Life Can Be Both Wave And Particle*

Whew. Now I can finally write a blog post.

As I'm sure anyone who's been reading me for any length of time knows, when something big is brewing, I go into radio silence.

Wait, not necessarily true, sometimes I spill the beans before they're even cooked.

But if I'm not writing about what's happening, I'm not writing.

So last Monday I woke up to a bug, maybe a spider, maybe one of those damn flying ants, on my right breast, and when I went to shoo it away I felt a lump where there never was a lump before.

I poked, I prodded and I fell back to sleep.

When I awoke I went about my normal Monday morning, pulling weeds, feeding plants and letting the cats in and out.

It wasn't until I was dressed and ready to go out for lunch that I remembered my strange "dream".

So I poked and prodded again and found that same lump.

This was no dream.

I called my doctor, his office called me back.

By now I'm in a car with friends on our way to lunch.

I could have a breast exam in 2 hours.

We ate a messy lunch of lettuce wraps at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant then they dropped me off to go a little shopping.

I grabbed an iced latte and headed upstairs to see my gynecologist.

He examined me, wrote me a prescription for a comprehensive screening. This would start with a mammogram and go thru the circuit of ultra sound, MRI and a biopsy if necessary.

He asked if I drank a lot of coffee. When I brandished my latte at him, he suggested there may be a link between heavy caffeine consumption and benign fibroid cysts.

He said he didn't think I had to worry but I did the right thing by coming in immediately.

I made an appointment at the imaging center for Monday the 15th. And then I went about my business.

 Today, same friends, different lunch spot, we ate Thai.
 
They dropped me off and went shopping.

I entered the world of pink. Pink scrubs for the staff, pink tops for the patients. Even the key chain for our lockers was pink. It was aggressively pink.

I had a 3D mammogram, which despite more interesting pictures, hurts just as much.

A radiologist read the results and said all was well, they would send the report to my doctor. I could get dressed and go home.

Other women were told they could get dressed and go see the radiologist.

I felt very lucky. I cried a little as I changed out of the pink and into my white top.

I got an iced green tea with lemonade, my friends picked me up and away we drove.

It's so random, the way your life can change in one split second.

Or not.

xo J

*  Ellen Gilchrist