06/24/2025
As women, we are pretty good at taking care of everyone else before we take of ourselves.
Six months ago, I finally scheduled the mammogram that the doctor asked me to schedule last summer. I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself for doing it. It had been one of those things on my to do list, lingering in the back of my mind for half a year.
We live in a smaller community on the very northern coast of California. Health care appointments can be hard to get. My appointment was just over a month away… at 8:30 am. I had to make arrangements for someone else to get my kids to school to make it there on time.
As I walked up to the front door and went to open it to get my boobs squeezed (this was supposed to be the second mammogram I’d had), the door was locked.
Then I noticed the sign that the computers were down and I should call to reschedule.
Alright…. I’ll just put that back on my to do list.
Fast forward to May – after dodging the radiology labs calls for months – I made an appointment a month out, the end of May. This time, my kids were with their dad, so it was a quick 20 minute drive to the radiology lab, a short wait to be seen, a couple laughs with the ladies taking the pictures (I know there is a more technical name, please feel free to comment what that actually is), and I was back working just over an hour later.
Then, the email came. My results were abnormal and they wanted me to come back in for another mammogram. This was alarming – no one likes abnormal results… This time I promptly scheduled the next appointment.
The second appointment went a lot like the first – but they let me see the images – what they were looking at. A cluster of very small spots were on the image.
I really didn’t know what to think, so I just tried not to think about it…
Then, the email came again. The results were once again deemed abnormal and they wanted me to come in for a biopsy. This is where I started to get terrified.
Check out my next post to read about the biopsy.
From Fear to Fearless 