The Intergalactic Stereotactic!
I am dedicating this story to all the ladies out there who have survived all the testing and treatments involved with today's fight against breast cancer! These ladies are my heroins! I'm not afraid to use the word, heroin even though this like so many other words has gotten some really bad press and misusage in the last 30 years!
If you see the pink ribbon wrapped around anything, buy it! Give generously to breast cancer research. I know firsthand what it feels like to go through only a little of what these brave women have gone through. Like them I will, also, learn the results of my tests very soon.....
My initial mammogram showed some calcifications, so I was instructed to get another one done. I like to think I have a good sense of humor even in the face of adversity, but there are still times when I sit alone and cry about my fear of the unknown. My strength comes in making others laugh!
I went to see a surgeon who sent me for further testing. I experienced what I call the "Intergalactic Stereotactic"! I am grateful such technology is available to save my life, but the best way to describe this procedure is imagining your boob caught in a sewing machine! I laid down on a somewhat padded table with my arm and one breast dangling through a small hole in the table. You have to lay on your stomach, and the table is not really designed for your comfort. The table is then cranked up to the ceiling while you are totally unaware of what's going on! I felt like a 1954 model Ford car! The drapes next to the exam table were open! I asked the technician if anyone across the parking lot could see me. She assured me that no one would be watching! The humor began to creep inside of me. Where was I going to go! This thing had ahold of me! I could imagine the people across the parking lot in the office buildings sitting in their offices with high powered binoculars, popcorn, and sodas saying, "Okay, here goes another one"! I laid there imagining that I could be quite the show laying there looking the way I did. Sometimes out of boredom I flexed my knees covered with blue jeans to criss-cross my tennis-shoed feet in the air. It's the wonder I didn't take out one of the ceiling tiles! I asked for and got plenty of Lidocaine which was wonderful until it wore off later in the afternoon! Towards the end of the procedure the doctor came around to the side of the table I was looking out at. I had my head turned toward the window. All of a sudden this face looks at me (that's the only part of him I could see. I thought he was sitting on a chair! I said, "Oh, hello" then started laughing! The doctor did me a favor--I know that now. He not only removed a sample but cleaned up the whole joint! A tiny piece of metal was, also, inserted in my bust just to mark the spot in case I need further surgery. I asked the nurse, "Will this show up as I try to pass through airport security"?? "I don't want to set off some alarm and get felt up by some weirdo from airport security"! She assured me this part of my body wouldn't set anything off. Time will tell! I wonder if I'll get postcards at Christmas-time from the folks who worked across the parking lot that day?? I then had to have another mammogram done to make sure they got everything and the metal piece was in there. A procedure that normally takes 45 minutes took 2 hours! I made it through! I can probably go as the "Green Glowing Lady" for Halloween after all the mammograms I've had done this month!
Oh and by the by: Sutures are no longer used! The hole in me has a half-dollar size patch of Super Glue on it to help it heal! I now feel like last year's swimming pool float that's been patched!
I have a whole new appreciation, though, for the researchers, doctors, nurses, technicians, and especially the cancer survivors who have gone to these places before me.
Pray for a cure!
If you see the pink ribbon wrapped around anything, buy it! Give generously to breast cancer research. I know firsthand what it feels like to go through only a little of what these brave women have gone through. Like them I will, also, learn the results of my tests very soon.....
My initial mammogram showed some calcifications, so I was instructed to get another one done. I like to think I have a good sense of humor even in the face of adversity, but there are still times when I sit alone and cry about my fear of the unknown. My strength comes in making others laugh!
I went to see a surgeon who sent me for further testing. I experienced what I call the "Intergalactic Stereotactic"! I am grateful such technology is available to save my life, but the best way to describe this procedure is imagining your boob caught in a sewing machine! I laid down on a somewhat padded table with my arm and one breast dangling through a small hole in the table. You have to lay on your stomach, and the table is not really designed for your comfort. The table is then cranked up to the ceiling while you are totally unaware of what's going on! I felt like a 1954 model Ford car! The drapes next to the exam table were open! I asked the technician if anyone across the parking lot could see me. She assured me that no one would be watching! The humor began to creep inside of me. Where was I going to go! This thing had ahold of me! I could imagine the people across the parking lot in the office buildings sitting in their offices with high powered binoculars, popcorn, and sodas saying, "Okay, here goes another one"! I laid there imagining that I could be quite the show laying there looking the way I did. Sometimes out of boredom I flexed my knees covered with blue jeans to criss-cross my tennis-shoed feet in the air. It's the wonder I didn't take out one of the ceiling tiles! I asked for and got plenty of Lidocaine which was wonderful until it wore off later in the afternoon! Towards the end of the procedure the doctor came around to the side of the table I was looking out at. I had my head turned toward the window. All of a sudden this face looks at me (that's the only part of him I could see. I thought he was sitting on a chair! I said, "Oh, hello" then started laughing! The doctor did me a favor--I know that now. He not only removed a sample but cleaned up the whole joint! A tiny piece of metal was, also, inserted in my bust just to mark the spot in case I need further surgery. I asked the nurse, "Will this show up as I try to pass through airport security"?? "I don't want to set off some alarm and get felt up by some weirdo from airport security"! She assured me this part of my body wouldn't set anything off. Time will tell! I wonder if I'll get postcards at Christmas-time from the folks who worked across the parking lot that day?? I then had to have another mammogram done to make sure they got everything and the metal piece was in there. A procedure that normally takes 45 minutes took 2 hours! I made it through! I can probably go as the "Green Glowing Lady" for Halloween after all the mammograms I've had done this month!
Oh and by the by: Sutures are no longer used! The hole in me has a half-dollar size patch of Super Glue on it to help it heal! I now feel like last year's swimming pool float that's been patched!
I have a whole new appreciation, though, for the researchers, doctors, nurses, technicians, and especially the cancer survivors who have gone to these places before me.
Pray for a cure!
posted by The Celtic Contessa at
8:20 AM
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