Crash! Another Bump on the Road

In this Pink Month let's touch on another cancer-related syndrome. One of many possible causes of a painful syndrome called Tietze's Disease is radiation treatment to the chest. What is it? Simple definition: Inflammation of the cartilage of the rib cage, causing pain in the chest similar to angina pectoris. When this pain occurs on a woman's left side, and the left side is where her primary cancer was removed, thoughts of the worst kind sweep all rational ones away. Could the tenderness be a recurrence on the chest wall? Those nodules, are they small tumors? Bless the primary care doc for noting the likelihood of Tietze's but insisting on x-rays with rib detail immediately to rule out the other worries.

A 24-hour-wait (watch the woman clean her house) before the news: all is clean. Treatment for Tietze's? Ibuprophen, 600 mg 3x a day. Let's see if the tummy can handle that stuff.

The evil-looking mole didn't seem so awful to the primary care doc; her guess was "a cyst." Here's hoping! Whatever the growth is it's coming off, and my lovely bod is getting a much-needed, long overdue skin check from a dermatologist. All you sun-kissed beauties out there, get thee to a skin doc and do likewise, once a year.