Because Some Of You Have Asked

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And perhaps others wish to do so.

(Males readers - assuming there are some - might want to go check the stats on your favorite sports team or something. There will probably be "female problems" mentioned and you know how you feel about those.)

Still here? Okay, then.

During my annual check-up I answered the questions that the nurse asked. Just routine, right? Apparently not so much. One caused her to quickly exit the room. Was it something I said? Evidently. All of a sudden I had the sinking feeling like I was the captain of the Titanic who'd just received word that the ship was entering iceberg infested waters. "Okay, that's not good," I thought, "but probably no real danger either."

Ha! Ha! Oh, I am so naive. Having successfully navigated through my years of female adulthood with only minor difficulties charted in my logbook I had assumed my ship would arrive at its port of destination unharmed. Suddenly now it looked like a good idea to change my name to Molly Brown!

Before I really knew what hit me, I was sent to radiology for an ultrasound! The technician told me I would hear something within 3 days. When I hadn't heard anything in a week I began to believe that all the fuss was over nothing. When they finally did call me on Day 11 we were out to lunch with Dan and Lisa (who were visiting for a few days) and I was expecting the routine "everything is normal" spiel.

But that's not what she said. I asked her to repeat the message, several times as it turned out, and not just because of the noise in the Cracker Barrel.

The ultrasound showed things that aren't supposed to be there. Sadly, this rare lunch opportunity was somewhat marred by the news. And some of my male companions who normally wouldn't know much about my "female problems" (that would be The Bear and Dan) received an explanation, too.

A couple of days later I was back at the doctor's office for a more complete explanation. There is a small mass on my ovary. They don't know for sure what it is (the report said just that) but the doctor believes that it could be a cyst.

I was glad Pastor Dad was with me that day because when she started throwing around the "c" word (cancer, not cyst) my brain stalled for a few moments even though the doctor kept right on talking in encouraging tones. They pinched me with a needle to bring me back to reality. We were told that the results of the blood tests normally take 24 hours.

It was 5 days later when we were notified of the results and we were at church camp at the time. If nothing else I've learned that my doctor's office has the uncanny ability of calling me when I cannot fully process information due to situational overload. But I did finally figure out most of what I was told including the fact that I needed to make an appointment for more tests. So now I know that my CA-125 (the ovarian cancer marker test) was low and that my FSH level (the test to tell if I'm post-menopausal) was moderately high. This was a good news-bad news scenario. It means that the THING is most likely not cancerous. But it also means it has no way of going away on it's own. And go away it must!

I've got another ultrasound scheduled for early September. If it hasn't grown surgery will be scheduled at everyone's convenience. (Is there really such a thing as a convenient time to have surgery?)

So pray that there isn't any change. Unless of course you want to pray that it disappears. I have no objection to Divine intervention!

I'm not currently in a lot of pain (I'm pretty tough) although I was having some bad backaches that I thought were kidney related prior to receiving the diagnosis, but other than that I'm feeling fine. Pains due to "female problems" are just par for the course for me.

If you have more questions, just ask and I'll get back with you. It might be in 3 days. Or it might be in 11. But answer it I will!