Facing mortality

For the past three weeks I have been pricked, stung, pinched, probed, pierced, squished, re-squished, squeezed, squashed, compressed, crushed... All part of being alive.

Meanwhile this "spring chicken" has been going on her merry way, a little bit annoyed for the loss of time and for being "handled" (and not in a very pleasant way) by so many people that she has lost count... But apparently her doctors and "parentals" haven't been feeling so "merry at all".

It is really cool when your "oncologist" tells you "Wow, I can breathe now. I have been anxious for the past weeks because when I examined you I felt really uncomfortable with my findings; I thought that what I had found was "not good" and yet you seemed so happy-go-lucky you were the one who actually made me feel hopeful."

Let me just say that he is a very good doctor/actor. I wasn't afraid or concerned in the slightest, yet both him and my parents apparently were "facing my mortality" while I was just prancing around, once again annoyed by having to undergo 3 weeks of different medical exams.

But it's still not over. Last Friday I had to undergo a "procedure" that supposedly "wasn't going to hurt at all" yet kept me virtually incapacitated for the whole length of the weekend (couldn't even get together with my blogger friends yesterday). The doctor who stuck more than 20 needles of different sizes in very "sensitive" parts of my body told me she was going to send the "findings" to the lab and that maybe by Wednesday the results would be back, but that she was more than sure that everything was going to come back "normal". That means that I have to wait 1 more week in order to go visit the oncologist for his final checkup.

And then I have to go thru all of this all over again in 4 months.

Now, don't you worry. There is nothing wrong with me. Yet, it is better to be "safe than sorry" and since apparently my life/health is so important to certain people, I will stick to the "get annual checkups" crap that people have to go thru, especially when you are of a "certain age" or getting there.

Yep, that's right girls. Go have your pap tests done on a regular basis, (once a year is the general recommendation), check yourselves every month for irregularities or bumps in your breasts and if you find something go to your gynecologist so she can decide if you need to have a mamogram done. As for you guys, you also need to have a rectal exam done by your urologist after a certain age.

It better to waste time and find out there's nothing wrong with you than to find out when it's too late to do anything about it. I tell you from experience as both my parents are cancer survivors just because they had their checkups done and found out in time to do something about it.

Take 10 minutes out of your life and visit the National Cancer Institute. Read. You never know.