Shrinkage

After finally accidentally touching where my tumor is while applying lotion (because my skin looks like a flaky alligator), I realized that the tumor is nowhere near as prominent as it used to be.  In fact, I really had to search for it to be able to find it again.  I mean...I did find it again, but it wasn't right there the way it had been before.  

This is good for many reasons.  1. It hopefully means that the tumors (all 3 of them) are shrinking.  2. If they're shrinking, that means that the cancer cells that have traveled into my lymph nodes are most likely dying off as well.  3. I'll be able to have the skin-saving surgery that my surgeon had hoped for because they're not as close to the skin any more.  The involved "suspicious nipple" will probably still have to go, but it will get reconstructed. 4. Now I actually feel like I'm going through this chemo crap for a reason.  

Something else I thought of...judging by how difficult it is to feel the tumors now that they've shrunk even the smallest bit, if the they hadn't been the size they were and so close to the surface, they never would have been found.  I'd have been in much worse trouble than I am.  Since mammograms aren't typically recommended until the age of 40 (which is something that really needs to change and might be something I'll be working on when this is all over), and I only did half-hearted self-exams from time to time because it didn't run in my family and I thought I was free and clear, it could have gone at least another year before they would have been found.  That's if I even decided to make an appointment for a mammogram at the age of 40.  How's that for scary?  

Funny how things work out, isn't it?