Think Pink

I’m 42 years old. I went for my “annual” (checkup, that is), and Dr. starts asking me why I didn’t have my mammogram done last year. Ummm, I forgot? Ummm, I hate them? Ummm, we do “Buddy Check 9” and have never found anything to worry about? (FYI: Husband? He’s my “Buddy”!)

I go and have the mammogram done. Whew, glad that’s over for another year. (At least!) 4 days later I get a call. “Something showed up in your pictures, and we’ll need you to come in to have a possible lump inspected. Right side, diagnostic pictures and ultrasound. Would next Tuesday work for you?” Huh? OK, I have big boobs. They aren’t just big – they are HUGE. There could be a golf ball in there and I wouldn’t have felt it… so OK. I’ll be in on Tuesday. I’m annoyed because I know they are going to squish the right one even harder this time. Arrgh.

I go in for my Tuesday appointment (and by now worry has set in, but I’ll tell you at the end why I knew in my heart that this was going to be nothing) and they show me the picture of the spot they are concerned about. It is the size of a pencil eraser, give or take. I’m like, “That doesn’t look like anything.” (I am the mother that couldn’t figure out which blob was my daughter on the prenatal ultrasound… so I suppose I should defer to their greater knowledge here.) They take a diagnostic picture and the spot is still there so they do the ultrasound. They find nothing. They take yet another picture. “We aren’t seeing anything like a lump or a cyst. We’ll need to see you back in 6 months.”

Phew.

GET YOUR MAMMOGRAM! Think Pink – and Walk for the Cure this Autumn. Do your Buddy-Check-9, but know that you can’t feel most of what they are looking for, and if you do have any breast abnormalities get an appointment right away.

But, why did I know that it would be OK? Because there was no way karma was going to let me out of wearing that hideous bridesmaids dress 8 days from now! I am Karma’s bitch, darn it - - and sometimes that comes in handy!