January 2008 A story begins

I'm about to tell a story. Sadly, I kept only two exact dates for this story. Feb. 20th and April 3rd. The rest never made it to the calendar.

I go to the doctor for something. Can't remember what. I think something routine. About a week before the appointment, I find a strange lump in my breast. Hard and small, like a rock, buried deep. When I was younger I had so many lumps my doctor told me I didn't have breasts, I just had bags of marbles. The lumps always came and went, so I just ignored them. They were normal for me. But this one didn't feel normal. My doc actually thought she felt three lumps.

My doc, being the fantastic person that she is, said "Well, I know you know most lumps are nothing. So we could wait and see if it goes away or we could send you for a diagnostic mammogram." I had just had a mammogram 10 weeks before. This is when I learned that there is a difference between regular mammograms (called screening mammograms) and diagnostic mammograms. I said "Let's do the mammogram."

And now you get to wait. I had to.