TMI - Breast Pain

While we are on a roll let's continue TMI Saturday.

It is no big secret Blaine breastfed 3 years and 3 months.  NO PROBLEMS OR PAIN IN THREE YEARS, THREE MONTHS.

Yes, I am lucky / blessed / a superhero.

Enter December.  My left breast starts hurting super randomly.  Not with my period.  On and off, just like a soreness.  About 4 days a week on average.  I'm looking in the mirror a lot looking for changes, doing self exams a lot, have the little gel exam pack thing and have Nick try to do an exam.  I am convinced I felt something, Nick was not.   I went for a physical and asked for them to also do a breast exam in January and they didn't really feel anything.  They said to get a mammogram when I'm 35.  Um thanks.  I'm 31.    I google lots and find that pain hardly ever means cancer.

BUT I WANT TO KNOW WHAT IT IS.

Pain continues.  I go to a different doctor in March.  I tell him I'm having pain and tell him it is in my left breast.  I don't show him where.  He feels it and says, "Is this where?"  YES!  He found it without me even showing him.

A "thickening".

That is the word that makes my heart stop.  My mom's cancer was first felt by her doctor as a thickening. It didn't even show up on a mammogram or ultrasound.    They found it with a biopsy.  It eluded the previous screenings because the tumor was "creepy crawly" and had "fingers".

Doctor says what I have he thinkings is "something perfectly normal".  I hope he's right.

More googling.  Yes pain can be normal, but is usually cyclic.  This is not.  Gah.

So I had my first ever 3D mammogram at 31.  Then on to the ultrasound.  Both looked fine.  Appointment with surgeon for them to look everything over is scheduled THREE WEEKS LATER. Good thing I'm not letting this keep me up at night!

I just want to know I have a 100% clear bill of health before getting pregnant again because if anything is brewing in there, I'm no doctor, but I know being pregnant would be bad news.  

Is being a complete worry wart about health stuff a common thing for all women?

TMI - Menstrual Cup

This is about to get TMI but I really wish I had read a blog post about the subject years ago!

Ever since birthing Blaine, tampons and swimming just don't go together like they used to.  It will "work" but be soaking wet after swimming.  Was not the case before Blaine!  I blame all 8 lbs, 10 oz of him.   I tried Kegels and all that jazz but no change.   This would be a major problem if I would have a triathlon the week of my period! I found myself googling why and what to do about this issue.  I kept coming across the idea of using a menstrual cup.  I had heard of these but had them in the category of hippie things like not washing your hair, going vegan, and using and cloth pads for your period.

I finally bit the bullet and ordered one (oops the wrong size!) but it works pretty darn good!  I use it on day 2-5 of my period because I don't trust it on day 1.   I won't use it if I know I will be out in public using the bathrooms and I am veryyyy thankful that at school it is a one stall bathroom with a sink right in there.

There you have it! A real life changer in my book!

Sorry for the lack of blog posts, our laptop is always on the fritz and I hate typing extensively on the IPad. Plus my pictures are all on the computer!