Today, I had a routine check up for my annual physical, so I had the usual fun things done that all women love – weight and blood pressure check, breast exam, and pelvic exam. For the first time while getting my breasts examined, my gynecologist says to me, “Has anyone in your family had breast cancer?” Well, that’s never a good question. My answer was negative. She points out two parts of my breasts where she can feel what appears to be “fibrous bundles,” but since it’s always better to be safe than sorry, she noted on a diagram where she felt the bundles and wrote me a referral to see a radiologist for a breast ultrasound.

My first thought when I hear this is, that’s just great. I could have fibrous bundles, or cysts, or even tiny tumors developing in my breasts now. She insisted that I shouldn’t worry and that I should be fine, but the next thought in my mind was, if this is actually malignant, what would that be like for my parents to know that their son recently committed suicide and their daughter could possibly have breast cancer…?