Confuzzled

I'm sorry... I really did mean to tell what happened yesterday yesterday, but honestly, it was just too frustrating to put in words.

My appointment card said to be at the main hospital x-ray at 12:45. A friend from church had offered to drive me last week, ands he said she'd arrive at 12:15 to drive me so I wouldn't be alone. It was 12:20 and she hadn't arrived, so I called her house and got the machine. She lives 10 minutes away, so I figured she was on her way. At 12:30 I got antsy, because I figured she had more than enough time to get to my house. By 12:38, I decided that I'd better drive myself. I couldn't afford to be late, not for this...

I found out later that she had completely forgotten about me till nearly 1. She called the house and talked to mom and kept apologizing. Mom reassured her that I was okay, I drove myself and I was more worried about her than anything else. That was pretty close to true. I wasn't angry. Scared maybe, but not angry.

I was fortunate enough to find a spot by the entrance where I needed to be, so I was relieved, and I was only 5 minutes late. Did I mention that I had started to sweat? Sweating is bad, because deodorant is forbidden the day you go for a mammogram.At least I wasn't stinky. I waited in the main x-ray area and this nice lady escorted me to the special waiting area. I was given a warm terry cloth robe and instructed to remove my clothes from the waist up. Every other time I've had this done, I was given a thin cotton or paper gown, so this was a nice change

The waiting area had a "women only" sign, so those of us waiting read magazines and sometimes made small talk. One of the women had had a partial mastectomy 10 years ago, so she went through this every 6 months. I talked about my mom and the staff and how nice they all were during her breast cancer ordeal. When I was finally called in for the mammogram, I was relaxed, but not relaxed enough to get in the correct position. The technician took 2 views of my right breast and 5 of my left. It wasn't my worst experience, in fact, she did a great job of getting me comfortable. A "marker" was taped on to show the general area of the lump. I have very dense breast tissue and that the source on the lump couldn't be seen. I was sent back to the waiting area to wait for the sonogram tech to call me.

I figured it would be easy, but when I was called in for the sonogram, I saw the setup for a biopsy and I got really nervous. I popped 1/2 an Ativan to relax and I laid down. The sonogram technician had to press down hard to get the pictures she needed and most of then went right over my left nipple.It was very uncomfortable and I did my best to not squirm, jump up or yell. She told me that she took 37 images for the radiologist (doctor) to look at. I fell asleep while I waited for them to return, and then the radiologist took two more images. He said that I have calcifications and that because my breast tissue is dense, it was hard to tell if it was normal or cancerous, but that it was probably normal. I need to see the breast specialist on Monday (8-1) and she will decide the next step. This means that my wait isn't over and I have no real answers yet.