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Oh no not I....I will survive... 2001-03-15 Okay, my plan didn't exactly work out to the last detail, but the important part of the plan, the part where I am pronounced utterly well, went without a hitch. Well, actually there were a ton of hitches, but it all worked out in the end. Here's the story of my morning of hell: I might as well go ahead and say that the potentially scary illness in this case was breast cancer, so the test I had to have was a mammogram. I was supposed to report to the hospital, to the office of the doctor referring me for the mammogram, at 8:30 to get some kind of referral form for the radiology. I did that and I got the form and went up for the mammogram. I had to take off my upper garments and put on a gown and sit in the waiting room until it was my turn. Because I was there early, I didn't have to wait very long, maybe 10 minutes, to be called in for the mammogram. The radiologist took info from me and logged it into the computer and then did the actual mammogram; needless to say, it hurt like hell, but it wasn't anything I couldn't deal with. She had me go back to the waiting room, still in my gown, in case some of the films didn't come out very well and she needed to redo them. Okay, so 15 minutes go by and she calls me back again--she needs another of the side views (these are the most painful), and she takes them and I go back to the waiting room. Ten minutes later, calls me again--needs one more side view; didn't get enough muscle in that one. Back to the waiting room. Another ten minutes, then calls me again--needs one more regular view, just the left side. Back to the waiting room. 45 minutes elapse and I am getting more and more anxious. I went into the hospital feeling absolutely confident that there was nothing wrong with me, but after all the callbacks, a little doubt started creeping in. After the 45 minutes, I am called again and am told they want to do an ultrasound. At this point I got upset; I figured it must mean there is a problem, so even though I tried really hard to be calm, I started crying. The woman told me it didn't mean anything, that they just wanted to be thorough, and the doctor who came in to do the ultrasound also said this. He said that my mammograms were totally normal, but the area the referring doctor was concerned about (the nipple, much as I hate to get quite that personal) was better seen on ultrasound. That was very comforting, and he did the ultrasound and it was normal. I was allowed to get dressed and the ultrasound doctor printed out a report for me and a report for the referring doctor, and I went back downstairs to give the results to the referring doctor, as previously instructed. Aaaand....he is out of town. Out of town, probably on a fabulous vacation in the tropics! If I hadn't been so relieved about the mammogram and ultrasound results I probably would have been pissed that he specifically instructed me to give him the results and then he isn't even there, but as it was I just left the results with the nurse and got the hell out of the hospital. I didn't really saunter out of the hospital, but I definitely srode. Incidentally, Francisco sat in the Radiology waiting room (different from where I was) for more than two hours, poor thing. To celebrate my wellness and the fact that we were no longer in the hospital, we went and got sushi for lunch and then back to work for me. I am drained, because even though most of my morning was spent sitting in the waiting room, I was also worrying for much of that time, and that is very wearing. Connected with all this mess, here is a public service announcement: If you ever have an itchy nipple that is not related to a rash of some kind, you should see a doctor. There is a kind of breast cancer, Padgett's disease, that specifically starts with itchiness of the nipple (who knew?), and that is what they thought I might possibly have. So don't ignore itching!! I'm so tired of this whole thing and I don't want to talk about it any more. Here is a picture that I think is really funny. You may have seen it before (I did not take it), but it doesn't really lose anything with a repeat viewing:
You can't Not like that picture. Can you? Our office is doing an NCAA tournament pool. It is a complicated system and is the brainchild of my boss, who thinks he knows everything. We are not betting for money, like any normal office would (money was my vote); no, instead the boss's system is to bet for food, and I won't go into how he's arranged who has to pay off on this, because it's too complicated and annoying. There are a group of us who plan to foil his ambition to get lots of fatty treats into the office for his inner "fat boy", about whom he often speaks. If we have to bring food we will bring fruit or other low-fat kinds of things, and that will be an excellent foiling. I have already decided to bring my blender and make smoothies, if I have to bring stuff in, and everyone will love that except my boss, who wants brownies and cupcakes and donuts. I probably won't need to bring smoothies--I fully expect to win the whole thing because I've got my psychic powers working for me. Remember my psychic powers? I really need to get something done today, and I haven't yet, so bye for now, and I will have more interesting things to talk about tomorrow....I hope.
come over some time & see me - 2011-02-25 |
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