What There Is to Blog About.

Sometimes a person has difficulty finding things to blog (write) about. Lately it has been a struggle. The holiday season really kicked my fanny. Not certain why but I was a total fail. Oh well, it is over and now on to the next adventure.

That adventure is still in progress but I will share what I know today.

Mid-December brought me to the realization I had not had my yearly mammogram. Oh joy, I thought. I thought about putting it off but my little internal voice nagged me enough that I thought better of it. One of the benefits of working in a healthcare setting is I know who to contact to get these things set up. Emails went back and forth. Appointment date and time was set.

I went for the usual mammogram. I learned a long, long time ago that I make jokes when it comes to these test. You have to stand there top-half naked and put your breasts in a vice grip type machine so the female radiology technician can take the 'pictures'. Since this wasn't my first mammo-rodeo so to speak, I knew what to expect. Plus I was so thrilled (not) to be having my parts smashed. Actually it really isn't that bad for the few seconds it takes.

What is funny to me is that they have plus-sized plates to take the pictures for folks like me who are plus-sized. It makes me giggle. I was positioned into the vice grip machine, held my breath as required for the several views they take and then away I went.

Usually, I get a little letter stating something to the effect of - thanks for stopping by and letting us take a picture or three and come back next year.

Well, this year was different. I received one of those, hey -- we need more photos because we found something.

Really, seriously. Not to be flip but it is kind of like flunking a test. I am usually a pretty fair test taker but this time I wasn't. Now, it was not my internal voice that nagged me but The Donald as he got the mail that day and wasted no time calling me and telling me to call and get this set up.

Crap, crap, and double dog crap I thought. (Okay, those weren't my words but I have to keep this fairly pg-rated so to speak.) It is bad enough that I have to get more photos taken but now I have someone to push (nag) me as well.

As luck would have it, 'my' facility had an opening and it was the last day for that department for 2011. Yippity skippity I thought. I hadn't shaved. (Females will understand that last statement.) I was just concerned about getting this on the years' insurance numbers.

I went to have additional magnified pictures so the radiologist could make a determination if these needed further treatment. Lovely, more vice grip time and magnified to boot. 'My' tech showed me what they were looking at because I was a little pushy and wanted to see what the fuss was about. That is the beauty of digital mammography. The area in question had spots that were less than the size of a pencil tip. I was pretty amazed at the technology of it all since I could not feel anything out of the ordinary.

Again, I was sent away to wait.

In the meantime, I have had to have the discussion with the girls telling them what was going on. I was just getting more pictures and they weren't supposed to worry.

Wow, was that a big fail. What do kids (even the grown-up ones) do when you tell them something? They do the opposite. Now, I had to have discussions with both of them and I told them the one thing I would do was be honest with them. I tried to take away the worry but I am not certain I did that either.

Anywhoo, the next adventure was the phone call from one of the providers that said it is recommended that I get a biopsy.

Crap, crap, and double crap.

Now I have to take time off work and I have to tell my boss. Wow, there was nothing awkward about talking to the boss (of the opposite gender) about why I needed a day off. Thank goodness he is very perceptive and caught the clues I gave him about the nature of the biopsy. He handled it well and was more than supportive. I still felt like I was shirking my job by taking a day off but I knew I had to get this done.

Now, the day of the biopsy came. It is done under local numbing so it wasn't like getting knocked out. Luckily our facility has a traveling service do these tests, so I didn't have to go out-of-town. The truck sits outside our imaging department. I signed in, had an assessment ( temperature, blood pressure, med list) and out to the truck I went. The technician was very good about explaining each thing that was happening.

They had me lay on a table and they did the biopsy on the area in question. It was virtually painless. I am not kidding, thanks to the numbing medicine. The only thing was my little 'spots' were stubborn and it took persistence to get them into the sample. Plus, I had to get another picture just to make certain the biopsy marker the doctor used was there. It was explained to me that is so other doctors will know I had a biopsy there. It was a teeny little thing but I was still pretty amazed by it.

I took the rest of the day to stay home. I wasn't certain how I would tolerate the procedure. After the numbing wore off, there were moments of discomfort but it was not bad. I had my younger daughter home on college break to make certain I was following the home instructions I received. I was able to shower the next day and keep a band-aid on the little area where they inserted the needle.

Again, I am just in wait and see mode. Waiting is no fun at all but at least I have something to blog about this week.