So this is my first blog, and I wish it were a bit more cheerful...sorry about that. If you're reading this, I'm guessing you know me on some level, but for anyone who just happened to find this, here's a little about me. I'm a 38 year old wife, mother of a four year old, and higher education administrator (Director of Residence Life to be specific) at a small, private college in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. I always thought I was a fairly healthy person although I have an underactive thyroid, I don't eat very healthy, and I loathe exercising. Okay, so maybe I'm not that healthy, but I've never really been super sick either.
Sometime in the fall (I can't remember exactly when), I felt a lump in my left breast. I couldn't remember feeling anything like that before, and I was a little concerned. I asked my husband (Aris) to feel it, which he did and said he didn't feel anything. To be honest, I can be a bit of a hypochondriac, so I think he dismissed it a little. I knew something was there and thought I should probably see my doctor, but I'm also a bit of a procrastinator, especially about going to the doctor or doing other things to take care of myself. So I would check once in a while to see if the lump was still there, and it was. It never really changed size, and I was starting to think maybe I felt two lumps.
Finally, over Winter Break in late December, I saw my doctor. The appointment was mainly to get my thyroid prescription renewed, but I mentioned to her that I had felt a lump in my breast. She felt it, and said that she thought it was a cyst. That made sense to me - my mother and sister have both had multiple cysts in their breasts. However, to be safe she referred me to have a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. I made my appointment for a week later and didn't think much about it.
On the day of my mammogram and ultrasound, I was a bit apprehensive. I had heard that mammograms hurt, but I also heard that if you have larger breasts (which mine are) it doesn't hurt as much. So, I had the mammogram, which was a little uncomfortable - your boob is basically smooshed between two clear plates for less than a minute. It didn't seem too bad to me, but I wouldn't want to have one every day or anything.
Then they did the ultrasound. So I've now had my throat (when my underactive thyroid was diagnosed), abdomen (when I was pregnant, obviously), and boob ultrasounded. Hopefully the next body part is free. I thought perhaps it wasn't a good sign when the ultrasound tech came in after I thought she was done and said that the doctor wanted more pictures. But who knows, maybe she just screwed up?
After she was done, the doctor came in and talked to me. It was not a good talk. It was a "you have suspicious tumors in your breast and need to have a biopsy" kind of talk. Wait...what happened to my cysts? He also asked if I had a history of breast cancer in my family, which I didn't think I did and ultimately learned that I don't. That has now become a very popular question for medical professionals to ask me.
I called Aris as soon as the doctor finished talking to me and broke down in tears. This isn't how this was supposed to go. This was supposed to be simple, easy, and reassuring and now I was really worried. And I had to have a biopsy, which did not sound enjoyable.
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