It's that time, ladies

True story.

I was watching old episodes of Beverly Hills, 90210 last fall. The episode where the girls do a self exam and Brenda discovers a lump came on. Now, I'll be the first to admit, I'm *NOT* good about remembering to do my checks monthly, so the show was a good reminder.

I didn't know how good.

So at Aaron Spelling's insistence, I felt myself up. I'm all over Lefty. Scar tissue and glands, but no lumps. Awesome! Righty...bah bah bah....checkin' it out...gland....scar tissue....gland...gland...lump....gland....gla....whoa. WTF? What was that? God, it feels like a rock! So I check it from another angle. Hmm...still pea gravel. Shit.

I don't panic, per se, because I've found lumps before. But this one isn't squishy like the other ones so I am concerned. I call my doctor and make an appointment. Upon her examination, she decides that despite my age & health history a mammogram wouldn't be a bad idea. I had the mammogram and ultrasound, both of which determined that there was something there. The radiologist thinks that my lump is probably related to my breast reduction in 1997. Sometimes with reductions there can be fat necrosis (dead tissue) and that necrotic tissue can develop calcium deposits, which is what she thinks is showing up on the scans. She gave me a couple of options as to how we could proceed. Having had a family history of breast cancer, I chose to have it biopsied. As it turns out, the fear I felt was unfounded. It turned out to be the calcium deposit on the scar tissue. They removed almost all of it through the biopsy and while that whole thing was another giant mess (allergies to the medical glue, more necrotic tissue, blah blah), I still have both my boobies.

So this is a reminder, ladies.

Do your exams.

Set aside a day, schedule it on your calendar. Plug it into your Blackberry, Set an email reminder. Do whatever it takes, but do your self exam. It could save your life.