Finding a lump…& fire

I felt a lump.

Not the kind that takes your breath away on a breast exam (I‘m fine, YOU can start breathing now!)

The kind that you know shouldn’t be on the back of your shoulder & definitely wasn’t there yesterday.  The kind that makes you stop in the middle of a soapy shower & project forward 16 years into the future to your unplanned life surviving Lyme disease. 
The day before, I finally had convinced my homebody children to venture out for a hike (let’s be honest, it was 20 minutes in the rain).  It was steamy & sticky, my tank top was the perfect counter-wardrobe to the breath-stifling mask that is part of my “I’ve finally left the house” ensemble.

Oh, this was gonna be gross.

A tick. A huge scab. My mind flashed back to my honeymoon- (ah, we should’ve traveled more before all this). In a moment of sheer Sound of Music bliss, I flopped down in a field of delicate yellow wildflowers atop a ski-mountain turned hiking resort in Austria. (Feeling so fancy saying that now since the most exotic place I’ve been in the past 6 months has been to Safeway supermarkets!)

At the end of the day, back at our chalet (see, fancy) I noticed a bump in the shower. I think we know each other well enough to warn you, we’re going to get personal here for a minute, purely for the fact that you will experience the same sheer mortification I felt in that moment. 

It was on my labia.
(What’s the labia?  Anatomy lesson- headed down towards the girl garage on the way to your hoo-ha.)  On further inspection, it was a tick.  I screamed (of course, who wouldn’t?)  My new husband (we’d been married exactly 9 days at that point), a former Eagle Scout, shifted into crisis mode. Rather than pulling out the tick with tweezers, he proposed an alternative proper technique…

Fire.
(Insert another scream here)  Before you hit reply & launch into an impassioned thesis on the proper way to remove a tick, I believe we finally settled on the tweezers

Back to my shower-  Granted the back of the shoulder was a much less delicate location, nonetheless it wasn’t a place I could get myself & I’d have to call in the resident “expert,” with the possibility of “fire” looming.

I don’t like asking for help.
I think it was a badge of honor in my childhood to be able to do something all by yourself. I can’t be alone in this.

I see it every day.
Moms who either ignore the issue that’s be plaguing them for weeks, months or years only to have it end up no better than they started, or moms that think they can handle it themselves, whether it be peeing when they run, actually feeling their abs during workouts or even taking care of their kids without little aches & pains they toss up as “normal”

Certain things require that you get a little extra help.
Ticks on your labia after an ill-fated meadow-bath or even on the back of your shoulder require help. Back pain or hip pain that can likely be traced back to your C-section scar adhesions requires help. Feeling like you can’t find your abs anymore after you haven’t been to Orangetheory in 22 weeks but you’ve been guilted by the COVID-15 (BTW-I don’t care for that term, thank you) & want to workout on your own. You had the best of intentions how to return to workouts postpartum & instead, you’re stuck in your house with a newborn & the bliss of mommy & me classes has turned into breastfeeding with some other moms on Zoom, with the workout being an afterthought.

There’s no shame.
You’ll get where you’re going faster with help & that’s one less second of thinking about where that tick could’ve been headed.  Seriously.

I didn’t need to call in the Eagle Scouts for my lump. I wasn’t the victim of a tick falling out of a tree on our hike. Instead, I was the victim of a daughter who’s mark of creativity & chaos is everywhere; a sticky blue gem somehow had made it’s home on the back of my shoulder, just above the crease of my armpit.
No fire or expert advice required.
Solo gem-ectomy complete.  No one was harmed.

Stay safe & watch out for the ticks & gems.
-Carrie

P.S.  If you need a nudge getting taking care of your C-Section scar or starting back to workouts, check out these FREE resources

P.P.S.  If you’re ready to take it a step further (I promise, no fire), I’m happy to dive deeper into scar care, detailed return to workout exercises & if a C-section is on the horizon, share the life-altering advice I’d wish I’d gotten before my unplanned & planned Cesareans in The C-Section User’s Guide.