Hello Friends!

This is going to be short and very very very SWEET! I promise.

Last October I moved back to Denver and started seeing a new oncologist. She specializes in breast cancer in young women and is a perfect fit! After my first visit with her I mentioned that I was having some weird shooting pains up and down my left leg starting around the knee. I mentioned it in every single monthly appointment following and my concerns related to it. I was told it was not a characteristic of breast cancer. I went to an orthopedic doc after months of begging to get in a room with someone. After x-rays and a physical exam on my knee, I was told everything is fine, structurally speaking. So instead of sending me to physical therapy this doctor told me to see if it got better and go from there.

Well, I know my body pretty well. I didn’t like how this thing felt and I wanted to know what was wrong. After being told for months and months that it was nothing I was frustrated with my doctor ignoring me so I asked her to order an MRI or whatever imaging was necessary to double, triple, quadruple check. I went in for the MRI at the end of March and while I was in the machine they decided to add contrast, just to be safe and thorough. Good freaking thing I demanded the MRI… so here it goes.

I get news after calling many times while waiting on these results that there is what looks to be a benign tumor on a nerve but that is all I am told. Literally this is all I was told and I didn’t understand how they knew it was benign or anything about this. No one would call me back or explain because everyone was “too busy with more sick patients”. I should mention that I am working on being more patient and not panicking while waiting for results. I am pretty knowledgeable on breast cancer and healthy eating and yoga and meditation but I had never heard of a nerve sheath tumor. It is a growth on a nerve and can be there forever with no signs or they can grow and cause pain surrounding the nerve. So I have since learned about this after having one removed from my body last Wednesday. This tumor grew on a nerve on the outside of my left knee, kind of next to the IT band and behind the knee cap.

I knew I wanted it out of my body, I have adventures to plan and go on. So I planned surgery but not with the surgeon my oncologist referred me to as “the best.” I didn’t feel great about that whole situation with that doctor. I went in for a second opinion at a smaller facility and I couldn’t have made a better decision. I did my research and I went to meet with another expert and I made all of the right choices from there based on my intuition (I will share a post on this in the future). I have been walking around since the evening of my surgery. I have rested a lot but I am so grateful for this outcome. And I just got a voicemail with the pathology results and IT IS A BENIGN TUMOR. IT’S FUCKING BENIGN! I feel so happy, I even have tears that fill my eyes as I write this. It was a surgery/tumor that caused me so much anxiety. The uncertainty related to life with cancer is pretty horrifying at times, at least medically speaking. But the uncertainty can also be the most beautiful part of my life. It allows me to grow, daily.

I am happy to be walking around, I am happy the tumor is benign and this is my first benign tumor! THIS right here give me so much hope. I have taken down two malignant tumors and one benign and it feels so fucking amazing to be alive and sharing this news. Not much to report here besides the fact that life is good, our bodies are absolutely incredible, and the universe always has my back.

YOU. ARE. THE. POWER.

believe

Grateful as fuck,

Paige