PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Tomorrow I am getting a mammogram and it always makes me feel vulnerable and a little bit scared because of my immediate family's history with having breast cancer. I never knew my maternal grandmother because she died when my mother was very young. It's a dark shadow that hangs over women in our family when we have mammograms or when we find a lump like the doctor once did many years ago. This happened while I was trying to wean my eldest daughter. I couldn't explain to her because she was a young child and it was confusing for mommy to go to the hospital and not be able to nurse. 

Fortunately, the lump was benign. Fear, and I was afraid as well as guilty about weaning my daughter with these circumstances, can be a paralyzing emotion that prevents us from knowing even if the knowledge is painful. It is, however, better to know a painful truth and be able to act on the hard knowing than to be ignorant and at the whim of an indecisive fate. So, in the words of the late Molly Ivins, "Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done." 

UPDATE/ October 29, 2014 After two rounds of mammograms and an ultrasound, I had a Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy (FNAB). Essentially, with the FNAB, the doctor first looks on the ultrasound to see where the cyst is situated, then marks that area of the breast  with a pen that will not fade when she washes the area with an antiseptic. She puts draping around the breast to keep it sterile after the antiseptic, numbs the breast with a local anesthesia, and gels again so she can use the ultrasound wand that is in a sterile plastic bag. The nurse maneuvers the ultrasound wand and the doctor uses a hollow needle connected to a syringe hooked up to tubing and sticks the needle into the breast near the mark. The doctor guides the needle with the ultrasound and withdraws fluid from the cyst, collecting it through the syringe's suction. The cyst usually collapses because it is basically a fluid-filled membrane. Then the cyst fluid is sent off to a pathologist to see if the cyst was benign or cancerous.

My FNAB was this simple process, it did not hurt, and I was able to resume my normal activities immediately. It was fascinating to watch the needle inside of me, to see the cyst as it collapsed, and to feel a pop inside my breast as the needle poked the cyst. However, the most important thing was getting the call from the breast care center. The cells came back normal. I don't have cancer. I have, instead, an appointment to follow up on my treatment in six months. Don't be afraid of the procedures you may have to save your life. "Go. Get. The. Damn. Mammogram. Done." 

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Picture Credit: T.W. Rolleston. The Tale of Lohengrin. New York : T. Y. Crowell, 1910
Cornell University Library, The Fantastic in Art and Fiction. 

WICKED FINALE: LET IT GO! LET IT GO!

Feels Scorecard....Okay, RumpBelle is official and Belle's daddy approves! They're happy, at least for the moment. Next on the romantic leader board: Emma and Hook, after going on a journey, a journey back in time, are finely a pair...of idiots! It seems that Emma has her mother's curse of meaning well, but not doing well by being kind-hearted and rescuing a prisoner slated for execution. What did you say your name was? Maid What? From Sherwood where? Oh... No more canoodling for the Evil Queen because things got sort of complicated on the relationship front. Almost would make anyone wish for winged monkeys. Meanwhile, Emma brought something or someone else back from the Enchanted Forest and it's going to get very cold in Storybrooke and not just for the Evil Queen's Regina.

WICKED: DING, DONG

The Wicked Witch is dead...or is she? What was that green haze emitting from the jail cell after Rumple smashed the big Z to bits?  Nothing seems to stop the Green Meanie, not even a bucket of water from Miss Gale of Kansas. Only one episode of Dorothy? Baum would have been disappointed at his character being just a plot twist. 

Another big question for OUAT, on the eve of the season finale, is the off-again romance between Emma and Hook due to the savior's loss of magic powers through a kiss of life to save the drowning pirate. David is going to be soooo angry that Emma saved Killian, especially when her loss of the magic powers endangered his newborn son by damaging the magic force field. Emma's got some 'splaining to do to Henry's uncle when the baby grows up. OUAT relationships are becoming more convoluted with new family members of all types, because it's officially RumpBelle. The characters are getting married! Las Vegas? What are the odds that Regina will be an officiant to the Dark Lord and his sweetie? Yes,  we know that we're being set up for Belle's disappointment and ongoing line in the series, "I trusted you!" that she drags out after Mr. Gold has pulled out a heart, turned a threat to glass, or otherwise slaughtered someone. Watch the Lady, Belle or you might miss something in Season 4!

WICKED: PAGING DR.HOPPER...

What can we say? Any episode with Henry in peril falls flat on its scripted face. The only bright moments were Regina glowing after a snuggle with her Sherwood stud and her wickedness looking perturbed when she couldn't get through the magic door in the forest to see Ga...whoops, Glinda, the good witch. Yes, we were rooting for the winged monkeys (the ex-Sleeping Beauty and her Prince) when they wanted to capture Henry but hélas, he is still with us. Not so Bae, who managed to pull himself out of his father's mind long enough to send a message to Hook with the remembering potion for Emma. We wonder what Freud would do with that interesting scenario! 

WICKED: NOT TONIGHT DEARIE

The B*tch was Back! Oh Cora, even as a ghost, you're just a nasty gal. Yes, Z's baby daddy was a chance tavern encounter with faux prince and low-life gardener who didn't put his spade in the right place. Meanwhile, in Storybrooke, Zelena still isn't getting lucky. Rumple tried to get his dagger but she didn't get his, alas. Another lonely night for Greenie picking lice off winged monkeys and moping about younger sis who's off the charts with her stud from Sherwood. Trope true that nice bad girls finish first and bad sad girls finish last.

WICKED:HUZZAH FOR THE QUEEN OF HEARTS!

The B*tch is Back! Disney is giving its viewers, in next week's episode, a resurrection to remember and we're not talking about the sadsack spiritual flick floundering worse than Ariel without her magic bracelet. It's also not about some obscure guy dangling on a tree. No, we're talking about Bada** and Busty Bedazzler,Queen Cora in Storybrooke's last hope to tame First Spawn and Green Meanie, Zelena. Maybe there will finally be answers about Z's baby daddy. Hook? I'm setting my DVR and can't wait to see the fundies have a, uh, talk with a man about a horse over the timing of her evil Maj's return.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE! We'll find out why Cora abandoned Zelena in the next episode. However, it's already pretty obvious Cora was digging for gold, but not Rumple. And who's Z's baby daddy? Hook? The late and lamented Bae? A random encounter into the woods? Careful the wish you make, wishes are children...

WICKED UPDATE---POOR HANDSOME HOOK

David/Charming is not adapting to modern life well.Baby furniture, alas, is not within his swashbuckling skills. He also needs to brush up on the grand-parenting lessons.Joy-riding with a grandson who still can't remember him, and taking out mailboxes with the sheriff's truck while his preggers wife looks on,says mid-life crisis in bold letters. Just don't tell mayor Regina about the damage. She's busy being big sister in the dark arts to her sometime rival Emma. And, yes, we're so amazed she hasn't called Ms. Goldilocks "Dorothy", with how modest her Majesty thinks of the trainee's self-magical-confidence. Emma has had the power in her all along, much like the little girl from Kansas. If only her Charming father had a brain...

Meanwhile, Hook has troubles of his own; namely taking a lot of cold showers to bury his feelings for Emma Swan so it doesn't ruin the magic. He has it bad, but not as bad as Zelena, with half her problem being, well, she doesn't have another half except for winged monkeys and what do you have except litter boxes, hair in the food, body odor, and lice? She should talk to Granny, the resident matchmaker, who knows (courtesy of Ruby) all the eligible men in Storybrooke. Gran-Gran could find someone to cool the big Z's fire, and not just with a bucket of water.