The Big C?

Rachel Jefferies: Fear Not, Citron

Not many people know but back in 2005, I was diagnosed with Melanoma shortly after my birthday. It was an extremely scary time. It was found in two moles on my body. I remember having my body searched from head to toe and after having these moles and a few other patches of skin removed and a short treatment, I found myself lucky and free of cancer cells. I was hysterically happy. It had felt like a dark cloud was lifted off me. I went on to live my life and have two more beautiful children. Yet, every year I had a yearly cancer screening to remind me of how lucky I was. Recently the big C word has crawled back into my life. I have been battling this nasty kidney infection on top of a bacterial infection that just doesn’t seem to want to go away. I have been back and forth to the clinic numerous times and been on four different drugs. Nothing seems to work. Then, just today I noticed this lump on my well…my vagina. It looked almost like a skin tag but larger. At my appointment today I was put through the ringer of tests. Swabs, urine samples and blood work. The doctor noticed on my urine culture that the bacterial count was still extremely high and that my white blood count was extremely low. The blood work confirmed this. And with the “lump” growing so quickly and being as big as it is, she mentioned it could be Vulvar Cancer. She ran a biopsy of my lumpy and I should know the results soon. Till than, the fear of the BIG C is in my mind. I am praying and hoping it is just a large skin tag and my issues are just a nasty infection that isn’t responding to meds. Yet, my mind is also racing with the unknown.