Cancer Lesson #2: When you call for your appointment, you should probably mention the lump.
I found my cancer during one of the nightly boob shifts mentioned in Cancer Lesson #1. Only half-awake, my hand touched on something that can only be described as a lump. I thought, “Hmm, I really do need to call for my appointment,” and promptly fell back asleep.
In the shower the next morning, I did a breast self-examination (BSE) and the lump was still there.
I hadn’t been dreaming.
Still, I didn’t mention what I’d found when I scheduled the appointment through the central booking desk that handles my doctor’s schedule. I kept hoping it was a blocked duct or something that would go away on its own.
The earliest appointment they could offer was three weeks away.
I took it, and spent the next twenty-four hours touching that side of my breast again and again, reconfirming my discovery. If you’d seen me, you’d have thought I was a sexual deviant with an obsession for feeling myself up.
Eventually, I realized I couldn’t make it through three weeks before talking to my doctor; I called the central desk again.
“I made an appointment for my yearly exam,” I told them, “and I probably should have mentioned that I found a lump.”
No more central booking. I was connected straight to Dr. K’s nurse who offered me an appointment the following day.
Keeping A-Breast: Cancer Lessons 