February 11th, 2010. Peter and I have been married for 3 years!! Should be out buying flowers and preparing candlelit supper instead of heading off for the annual breast mashing torture. Wonder why I booked it for today? Mystery.....
You women all know the routine, strip to the waist, get into position face jammed against cold metal and breast flattened to the weirdest shape, stop breathing and pray the machine doesn't jam. "Sit here while we check the pictures". Fine, few more minutes to catch up on People. Peter doesn't understand why I read this stuff, but of course that's how I know a lot of the answers to the crossword puzzle clues! "Just one more picture". Yea, yea. Heard it before. Click, clunk. "Wait out there and they'll come and get you for your ultrasound."
Fifteen years ago I had a funky mammo and they biopsied the breast. The microcalcifications were irrelevant, but the pathologist found something called LCIS, lobular carcinoma in situ. Never heard of it. Is it bad, I asked the doctor. Well..... it's a marker for increased risk to 1 in 4 or 5. You should be checked every year. OK, that's easy. Sword of Damocles but not worth worrying about. So that's why the ultrasound as well as the mammogram.
Ultrasounds are easy. Cold goopy stuff and you can doze while they scan you. This time they seemed to be taking a long time and there's a very sore spot they keep running over. Ouch. Probably a cyst. If it hurts, then that's good, right?
Next stop, to my breast cancer surgeon (even though I don't believe I have cancer since LCIS is not real cancer, at least not in my mind!). Dr Ward is fantastic, one of the best in the US. She's already had the radiologist on the phone and seen my ultrasound. Noone seems to like that little benign cyst they kept squeezing. They want to biopsy it in a few days. For heaven's sake. It's a cyst!
Slightly aggravated at this turn of events, I head off home.
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