Page 110 - She's One Crazy Lady!

Takin“
my own for my appointment, but our Senior Education Inspector, who I had got to know well, kindly offered to take me and I felt I couldn’t refuse – although it made me more nervous than perhaps, I would have been.
The out-patients department was busy. Was everyone here for the same reason? Were all the other women waiting for what I was waiting for? Their faces told me they were nervous; their partner’s faces looked
the same. It was eerily quiet. I didn’t have to wait long before being called in by a breast care nurse, who was very kind and attentive. Anne and I soon got chatting and realised we both knew Sandra, our newly appointed Deputy Head. Anne told me to strip to the waist and put a blue cape round me. I could feel myself getting hot, more so because I was conscious that only a very small piece of much-used Velcro held the cape together and my boobs were being exposed. I could also feel a trickle of sweat run down my arms and back and felt sorry for the consultant who was about to examine me – I flapped the cape every so often to let some air in. Anne explained clearly what would happen.
In walked Mr Stewart.
He looked about 50 ‘ish’ and I warmed to him straight away for he had such a kind face, kind eyes and a kindly smile. After polite introductions, he endorsed all that Anne had said to put me at my ease and indicated he would like to examine me. Taking a deep breath, I removed the cape and had to smile. How many more people would be looking at my 38B sagging boobs? As he poked and prodded, I focussed on what was behind him – a display stand with so many flyers with long medical words on them – all relating to different aspects of breast cancer, reminding me why I was here. Words came from Mr Stewart’s mouth – mammogram, ultrasound, biopsy ... I was 46, too young to be called for a mammogram surely. But that’s where I headed next – having to get dressed and then undressed again as the mammography department was along the corridor.
Thankfully, this time, the cape I was given covered all that needed to be covered and I sat with three other ladies. We all had a wire shopping basket on our laps that contained our clothes and we likened it to sitting and waiting in a hairdresser’s salon. There was a lot of nervous tension in that little room.
“Glennis, if you’d like to come in?”
So, my first mammogram. I’d read about them, and I’d seen photographs in magazines, of course, but hadn’t really thought much about mammograms in general; things like that weren’t talked about. The radiographer positioned me and manipulated, first my right boob and then my left, into what she said was the ideal position. Relax! Was
ga deep breath, I removed the cape and had to smile. How many more people would be looking at my 38B
110
sagging boob”
s?