Repeat Mammogram--Scary!

I woke up Thursday morning and wandered into the kitchen for breakfast. As I sat, bleary-eyed, eating my cereal and berries, the phone rang. It was someone from Greenville Radiology telling me that my recent mammogram had changed since the previous one. I needed to go in and have further tests. I felt as if I was in a dream, writing down directions and instructions in slow motion.

Luckily, they had a cancellation that very day. I had just enough time to finish eating, walk Mini Me, shower and get over to the Patewood Medical Campus. As I wandered through the neighborhood, I wanted to tell anyone who'd listen that I had an abnormal mammogram; it seemed like telling the story might weaken its clammy hold on me. No one was out, though, so I didn't get to test out my theory.

We arrived at Patewood just in time to register and be whisked back to the Breast Center, where they separated us, the mammography waiting room being reserved for patients only. As I waited, I looked at the two or three other women sitting in the tastefully upholstered armchairs lined up along the walls. It seemed to me that we were all isolated in our own cells of terror, even though none of us were screaming or crying.

Soon, a female staff member came to escort me to a beautiful dressing room with a small tv, a mirror, and a dressing table complete with upholstered Parsons chair. I exchanged my blouse for a mammo gown, and she showed me exactly what was worrisome about my mammogram; a dark area indicated a mass of tissue that might or might not be something ominous. Then, she explained that they needed to take more films and see if the offending tissue would flatten out--meaning it was okay--or if it would stay stubbornly firm, which would warrant a trip to ultrasound.

We took the films and I went back to the dressing room to await the results. In just a few minutes, the tech returned and told me the tissue had flattened out. She even gave me a letter stating that my new mammogram was without significant abnormality.

I dressed and went to tell Gary the good news.

Patewood was fabulous. The speed and efficiency were the best I've ever experienced. I liked the process of staying in the dressing room while the films were read. Best of all was finding out my results immediately. I would recommend Patewood Breast Center to anyone. I've had mammograms in multiple facilities, and this was the best experience ever.

Birthday Today!

Today is Gary's birthday. We're off to the movies, a trip to the Greenville County Museum of Art, and dinner at a new-to-us Italian restaurant. Our plan is to skip lunch in favor of popcorn and candy at the movies. Plus, there's a lemon cake in the fridge downstairs and ice cream in the freezer.

New Yahoo Group for Women Who Want to Own a Business

I just started a Yahoo group for South Carolina women who want to become business owners but just aren't quite sure how to go about it. I hope it will foster some interesting discussions, give great hints, and generally promote women-owned businesses in South Carolina.

Subscribe HERE.

New Gateway Laptop

My old laptop developed a nasty habit of dying with no warning at random times, although it did seem to die more frequently during Scrabble games I was winning than during ones I was losing. Anyway, I needed a new computer, so we bought me a Gateway NV53 with Windows 7. I'm typing this blog entry with it.

Great computer, fun operating system, although the new Word interface is a little difficult to get used to.

Making Jewelry at the Crafty Hands Club

The Lake Rabon Crafty Hands Club met yesterday and made jewelry, mainly necklaces and earrings. The craft appears deceptively simple. It takes skill and vision, just like any other art. In this case, you need good eyesight as well as vision--some of those parts are tiny!

It's an addictive craft. Once I get the beads out and lay them on the black mat along with my limited set of tools, the rest of the world seems to drop away.

At lunch, we feasted on homemade cookies. Then, we went back to work on our bead projects. It's been a long time since we had a postprandial session. I was gratified that we worked so intently and produced such professional-looking pieces.

Technology Gets the Best of Me

I set up an event with Schmap-It and set it to Tweet every hour until the end of the month. Everything was going well. I was getting tons of hits on the event map and things were moving along smoothly until I got a message from a Facebook friend that the Tweets were also going out on Facebook every hour. I had opted to let Schmap access Facebook as well as Twitter and it was tweeting to Facebook. I ended up having to delete the entire event; I hope that stopped the Facebook tweeting.

I guess I'm not the tech wizard that I thought I was.

The Secret in Their Eyes--movie review

On a lighter note than my last post, we went to see The Secret in Their Eyes last night. It was great! I give it a 5 on a scale of five. It's an Argentinian film, so be prepared for subtitles if you go to see it.

A court employee sets out to write a novel about an old case that has niggled at his mind for years. In researching the book, he reawakens old passions and tears open old wounds.

I loved the Argentinian flavor of the film as well as the artfully-painted, three dimensional characters.