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Monday, December 20, 2004

feeling Blah


Back in March I discovered a lump in my left breast. An ultrasound revealed a clump of fibroglandular tissue, nothing more sinister than a pain in the.. well.. breast.
The doctor told me that it should go away on it's own and to go back if it was still there in four weeks time. The lump didn't go away but it wasn't hurting too much or being much of a nuisance so I just let it be.

I went for another ultrasound this morning, because last week I suddenly experienced a great deal of pain in my breast and the lump was bigger. much bigger, like noticeably protruding from the inner edge of my breast like some freaky miniature third-breast. I had already made a doctor's appointment for other girly check-up purposes so I mentioned it to her while I was there. She had a feel and said "ooh it feels a bit cystic now, we'll get another scan done." so off I trotted to the x-ray centre to make an appointment.

The lump had already gone back to it's original size by the time I had to go in this morning, but I still have a fair bit of pain. I was a little nervous before going in, thinking "hooray, again I get to have a complete stranger squirt gel on my breasts and spread it around with a doppler while watching the mars-like landscape being transferred from my breast to the monitor".

I wasn't as nervous after seeing the canadian lady that scanned my breasts last time calling a pregnant girl in for her ultrasound. ok, I thought, at least it's not a complete stranger, that one has seen my breasts before.

What I was completely unprepared for was a male voice calling my name and telling me to take my top clothing off and put the gown on. oh my god oh my god, it's not supposed to be done by a BOY. I had assumed that the boys were there to scan the men bits and the women were there to scan the girl bits! now I'm sure this young man has had all the necessary training and whatnot and that he's very proficient at his job in radiology and that his superiors are very happy with his work, but he's not supposed to scan MY BREASTS, that's a woman's job!

To be perfectly honest, I was very uncomfortable having a young male perform the ultrasound, very very uncomfortable. I know that he was only looking at my breast tissue and looking for nasties, but still, he's a strange boy, and they are MY BREASTS! after the scan was over with and the young man had informed me that the lump is still just fibroglandular tissue clumping up, and I have two tiny cysts in my left breast and I was thinking goodie now I can get dressed and get out of here... he said to wait while he went and asked the doctor if he wanted to have a look as well - of course the doctor wanted to have a look, and he just happened to be male as well - fabulous, two strange males looking at my breasts in one morning.

I am relieved that all seems well, although I do have the pain still - I spoke to my regular (female) doctor on the phone this afternoon and she says that that will be hormonal. The general consensus is that the clump of tissue will fluctuate with my cycle, it should have gone away but it appears that it might not and it just needs to be checked up on now and then.

I feel crappy.







Thursday, December 16, 2004

b0nk.... b0nk.... croak


a few days ago, Bonnie decided to pretty up the "pond" with several flowers from the garden. Said flowers are rather toxic and poisoned the tadpoles leaving only mosquito larvae to thrive in rank water, which has since been drained.

no wee froggies for us, then.







Wednesday, December 01, 2004

B0nk..... B0nk..... B0nk.....


One evening a couple of weeks ago, I was pottering about the house, getting the girls ready for bed, tidying up and such, when I heard a sort of knocking noise, low and regular ... "b0nk".... "b0nk".... "b0nk"....

I checked around the house for the dripping tap, and became frustrated when I couldn't find one. I found that the noise was equally loud in my bedroom and the living room, which are on opposite ends of the front of the house, so it was coming from outside - but I couldn't figure out what on earth it was. By the time the gorgeous boyfriend walked in the door, I was incredibly irritated at not being able to identify it and said "what IS that noise?!" as soon as he entered. The boyfriend listened for a moment and then declared "That's a b0nking frog!"

We had just had a bout of thunderstorms that lasted a few days, and the old fountain base (from a gorgeous fountain I purchased while pregnant with Amarina - the sculpture was stolen from my backyard when residing in a townhouse complex) that sits under the front deck had been filled with rainwater, so we figured the wildlife was hanging out down there.

Despite my initial reservations about there actually being such a thing as a "b0nking frog", it would appear that the Northern Banjo Frog, is commonly referred to as such due to the noise it makes ... "b0nk".... "b0nk".... "b0nk"...

A few days to later Amarina was downstairs taking rubbish to the bin and she came tearing inside exclaiming that there were tadpoles in the fountain base under the deck. I was surprised that the water hadn't drained out, as it usually does (the reason for the fountain being outside in the first place was because of a crack along the base which caused leakage). I had intended on draining it if it didn't do so on it's own, because of the breeding of mosquitoes that occurs if water is left to sit. However, with all of those cute little tadpoles and eggs in there, I was loath to upset them, and so the water stays under the deck for the time being. I showed the boyfriend the mass of eggs and tadpoles and he once again declared "They are b0nking frogs!"

It turns out that the water didn't drain due to the fact that Amarina and Bonnie had taken it upon themselves to put all of the big rocks that were under the deck into the fountain base. They had also added some palm fronds and other plant bits and pieces, so it is the perfect environment for the frogs to develop.

I'm a bit excited to be the chosen home for a couple of hundred little froggies, and just went down with Bonnie to take pictures before they change completely - some of the bigger tadpoles have the beginnings of legs forming already.