Back In Iowa

There were a few scheduling complications at Mayo this week -- I ended up NOT having an appointment on Tuesday and Wednesday was equally messed up. All's well that ends well, I guess. Yesterday Eric and I drove the 100 miles north and met with a new breast specialist. She was darling, from Ireland, and hoped my whole reason for needing to meet with her was "rubbish." The second I heard her accent I felt better. When I asked her where she was from and she responded, "Ireland," I managed to restrain from rolling my eyes and instead asked her to be more specific. We got on very well. : ) On a medical front (ha), she also didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, so that helped immensely. She was able to squeeze me in for a mammogram (ha again) yesterday afternoon, so we did that before the MRI.

The mamm was fine -- if you remember from my original mammo ordeal, we're in a waiting room (which is much like I imagine purgatory, but with HGTV) sitting around in equally unattractive gowns. They've upgraded since my first go round, now the gowns are a hospital blue color instead of the previous dusty pink. They call you back for your mamm one at a time, do the test (which is only slightly more complex because of my implant) and send you back to the waiting room to - wait -. If your test looks fine (I'm not yet sure if "fine" means "you're healthy" or simply, "we don't need any more pictures") you're free to go. On my previous two journeys to mammography I've needed to be called back for an ultrasound so I fully expected that. The poor woman sitting across from me had been coming to Mayo for 40 years for her yearly check and had NEVER had a problem before -- until yesterday. So I sat there for most of my 20 minutes of waiting chatting with her. Surprisingly, they didn't need more images from me, so I got out of there with just the original mamm -- yippie!

MRI was next and Eric and I were a bit concerned I'd be late. No worries, though -- the computer at Imaging was pitching a fit and my 3pm appointment was delayed until almost 4:15. Delays persisted after I was taken back and changed and I didn't actually get into the tube until nearly 4:45. The scan was no big deal except for my arm falling asleep (it always does) and by 5:30 we were on our way, with complimentary parking for our inconvenience.

We ate at Chipotle on the way home and the extra helping of guac did much to soothe my irritation over an annoyingly long day. We won't hear for a bit how my tests went, but certainly NOT needing an ultrasound and having an expert feel no problems are points in my corner.

Now I'm sitting at work - exhausted - and should finish my kids' warm up for the day. Fortunately I'd already planned a decently easy work day for myself because I'm definitely not up for super high energy teaching today. Don't tell my boss. : )

Carpe diem -- Trela