Friday, June 1, 2007

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!

3 comments:

Martha said...

Oh Dodi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank God for your karma. And yeah, keep getting those girls inspected. Yes, I"m sure that Jim is an excellent inspector but until he gets that xray vision every man would love to have, you gotta have the real deal too!
She proudly types...having had her annual "photo op" with the girls on 17 May.

tz said...

hate getting squished...but a necessary evil. I too could not figure out what they were seeing on ultrasounds, at one time it looked like fighting lizards to me.

If, you don't like walking,running, there's cook for the cure too
http://www.kitchenaid.com/content.jsp?sectionId=457
comfort food and donating, my mom would be so proud!

Colleen O said...

I'm glad it was just a golf ball - hahaha.

Add to the reasons women don't go, scared that they'll find something!