Monday, I had a friend drive me into San Luis Obispo to have yet another diagnostic test done at San Luis Diagnostics. It was a bone density scan for a baseline to monitor my bone density while taking a medication that I just started on Saturday. The side effects to these drugs are something else. The drug I am now taking is for suppressing estrogen production in my body because the cancer I had is estrogen positive. I will be on that for five years. I have two friends who are undergoing that treatment now as well.

I am also trying my best to avoid soy products, because soy also helps the body produce estrogen. It is a good thing to get rid of hot flashes and other symptoms for women going through menopause, but the down side is that it can cause tumors to grow in breasts and also feed estrogen positive cancers. Soy is in everything. I am also lactose intolerant, so if I want a latte or some sort of blended coffee drink, I can not have milk, so the most usual option is soy milk. So I can not do either. I guess the good thing in that is I won’t be having the calories in those delicious treats. There are a couple of coffee cafes that do have the choice of rice milk or almond milk (or beverage I should say, since neither are milk). It makes having treats more of a challenge none the less.

Even though the scan was not all that long to complete, just even in that short time having to hold my arms above my head was painful. I have the range of motive to move my arms above my head, but it still pulls those muscles that were manipulated and cut in surgery. I had wanted to take my friend to lunch to Splash Cafe since it was just a couple of blocks away, but all I could think of was getting home to take my pain medicine and lay down. It has been only three weeks since my surgery, so I will be feeling it for a while yet. Even so, I am still looking forward to when I will be able to exercise and do stretching again as I had before my diagnosis. I also had called my dentist’s office this morning to postpone my teeth cleaning for a later date. It just didn’t seem like something I could tolerate right now. They were very understanding and rescheduled me.

Rest was in order for the remainder of the day. Although I ended up doing some reorganizing a shelf and I paid for it later. What was I thinking? I think I have cabin fever. Ha.