Half-post

Cheryl was really sweet, and asked in my comments about info on the cancer I've had previously.  I didn't want her to have to go wading through other comments for my response, so I figured I'd make a quick blog about it.

One of the reasons I really am strongly recommended every year to get a flu shot is because I had cancer a couple of times.  The tumor first showed up when I was about 8 years old, but was misdiagnosed until it was removed when I was 16.  I then had a recurrance at age 22, at which time I had radiation.  It's a very rare type of cancer, and is incredibly rare in children - it's a cancer of the salivary gland, and I was only the 16th child ever recorded with it.  Luckily, it's an incredibly slow-growing type of cancer - but it means that, instead of chance of recurrance going down at 5 years, it increases for me.

I had a PET scan (a very intensive full-body scan that's supposed to find areas of high metabolization, which often indicates malignancies) this summer that came back clean, so that's good news.  It's unlikely that the cancers had anything to do with my infertility, since I exhibited the symptoms of PCOS in my teen years, before there was any spreading or treatment.  However, it does make me more paranoid - which explains why I am a constant worrier.  :)