Monday, March 2, 2015

One of my chest lumps is smaller!

Over the last few days, I noticed that the bigger of my chest lumps has gotten smaller!

Background: lump #1 started growing to the left of my sternum right below where my clavicle and sternum meet at the end of November 2014.  At first, it was pain-free but sometimes tender.  It felt rubbery but got more solid over time.  In mid-December, I started getting chest pains/aches like I had slept wrong in bed.  The lump grew to the point where it fit in the palm of my cupped hand if I put my hand on my chest.  The tumor is my chest cavity had grown to my chest wall and was causing the lump.  Early January, another smaller lump appeared further up on my clavicle.  You could feel that one above and below my clavicle.  We'll call this one lump #2.  Lump #2 has not changed in terms of size.

Well, late last week, I did the hand-cuppy thing on my chest and noticed that lump #1 doesn't quite fill out my hand as much!  And it's seemed to shrink since then.  It's been 14 days since my first chemo session and this is sign #2 that it's working!!  Sign #1 was the absence of chest pain a mere 1 day after chemo session #1.

This is exciting :)

6 comments:

  1. Yay! This is so good to read! It's amazing how fast tumors can grow and shrink. Do you take no pain medicine now or just less?

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    1. I'm still on oxycontin 2x a day. I asked my nurse practitioner about getting off that, but she recommended against it for now. So the pain (if there is any) is still being managed.

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  2. Fergie might disagree briefly on the size but I'm glad your lump is shrinking! :)

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    1. haha! I'm okay with this not-so-lovely lady lump going away

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  3. Keep up the faith Karen!!!!
    Marcus

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