While I sat through a meeting yesterday, I thought I could feel cancerous tumors growing in my neck.
It was a weird sensation, and when I told my brother about it last night, he looked at me incredulously. He hasn't had cancer, so he cannot imagine what my mind is doing to me, even though I am now cancer-free.
This goes along with a dream I had the other night: In it, my doctor told me the cancer had returned but he had some good pills that would make it go away quickly.
When I awoke, I was momentarily concerned this dream could be a premonition. But this is the way the mind of a cancer survivor works. Everyone I talked to who went through this before me said it would happen. It will take time for me to trust my body, to trust myself.
It is a rather freaky way to go through life right now, but there is a positive side to this: I am now more acutely aware of my body. I regularly feel my neck for bulges, especially the area where I had a nine-centimeter growth back in November. I check the lymph nodes under my arms, where I had a six-centimeter growth.
If there is a sudden change - something more concrete than my dreams or imagination - I will not hesitate to call my doctor and hope he has those magic pills.
Similar stories:
Kraft and Mara enjoy the fruits of their NFL labor
Kraft and Mara enjoy the fruits of their NFL labor
No one would have guessed while the NFL labor war raged last spring that the three of them would be so happy to see each other again.
Faces of Cancer: Salon owner helps others battle cancer
Faces of Cancer: Salon owner helps others battle cancer
Before becoming friends with someone who had cancer, Franki Anderson didn't even realize the Tri-Cities had a cancer center. Today, she is one of its biggest supporters.
Anderson, owner of Franki & Co. hair salon in Kennewick, began cutting Terry Bailey's hair in 1999.
The longtime Tri-City radio executive was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which had metastasized. He also was on the board of the Tri-Cities Cancer Center and encouraged her to help raise money for the cause. So she launched Cutting for Cancer, a "cut-a-thon" event at her salon. It raised $5,000.
Faces of Cancer: Fighting for your life
Faces of Cancer: Fighting for your life
WEST RICHLAND — There is no more "normal" after a cancer diagnosis.
There is life before cancer and life with cancer, but there is no life after cancer -- even with successful treatment.
Cancer is always a presence.
Faces of Cancer: Pasco woman an advocate for early detection
Faces of Cancer: Pasco woman an advocate for early detection
If not for elective surgery, Wendy Slattery of Pasco might not have caught her cancer until it was too late.
In August 2006, Slattery was going to go through weight-loss surgery. As part of the preparation, she was required to have an up-to-date Pap smear and a mammogram -- both of which she had put off for years.
During the mammogram, doctors found breast cancer.
Pasco man meets Scottish woman who saved his life
Pasco man meets Scottish woman who saved his life
SEATTLE -- Ryan Kilbury is not usually given to tears.
But this week in a Seattle hospital cafeteria, the Pasco man had to stop mid-sentence to keep from crying in public.
He swallowed the emotion clogging his throat. "I can't talk about this while I'm looking at you," he said to a woman next to him.
Print
Email Story
