The Girls Are Great

Since my last post, I was stressed out over having to go back to the doctor to get a Electrostatic biopsy to check cysts that were found to during a routine mammogram.  The time between scheduling the biopsy and actually getting it done were stressful at times and happy at times.   Sitting around the house just thinking about what "could be"  was bad enough.  This was not time to have to deal with the possibility of having cancer, but there is no time to deal with cancer, much less the time worrying about if I have it or not.  

The day for my biopsy arrived, and I dragged around the house until the last minute until it was time to leave to go the to the doctor's office.  The procedure went well and started off with of course another mammogram, this time two additional mammograms to get a better look at the cysts the doctor wanted to check.  Needless to say, after that it was time for the Electrostatic Biopsy.  This type of biopsy requires the patient to lay down parallel to the floor in a compression table with an opening in the table for the breast to go through.  The area be biopsied is numbed up with a topical anesthetic and the procedure begins with an ongoing live digital mamnmogram taking picures while the doctor uses a needle with a suction to procure the tissue to be collected.  I had three different locations to be checked and  other than being a little uncomfortable on a compression table laying face down with one of my "girls" getting squished, poked with a needle attached to a vacuum device, I would say it wasn't that painful.  

A day and half after the biopsy, my awesome doctor called me with great news - No cancer anywhere!  My awesome  doctor called me from her cell phone while on vacation to tell me the news. Yay! I said a prayer of thanks and prayed for all the other women out there going through the same thing, and for those who are diagnosed with breast cancer.

Three days later after the procedure it felt like my boob had got hit with a baseball bat.  Thank goodness for the prescription pain medication.  A few weeks later the bruise looked worse and turned every color of the rainbow.  About a month later, I can finally say I am officially healed and thankful that my outcome was a good one.  I can handle a bad bruise and a small puncture wound compared to the other women who are battling breast cancer.  It never is too late to get a mammogram, when in doubt get checked out, you might save your own life.

The New Attitude

When I started to write this blog, I did not ever imagine that I would be writing on the topic of mammograms.   Two weeks ago, I got my first mammogram and the entire process took about 25 minutes from the time I walked into the doctors office,  got the mammogram and left.  I thought great, I have that crossed off my to do list.   A few days later, however I get a phone call from the breast center informing me that I need to come back in for a more detailed mammogram and I am told that it is normal to get a call back after the 1st mammogram because I have no baseline from previous mammograms.  So, for one week I am thinking this is  normal for a first mammogram, since I have not had one before and not to worry.   I even get a call from my primary physician,  and she tells me that it is common after a first time mammogram to get called back because there is no baseline mammogram for a comparison.    I spent the week, thinking about all the "what ifs" that could possibly be wrong. It could be benign, it could just be how my body is, or it could be cancer.  There is no family history of breast cancer in my family in any of my female relatives, however, now all the research I have read states that it doesn't make much of a difference anymore if there is a family history of breast cancer or not.  

 

I go in for the second appointment and this one takes a lot longer than the first.  I am escorted to the changing room, given a long gown that goes on like a robe and I am asked to put my stuff in a locker.  There are some wipes wrapped in cute pink packaging  that I have to use to wipe off any deodorant I might be wearing.  Quickly, I change into the robe and wait in the lobby next to to the changing area. I wait and wait, look through a magazine and wait a little bit more.  The radiology tech comes to get me and she says, "Sorry for the wait we had a few issues going on with something."   I go in the exam room for the 2nd mammogram. This one is different from the first, as the doctor wants more detailed pictures  from multiple angles. So, the radiology tech and I contort my right side and my arms and chest in multiple positions for all the pictures that need to be taken.  This whole time I am wondering, great my boob is getting smashed like a pancake and I am going to be sore for a few days, and I know that I don't need to worry about anything because I am fine.  After finishing up with the second group of mammo pictures, I am escorted back in the waiting area by the dressing room and told not to change into my top because now I have to wait to meet with the doctor and see if she wants to do additional procedures.  Sitting there in the waiting area, I  peruse a stack of magazines, People catches my eye.  I end reading a story on one one of the latest reality stars and finish it.  Perfect timing, because by that time, I get called back into another room to wait for the doctor.  I am ushered into a room that is dark with a dark ceiling with white Christmas style lights on the ceiling, rock music is playing over the speaker system and I can see the pictures of my mammo up on a computer screen. The radiology tech, informs me that the doctor wants to meet with me to chat for a little while, do an ultrasound and do a breast exam.  A few minutes later, my doctor enters the room; she is is a petite athletic blonde similar to myself.  She explains in detail that what she sees on the mammo pictures are calcifications and since I have not had a mammo before she wants to be certain to find out what type of tissue it is.  These calcifications, could be DCIS (Ductal carcinoma in situ) the most common type of non-invasive breast cancer or just calcifications that are benign.   She further explains that I  can either come back every 6 months for 2 years to get checked or get a biopsy and find out exactly what it is. She explains to me that she had the same thing happen to her and she chose to have a biopsy and she ended up having DCIS and went through all the treatment to get be cancer free.  Either way, she would be alright with whatever decision I make and it was medically acceptable to her.  Needless, to say I am putting all my faith in my doctor, she is a breast cancer survivor herself, and all I can do is listen to her and let her do all the procedures and tests that she deems necessary.  Next week, I am scheduled to have a biopsy done.

I am staying positive for as of now, I am healthy and I am still a mom and I am definitely not old.   So with that in mind, I am spending the last few weeks with my children before school starts doing fun things together whenever possible.  My oldest starts kindergarten this year and there are a lot of activities I want to do with her. Once school starts, I won't have the freedom to do activities with her during the week anymore.  Also, it takes my mind off of  the upcoming procedures and the children and I get the benefit of spending quality time together.  I don't want to be the parent who is tethered to her smart phone or netbook at the playground.  I want to be the parent who sets out to have enjoyable experiences with her children and isn't idly sitting by watching the kids play and not interacting with them. 

Potty Training...

Well it's that time.  Time for the little one to start potty training.  I thought that since we started out with cloth diapers on my youngest when she was about 6 months old that potty training her would be a breeze.   The cloth diapers worked out well for her due to her allergic reactions that she had to disposable diapers as an infant.  Fast forward to when she was about 2 1/2 years old and she started showing interest in going to the potty.  She would ask to sit on and sometimes she even put some "pee pee" in the potty and was doing great.  Well at about this time I was still cloth diapering her.  Eventually, I did discover some disposable diapers that she was not allergic to that I used when we were away from the house and out & about, Huggies Pure & Natural.   This discovery slowly led to me using the Huggies more and more the cloth diaper less and less mainly due to not having to do so much laundry and to her interest in potty training.  Switching from the cloth diapers to the disposable diapers turned out to be a huge mistake!  Now she wasn't able to tell when she was wet and would insist that her diaper was dry because the disposables pulled too much wetness from her skin.  I was so sure that she was close to being potty trained and I was tired of the cloth diaper laundering process that I got a little lazy.  Hence, my laziness created a kink in the potty training process. Then all of  her interest in potty training quit. Oh uh.

So in desperation I went on a search for cloth training pants that fit like underwear and had some leak proof fabric similar to a cloth diaper.   My search led to some training pants called Bambino Mio training pants.  Bambino training pants are made of a cotton/poly fabric and have a leak proof liner in between the the fabric in the crotch area so that when the child wets, it will not gush all over the floor but will still allow the child to feel the wetness.  Well, yesterday she wore her first pair of training pants all day - and not one accident.  Today however she wore her training pants for a little while and had an accident.  Granted the pants were soaked and were obviously wet but the pee did not go all over the floor.   She ran to me and said, "Mommy, I need new pants."    These training pants are doing their job so far and the clean up is easier than having to clean up a huge pee puddle on the floor.