Real Stories: Making your health a priority, not a hassle

Too important to put off: Making your health a priority, not a hassle
By May Lee Johnson
South Bend Tribune, March 25, 2010

Last week my soul cried.

I don’t know why I had avoided being checked for breast cancer for so long.

Maybe I was afraid and didn’t want to know. But whenever my doctor asked about a mammogram, I had an excuse.

Finally, she stopped listening. If I didn’t get one, she would drop me as a patient.

Reluctantly, I made an appointment with the mobile unit from Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center that visits the parking lot of the Sister Maura Brannick CSC Health Center on Chapin Street.

The day of my appointment, I was late. I’ll come back some other day, I told the nurse.

But she told me to stay. When she finished with another patient, she would be ready for me. It would only take a minute.

She was right. The procedure was simple and quick. After it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief.

I didn’t realize I was beginning a couple of the toughest weeks of my life.

A day or so after the mammogram, I got a message that they needed more images. They had found something. I was told to make an appointment to get a bilateral mammogram at the hospital.

Nothing could prepare me for sitting in that room, waiting to go in for the exam. I have never been in a room where no one would speak. Women flipped through their books, but no one was reading a word.

I just wanted to get it over with. Finally, I went in. A technician explained everything she was doing. I didn’t care about that. I just wanted to know if she was finding anything.

She told me there were a few areas the radiologist wanted to magnify. She advised me to go back into the waiting room while they looked at the pictures, but don’t get dressed yet.

She was right. I had to go back for more X-rays. By now, my stress level was way out of whack.

The good thing was that they read the pictures right there. That’s when I found out I would need a biopsy - but it would be about a week before I could get one.

That gave me more time to worry. Am I going to die? Who would take care of Annie? What is dying like?

Things got so bad that one day, as I sat worrying about everyone around me, Annie looked at a friend and said, “Who is this woman and what did she do with my Mama?”

I was caught in a storm that followed me wherever I went. I couldn’t shake the thoughts of cancer. I wasn’t sure I had the inner strength to fight cancer.

Finally, Friday came and I went in for the biopsy results. A friend, Sister Sue, was there waiting for me. Her calm and reassuring manner helped me survive the agonizing week.

Right away, my nurse told me the good news: The growth in my breast was benign.

I had been holding back tears, my heart racing. But at that moment, a waterfall streamed down my face.

I was too stunned to say anything. But as I composed myself, I thought of two things.

One, my heart goes out to all those who didn’t get the same good news that I did.

Secondly, I made a promise: I need to love myself as much as I have loved others. I won’t delay my next exam.

For years I had avoided the mammogram because of what I might learn. But good news or bad, we owe ourselves the truth.

Even if you’re afraid, please check it out. It could save your life.

You can listen to May Lee Johnson live at 5:30 p.m. Tuesdays on WUBS, 89.7-FM.