Monday, April 14, 2014

First Indication That All Was Not Well - Cracked Rib Or Return Of Cancer?

I look back to June of last year and remember how excited hubby and I were at the prospect of living for a whole year in our favourite part of Ireland, Allihies in the Beara Peninsula, West Cork, with many return visits to family and friends in Dublin, of course. After all, we would be spending a lot of time with our son and beautiful daughter-in-law before and after the birth of their first-born.  We would become grandparents in August. Everything was set for the adventure of a lifetime, even the lambs in the nearby field seemed to share our joy.

Every day for the first three weeks we did as we always did in Allihies - went for two hour long walks across the rugged landscape and along the Ballydonegan shoreline.  One morning, on waking, I felt a fairly sharpish pain at the base of my right rib cage, definitely nothing to concern myself with, most likely a strain from all those rocky hills and climbing over the odd gate!  As time went by, the pain only presented itself every other day, definitely nothing to worry about.  Then, on the morning of Friday, June 28th, in considerable discomfort the thought flashed through my mind that this could possibly be the Breast Cancer spreading but immediately dismissed the idea, opting instead for a self-diagnosis of a cracked rib. Later that morning we decided that if the pain got any worse we'd head home on Sunday and have it checked out.  Saturday came and things weren't too bad, even had a G&T that night while watching the Rolling Stones strut their stuff at Glastonbury.

In the early hours of Sunday morning when trying to turn over in bed, it was so painful that I remained in the same position until finally waking at around 7.30am. The decision to head home was made when, even with the help of hubby, I screamed with every tiny movement as I tried to get out of bed. The five hour car journey was an absolute nightmare. Next day I would visit our GP.


Above image: Ballydonegan Bay, Allihies, taken by me, June 2013.


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