Changed the title of my blog

As of May 22, 2011 I've changed my blog from Conquering Cancer to Diagnosed w/Breast Cancer at the age of 28. There are several reasons for this change. I find survivorship, especially in younger people, to be more challenging sometimes than the actual treatment. During actual treatment you're on the go on the go. It's post treatment where you have to access your "new normal" and every ailment needs to be taken seriously. Of course every ailment is now blamed on my chemo and Tamoxifen.

Here's a little update on my health. January MRI showed no evidence of disease which is fabulous. My tentative BRCA mutation is always in the back of my mind too. My last ultrasound back in October showed cysts but nothing of the ordinary. My tumor marker CA125 came back low too.

All these are wonderful news in the cancer world but I was still having pelvic pain on the right side and my knee still wasn't right since I started training for the Danskin last spring. I finally went to PT and they thought it was my IT band. After a few sessions and me testing it out by running on it but we still got swelling I was ordered an MRI. (Thankfully w/o contrast.) I saw my oncologist and complained about my pelvic pain. She ordered another pelvic ultrasound (the first one this year) and ordered an MRI of my right hip. She did say it, but I'm sure she thought it could have possibly be mets to the pelvic bone.

Two MRI's and an ultrasound later I was diagnosed, thankfully not cancer, but something possibly debilitating. I have grade 4 (just like cancer there isn't anything higher than 4) chondromalcia of the patella. It's the medial term for bad cartilage of the knee cap. Basically I have bone on bone. My right hip shows a probable tear of my labrum which means I have a torn cartilage in my hip. I also have some tear in my side muscles in the hip. My ovaries shows cysts but nothing out of the ordinary.


So...that's a lot of information. Grade 4 chondromalacia of the patella is bad news. No more running or high impact exercises for me. I went swimming this weekend and experienced some swelling. I think I need to do no cardio for a few weeks and then try out swimming and cycling again. It seems as if I can cycle but I'll need to modify and probably cycle less and shorter distances. Besides that and more PT, I have few options. Knee surgery is the last option. I can have cortisone shots but I rather wait on that too. I'm even more serious about losing those last 10 lbs that I gain from chemo/Tamoxifen. A knee brace may help too. So today I'm off the gym but to do upper body machine weights only. Yes, all this is crappy news for a 34.5 year old but I have to stick to my proactive mind frame as what I did for my cancer diagnosis. Same thing with my hip. PT is the best thing for it and hip replacement surgery in the future at the worse case scenario. Thankfully I spoke w/ a friend and she said her dad recovered well from it.

I do feel broken. There are many factors that may have contributed to this but I always think: did chemo/Tamoxifen make me more suseptible to all this? I'll never know but I know this is common in athletes. I'm not sure if I call myself and athlete but I am active. I'm sure my sprain knee when I gain all that weight after treatment didn't help or when I fell on it biking or my days of running or my ill fitted mountain bike. Women in general are more susesptible to it because of our wider hips. I never had a baby but I do have birthing hips. Anyway, I'm not going to go there. Hindsight is hindsight. I can only move forward and things can always be worse. Remember to treat your body like a temple!