Today I had my 10yr mammogram. It’s a bit early due to false alarms a few times in the past – my actual anniversary of when I was diagnosed was in mid August 2001. A few days ago I’d decided to go to IKEA and thought doing that afterwards would be a real treat. I asked my friend Vicki if she’d like to come with me and lucky me – she was able. They let her come into the secret women’s waiting room where we sit with our fancy (cough) frocks on (what they give us to wear while being tested and poked and prodded), which was really nice. And this time, I really needed a friend with me.
One of the worst parts of having a mammogram for those of us who’ve had breast cancer isn’t really the mammogram itself. It’s when they call you back in to take more films because the mind automatically goes to the worst and we’ve already dealt with that in the past. It never gets easier. And this time they called me back in for more films a total of four times. I lost count of the number of different views and positions they used. They were trying to see something way back near my ribs near my under arm. Finally she got a good view of it and I was able to see what they were trying to see. Two tiny little white things on the screen, about the size of a period in a line of text. And it was nothing more than calcification. I’m so glad they didn’t have to do an ultrasound as they put me through that last year and that scared the bejeesus out of me too.
Each time I returned to the waiting area Vicki reminded me we were going to IKEA. So that became my mantra for a little while. Finally I saw the registrar and then the specialist who couldn’t believe it’d been 10 years, and they released me to freedom again. Yay.
We started off with lunch at IKEA (meatballs of course) and then moved on to some serious shopping. My feet are sore. My wallet is empty. We had fun. I found the doona cover (bedspread) I’d fallen in love with last time we were there (about a year ago) and this time I bought it. Not a bad price, really. $24.95 and it includes 4 pillow cases too. Can’t wait to put it on my bed, but I have to wash it first and I’ll need to wait until the weather cooperates so it’ll get dry. I also picked up a couple pillows (you can never have enough pillows), a magnetic knife holder that goes on the wall, a metal milk frothing pitcher, a rug for in front of my kitchen sink, some chocolates to share with a friend of ours (you know who you are!), and a toy mouse for Noble. I was looking for an air drying rack as mine was getting old but really wanted something a bit higher than what I’ve had so I can hang shirts from it. What I found as an over the door rack with four or five rows of bars which will be perfect for drying clothes when it’s wet out. And much cheaper than a whole air dryer thing. I think that’s it. Certainly seemed enough to fill the cart! Speaking of which, the red pillow in the picture is one of Vicki’s purchases. She bought a footstool and the pillows were only $5. She bought a red and a green one. The fabric for the foot stool is brown so the two pillows will really complement it. My doona cover is the rectangular thing with the small flowers, and the rug is what I bought for my kitchen.
Vicki dropped me off and headed home – she lives an hour away from me and IKEA is an hour from my place so she’s put in some serious driving today. I’m so glad she was able to come with me today. We don’t often get to spend time together just the two of us so was really nice to catch up. Last time we’d been to IKEA we’d just picked Snuva up at the airport and we really missed Snuva a lot today. We did send her some pics of our lunch and our shopping cart but it just wasn’t the same as having her there with us though!
Visits: 6
