eating nothing but tofu and honey, drinking nothing but green tea with spirulina and sleeping on a biomagnetic futon? I always thought I was reasonably healthy, but now I don't know anymore.
Sorry for the unusually down post. I just found out that my next door neighbor (whose diagnosis of nasopharynx cancer led me to do a self exam on myself and possibly spared me much greater grief) has suffered a recurrence. She has it in several locations now -- under the arm and in the chest, and is undergoing chemo (taxol, i believe). Made me feel pretty s--ty for being concerned about something like my face this week (and I was relieved to learn that it was not a stroke or tumor, but bell's palsy), but on some level I still worry that perhaps all of these things are related to my overall health.
Bah.
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