HPI - History of Present Illness

Tom started a new job in early December.  I spent most of December with the typical cough, cold, sinus crud, trying not to go to the doctor since we had insurance, but no insurance cards.  Gee, a headache & hassle.  New Year's Eve, my arm pit was tender.  Hmm, a lymph node swelling now from the sinus crud?  I put my head in the sand, bought a little time & went to my mom & sisters.  Five cousins together for two whole nights... priceless!  I think my mom is still recovering. 

We came home, I worked the weekend, and noticed on Monday that my ring & middle fingers sensation was off, like I had been out in the cold, but my hand wasn't cool to touch.  Tuesday was not any better, so I knew I couldn't wait around for insurance cards anymore.  I called on Wednesday morning and had an appt for 830, a mammogram & ultrasound done by 1130.  That, Folks, is why I like community medicine.  The mammogram showed a second spot as well to be dealt with.

Now it's Monday, January 14.  My mom had her first mastectomy this week (it was my brother's birthday) in 1986.  We watched the Challenger explode over and over again after school when she was recovering, laying in my parents bed with the TV and cable, tears streaming.  Her second was Easter week 1992, my Senior year.

Saw the surgeon today.  He tried to aspirate the big bothersome one, with no fluid return.  Not what we expected.  It's big, it's superficial, ya can't miss it!  And he didn't, trust me.  Its tender and bruised now.  18 gauge, inserted twice.  I could have used a bullet.  So we roll into an ultrasound guided needle biopsy on Wednesday for the one I can feel and the one I can't.  Ask me Thursday if I am going to work.  He said I could.  It's not even conscious sedation, so I can drive home.  No, thanks, I think I will take Tom.  And maybe that bullet to bite that I didn't have today.

What I know about the little one is that it looks like a cyst, but has irregular borders, ~ 1 cm.  Pea sized.  Who likes peas, anyway?

What I know about the big one is that it is 5 cm, moveable, hard, not fluid filled.

Nobody except me has jumped off the cancer bridge, and I don't go far into that dark corner.  The boys know nothing until there is something to know.  I love school & working part-time!  Tom took the lunch (several) hour to go to the doc with me today, and fixed the always comforting grilled cheese (with an apple and water, Leslie!).  I have lost 17 lbs, been kinda stuck there, and have to weigh in tonight.  I refuse to let this derail WW this time around. 

And that is the HPI.