Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Qigong, CT Scans, and Mood

As I mentioned in the post a couple of days ago, I am doing much better, emotionally and mentally. I attribute it to both qigong and the intentional breathing (breath in strength and energy, breathe out pain and sickness and worry).

White crane qigong is partially meant to dispel sadness. It helps your lungs move qi and it also gathers energy to your heart. I think that has really helped my mood. So, even though I had persistent pain yesterday (and it happened again this afternoon although not as bad even though I remembered the nerve pain pills), I could handle it easier. (At the moment, the back of my arm/shoulder is tingling.)

So, I'm good.

I also picked up a copy of my CT scan results. Other than the mass under my armpit and also the one on the right side of my breast bone, no new masses, stable disease in the bones, scarring in the lungs, and some cysts on my liver. I also just confirmed that I don't think the main artery supplying the latissimus muscle is not involved. I think I will have the easier surgery, but I haven't confirmed that with the plastic surgeon yet.

As for the breast bone mass, I don't think the immunotherapy can work on that area as well because the tissue has been compromised by two rounds of radiation. The tissue under my arm is compromised as well, so there's been growth there because the t-cells can't get in there to do their job. We will deal with that breast bone tumor later . . . I'm not too worried as it's growing much more slowly.

Here is a website for the lat flap for any inquiring minds:

Lat Flap

I will have a skin graft from my left thigh - I think that skin graft will cover the donor site, but don't quote me on that.

So, good news overall. Good mood. Good news on the CT scan.

1 comment:

Kiwi Monster said...

your comment about breathing reminded me: I just noticed recently that slow, deep breathing helps a lot with stomach pain and nausea. I have no idea why this works, but it's a handy thing to know.