Good News…..

It was such a crazy, stressful, emotional day yesterday. Alex didn’t get out of his French final until 4:00—the professor was running 1 1/2 hours behind! ugh. We finally were able to head home on horrible Route 2; thankfully the snow showers had stopped so the roads weren’t terrible, but they were still awful in most spots due to some very slippery stretches.  It took a little longer than the usual 1 1/2 hours to get home, but we reached Bangor at almost 6 pm. As I’m nearing my exit on I-95 to turn onto Hogan Road, then home, I get another phone call. When I answered, it was the doctor calling about my breast “finding”. He introduced himself, and I asked him if I had to pull over to the side of the road to cry. He didn’t know that I had been called in the morning about setting up a follow-up ultrasound, so he was calling for the same reason. However, I didn’t know that he didn’t know, so I thought he was calling to tell me to get the hospital as soon as possible or something; all kinds of things went through my mind at that moment. He said it wasn’t anything to worry about; I have dense breast tissue, so if they see something they want to make sure it’s “only” a benign cyst, and that’s why they order the extra screening. He said almost 100 percent of the time it’s nothing, but it’s better to check it out. I felt better after talking to him.  However, getting another call like that on a dark, slippery, very crowded I-95 is not a good thing.

I dropped Katie off at the house, Alex ran in to grab his guitar, then he and I left…again. I took him to church for practice, then I went to CAP. He was early to his meeting; I was only 15 minutes late to mine, but the cadet promotions had barely started so I really didn’t miss much (a friend of mine was taking pictures for me until I got there).

When I got home, Katie told me that Dave called (he’s the husband of our friend Mary); he’s also a radiologist. When I called him back, he said Mary had forwarded my email to him, so he could stop on his way home from work and read my mammogram. He said there was absolutely nothing to worry about; it’s exactly the same size, shape, etc as last year, the year before, and the year before that, when I had to have an extra screening at that time and was so worried. He said to still make the appointment for the ultrasound so I can have the piece of mind that it’s nothing, and not have to worry about it.

They knew how worried I’d be about this, and he took time out of his day, after a busy day at work reading other people’s stuff, and all the other radiologist-related things he does, and stopped to read mine so I’d feel better. It’s so great to have such wonderful friends. I almost cried when he told me what he had done, and that Mary had sent my email on to him, etc. I was so relieved to hear the good news, from someone I trust, and I was so touched that they would do that. I love them.

This morning I made the appointment for the utltrasound; since the first time available wasn’t until after Christmas, I don’t have to stress over Christmas about it. 

I feel so blessed on so many levels.

Just Waiting…..

Ah, yes.  “Just waiting”. That seems to be my life these days. Waiting for payday to pay an overdue bill; waiting for the sun to come out and make it warm again; waiting to have a few moments to be able to get things done; waiting for healing; waiting for….; waiting…waiting….waiting….

Right now I’m in the Dining Hall at Farmington waiting for Alex to take his Final for his French class. It was supposed to start at 2:30, but the professor is running behind in getting through the “groups of two’s”—each student was paired with another, and they had to ask and answer questions with each other. So, now it’s 3:10 and he’s still not finished. ugh.

Alex came home this past Sunday; he and Bobby stopped by the college on their way home from their “road trip”; Alex was able to take his Finals in his other classes via email, but the French teacher wanted hers done in person, not over the phone or Skype. So, we had to make a round trip from Bangor to here, and we thought we’d be back on the road by 3….at the latest since the “test” was only 15 minutes long.  I have my Civil Air Patrol meeting/Christmas party, and Alex has practice with the “band” at church (Bangor Baptist, just like he did all summer long). 

On top of all that, it’s a wanna-be nasty day out there, with spitting snow and sort-of icy roads. Route 2 is nasty in icky weather, so the sooner we get out of here, the better. I don’t want to be traveling during the dark hours (which is around 4 pm up here).

On the way down here, I got a phone call (love cell phones) about the mammogram I had done this past Friday. They want me back in to have an ultrasound on my left breast. ugh. That’s the one with all the stupid fibroids in it, so it’s hard to tell which is a “real lump” and which is a fibroid; hopefully it will only be a fibroid that decided to smile at the camera instead of behaving itself and letting the technician/doctor know it’s only a fibroid.

I emailed my friend, Mary, who is a doctor (radiologist); a few years ago she was the person who read my mammogram, saw something on there, and let me know it was fine but they just wanted to double-check because of the breast cancer history in my mother’s side. My aunt (mom’s sister) died of breast cancer back in 1984/84; my mother had breast cancer in 2000/01.

Mary is the same friend who came to visit Katie after her heart surgery and calmed me down with a lot of feelings then, too. She’s a fantastic person.

Since I was driving when the hospital—Breast Center—called me, I couldn’t make an appointment right then, so she’s going to call me back tomorrow morning. Hopefully, I can get it done as soon as possible.

Ugh. It’s getting close to 3:30. I hope Alex is done soon.  I can’t believe he only has one semester left and then he graduates.

In the meantime, I’ll just sit here and wait…and wait…and wait…..

Alex’s “Road Trip”….ha ha

Tonight, Alex and his best friend Bobby are on a road trip to New York. Bobby is really into buying, fixing/restoring “Wheel Horse” tractors, and someone in New York has a barn-full of them he wants to get rid of….er, I mean…sell. (The man and Bobby are on the same internet forum pertaining to these Wheel Horse things)  So, Bobby gets the bright idea of taking a drive down/over to New York to buy some. In the meantime, someone else on the forum who lives near Farmington wanted Bobby to pick up his WH and take it down to New Hampshire (or was it Massachusetts); he will pay for the gas. Since Bobby was going into Farmington anyway to pick up Alex, the deal was set for picking up this guy’s tractor on the way to get Alex.

Originally, Bobby was going to pick up the tractor, go to UMF, spend the night in Alex’s room, then they would both leave early early early in the morning to get to NH at a reasonable time, drop the tractor off, then spend Saturday night with a friend of Prudence (Bobby’s mother). That would leave Sunday to get to New York, look at the tractors for sale, load it up in Bobby’s truck, get back to Farmington, drop off Alex, then head home, and be ready to work early Monday morning. I think I have that all straight.

Just in case I messed up on the details, it’s all a moot point now anyway as their plans had changed as of 6 pm tonight when Bobby left for the First WH guy. New plan: pick up the WH from the guy near Farmington; stop by UMF to pick up Alex; drive down to New Hampshire tonight, thereby saving  a few hours tomorrow; arriving at NH Lady’s house around 1AM.  I asked  Alex if it was ok with Prudence’s friend that they arrive so early, and, according to Alex and Bobby the lady is getting ready for a craft show tomorrow so she will be up getting her handmade baskets ready.

However, I am “on call” as the backup to their GPS….if it decides to conk out in the middle of the night,  Alex will call me so I can look up directions on Map Quest. I will either email it to them or Alex will stay on the phone with me as I take them step-by-step.  This could be a very long night for me. I hope not, but if they need me, I’m right here for them.

So, even though it’s “only” 11:30 I better get to bed so I’m not exhausted when/if they call me.