Dodging Bullets

No, not the lead kind of bullet that our soldiers might be dodging in Iraq...

The metaphysical, cancerous kind that my wife just ducked. Something ugly and creepy and disgusting and hidden, writhing and roiling and retching its way into your....

Two weeks ago her new GYN found some lumps in her right breast. It took about a week to get our insurance company to "allow" the ultrasound and mammogram. So you wait. And you worry.

Finally the insurance "comes through." We do the mammogram and ultrasound and sure enough, the nurse on duty says that there are some abnormalities. Most likely some cysts. But some abnormalities.

Breathe.....

Word goes to the GYN. The decision is made to proceed to a biopsy. Why wait?

On to the biopsy. I waited outside the doors at the clinic while she had her biopsy. It sounded like....hell, I don't know what it sounded like in there. There were loud POPS, followed by what sounded like people scuffling and struggling. Muffled, raised voices? General chaos. And now and then the nurses would emerge from behind the doors all smiles and sweetness and light. As if nothing odd were going on.

I've been trying to get the wife to blog about it, but she doesn't really want to, for some reason. Can't get her to blog about anything actually. Shame, that. The world is poorer for it.

Today we got THE CALL from the nurse. The biopsy proved BENIGN. And so we let out a huge sigh of relief.

That sense of relief is quickly tempered; when we tell people about her benign results, some of them want to offer a story about someone they know, a neighbor, a sister, who also had a biopsy, and hers was malignant. Well....uh.....that's really......horrible.

Every day in this country, another 300 women get diagnosed with breast cancer. It's not the automatic life sentence is used to be, but it's a life-changer.

We came THIS close to a life-changer this time. Dodged another bullet. My heart goes out to all of those who weren't able to dodge that bullet.

All you can do is pick yourself up, brush yourself off, and keep your chin up.

Now, if we can just survive another 10 months of Bush.