A Mommy Story

The nursing program at my local college has various hoops of different sizes and types to jump through in order to gain admission into the program. Some are simple and low to the ground. Others are spiked and on fire.

The health records required just to get into the nurse aide training class would be the latter variety of hoop. It requires a self-history, asking you to remember such things as the year and the MONTH you had chicken pox as a child. Then there is the required immunization charts that must be up to date.

After that, a full physical must be performed by your doctor, and your doctor must administer not one, but TWO tuberculosis tests, 7 days apart. Only after all of this has been completed, faxed to the Health Records Office, and given a processing time of 5 business days, are you given permission to register for this damn class.

Spiked and on fire, I tell you.

Today was my physical and the first TB test. My doctor is out on maternity leave right now, so I set up an appt. with her stand-in. Nice doctor – she took the time to get to know me, and discuss past health issues and such. I told her of the fatigue I had, and we agreed it was probably due to having far too much on my plate at the moment. We both agreed that some of the moles I have should be looked at by a dermatologist just to play it safe.

And then came the breast exam. I started to notice something was off when she spent a little too long on the right breast. Then she asked me, “Have you ever noticed your breasts being particularly lumpy?” Well, no, not really. Then she had me feel an area on the top, where I did, in fact, feel an area that was harder than the tissue around it, and smooth.

I didn’t think much of it, until she said she wanted to refer me for an ultrasound of that area. “You don’t have anything like that on the left breast, so I want to just play it safe and check it out.” she told me.

The remainder of the visit was a bit of a blur, to be honest. My antidepressant dose was upped ever so slightly to see if it helped with the fatigue. I was given a referral to a dermatologist. The TB test was administered, and I set up an appointment to return on Thursday for bloodwork and to check the results of the TB test.

I also left with instructions for the ultrasound. It isn’t something to have checked out sometime in the future – it’s tomorrow morning, first thing. I’ll be going to the Breast Care clinic at OSU – which is a fancy name for where they treat those with breast cancer. I’m sure the “hardened tissue area” is probably nothing, but I find myself more than a little nervous at the possibilities.

Suddenly the paperwork and TB test doesn’t seem all that bad of a hoop to jump through.