A few years before...

   I don't know if I've ever written this before, but it's my blog and my memory, and my choice to delete, as i frequently do.
   It was another post-holiday early January day when I had a repeat mammogram, at my request, I might add. I'd undergone the routine procedure the previous year, in April of 2002, so about 8 months earlier. The doctor had read the lab report, and said it was normal, that a sensitive area was fibrous tissue. I gladly accepted his pronouncement.
   But then, early that November, I  was at the Hotel Syracuse for Herkimer BOCES' annual convention. The hotel bathroom was warm and lighted and heated and had a wide wall-length  mirror over  the sink area. Out of the shower and standing in the warmth of the ceiling heater, I saw an indentation in the very area of sensitivity. Hmm, I'd call my doctor' office when I got back  home.
   I did call, a few times, but the answering service was first busy, and then asked for a message, so I delayed the call; it was the end of a report period and then preparations for Christmas. But I finally made an appointment.  The doctor was unconcerned, saying I'd had a clear mammogram earlier in the year. I said I was concerned, so he asked me outright if I wanted another mammogram. I said yes and one was scheduled for early January. The location was a few streets away from the hospital. The weather was cold and it was starting to snow. When the mammogram was completed, the presiding technician told me to bring it over to the hospital and present it to Dr. H., who I could contact by using the phone in one of the pillars on the hallway. When I got to the hospital, Dr. H. approached me, having been told I was coming. ***It went downhill from there. Maybe I'll finish the tale, or maybe not.