1st MD visit

What a LONG LONG day this was!! But we survived!!

It is spring break and 4am. We're up and ready to get going! I am dressed and ready to hit the road and Graland is taking a shower! Hurry, while I'm still OK on going!

We get there fairly easy, made one bad turn, but got right back on the correct road. Since it is our first visit we get FREE valet parking. Feeling very special today. We go up to the 2nd floor and sign in and are ready to wait. They call me back before my time is even here and I'm like, WAIT I haven't made a run to the bathroom yet!

The girl gets our insurance information and other school/home/whatever information. We go back to the waiting area until I am called back for the mammogram.

The mammogram takes a while..she wanted to get every angle she possibly could and some of the positions were quite awkward, but needed, so it wasn't any problem to do. I had a nice technician who was humorous and upbeat. She thought she had all that was needed but knew the radiologist would make the final decision so I had to wait a little bit while we waited for him to look through the slides. Sure enough, he needed a few more magnified images, so we took those, waited again, and we through with that part of the day. She walked me through the back hallway down to the ultrasound room.

Here I am in the ultrasound room, gown on and on the table. They covered me with a heated blanket which felt SOOOO good!!! It is a little chilly in the room with nothing but a gown, so the blanket was heavenly. The first tech came in and did a very long ultrasound exam. She scanned both breasts with the emphasis on the left. I watched the whole time on the 2nd screen and while I could see the tumors, I couldn't tell anything about them. She did a lot of measuring and measuring the distances between them. Also some long pictures that showed the line of tumors all in one shot. She also checked the underarm for the lymph nodes and up the neck to the scalp.

When the Doctor came in, she too did scans of her own, highlighting where the tech had done hers. The tech noticed a lump in the lymph node and had the doctor check it out. So, we are now calling in the lab, signing papers to do a fine needle aspiration biopsy. We get that done...no problem, a little sting, but nothing worth mentioning. The lab gets back with us in about 10 minutes. By now, the doctor is gone and they have called Graland in to be with me. The doctor comes back in and we find out the cancer is also in the lymph nodes, dad-gummet!! I'm now upped from a Stage 1 to a Stage 2. Stage 2 includes the lymph nodes.

After this, we head off to lunch at the cafeteria there...which I must say is absolutely delicious!!! I am off my normal diet and have a scrumptous (sp) chicken fried steak with gravy, mashed potatoes and gravy, and a water. No dessert! I AM good on that one! No sugar!! Graland has a roast beef sandwich and is wishing he was eating what I had!

Now, we go ahead and go to the 2nd floor where the lab is. There I have an EKG, a chest x-ray, and some blood work done. WE ARE FINISHED!!!! We did it!!

We get back on the road, worn out, and ready to be home. We get back on the right roads and feeling ok. Before we get home, we decide to go out for dinner at the Shrimp Hut where I have the big 15 shrimp meal. Oh, it was so good!

In the meanwhile, Karen had come over just as we left the house and delivered pizza to the kids!! That was SOOO sweet!! So we came back and they were so excited. Zach wanted us to watch a movie he had (I-Robot), so we watched that, and YES, I DID have TWO wonder slices of Karen's pizza!! and loved every bite of it!

Off to bed, and slept like a log! What a day it has been.