Blessed&Holy

Ok. So, I admit it. Now I was actually worrying. Every few seconds my mind would jump to a harrowing conclusion based on nothing. I mean, how could it keep coming up with such wild and crazy thoughts? I can't even remember now what any of the scenarios were. But they were emotionally draining. Mostly I imaged myself dead and my children motherless. And my husband spouseless. And my friends, well, friendless.

The ultrasound core biopsy procedure was scheduled for Wednesday, January 19, 2011 at 10:30 a.m. at ProScan's Red Bank Imaging Center. Coincidentally across the hall from Cincinnati Breast Surgeons. Greg, Wren, and Joules came with me as my cheering section. Even though I thought I was doing okay, just between you and me, I was a basket case underneath it all.

At the Imaging Center, I was escorted back to change into a gown and then taken to another room where I met Blessed&Holy (not her real name) (and you have to admit the meaning of her name is awesome) and the Trainee whose name I've completely forgotten and that bothers me because I'm good with names.

Blessed&Holy explained the procedure to me and the importance of lying PERFECTLY STILL during the entire thing so they wouldn't have to do it all over again. I was fascinated by Blessed&Holy's accent. Blessed&Holy said she came here from Russia about eighteen years ago. How cool is it to meet someone from Russia? I told her that my grandparents came here from Lithuania in the early 1900's. I thought we could bond because Lithuania and Russia are neighbors. Wrong. Turns out that Russians and Lithuanians (according to Blessed&Holy) are not fond of each other. They are, actually, hostile and hateful.

I apologized for my ancestors antics and backpedaled. Blessed&Holy was not offended that I brought up the subject but she did share an incident when an 80-year-old patient yelled at her for being Russian. For crying out loud. People who are prejudiced about stuff like this are just so rude. But my new Russian friend was very gracious and she forgave that cranky old woman.

In the meantime, Blessed&Holy proceeded to numb my right breast with a long needle. Then, and I'm not sure exactly how this all played out, I think she used the ultrasound wand to locate the 1 cm tumor that had taken up residence in me and explained how Dr. Runk would take a few samples of the tumor's tissue for the biopsy. The tool that the doctor would use made a strange click-click sound with every sample extracted. It was noisy but not painful.

I was done. We departed the Imaging Center and went somewhere to debrief. Where did we go? Hyde Park Graeter's for ice cream which somehow was not as comforting as I had hoped. We could have gone to Teller's of Hyde Park for a glass of wine because they were doing a fundraiser for the Karen Wellington Foundation but, at the time, I was emotionally exhausted and just wanted to go home. But we did stop by the Hyde Park Branch of the library to visit Isaac. Then we headed home to wait for the biopsy results which would take another 2-3 days.