2. It Might Be Something to Worry About

Kiesha, Vivian's Physician Assistant, knows me well enough to know I am allergic to the scale and, therefore, walked me right on by it and into the exam room. I gave her the usual appreciative smile. We chatted the typical greetings and what's new talk as she took my temperature, blood pressure and reviewed my list of current medications. Then, she gave me the ever-so-crisply-and-neatly-folded paper top. (Seriously, what is the medical field thinking with these things? They are ugly, uncomfortable, and offer nothing in the way of warmth to combat the ice cold room temperature! As my journey would continue in the months and years to come, I came to each future appointment wearing a tank-top with straps that easily allowed access to the area of observation. No more paper tops for me.) Vivian would be in momentarily.

There I was stretched out on my back with my arms up above my head. The lump, I told her, was on the right breast and I pointed to the location. I still refused to touch it. (I was still betting on this being something like when your car makes a funny noise and you take it to the repair shop and try to make it make the same noise again but it never happens so you think you're nuts and so does the mechanic.) She decided, however, to start with my left breast, just to be super safe. 

"Okay, good, no lumps found there," she said. (Whew!) Over to the right side. 

"Hmmmm, okay, well yes, I feel that lump. Actually, I feel two lumps," Vivian informed me. (Lucky me. All good things come in sets of two, right? Bazinga.)

I dressed as Vivian typed something into the computer. She said the lumps were most-likely nothing but since it was not her area of expertise, she wanted to be safe and referred me to the mammography clinic. I was thirty-four years old and the idea of mammogram screening was another sixteen years or so away for me, or so I had thought. Per Vivian's orders, though, I was going to get a mammogram now whether I liked it or not.

You know that one hour and fifty-nine minute wait I mentioned? Yeah, that had nothing on the next forty-eight hours I had to wait to get my mammogram.