Spring Conference Season: Fun in Orlando
In a random twist of planning, there were about five higher education conferences in a row on International Drive in Orlando, Fl this past spring. And I was at two of them. Drove about eight hours down on Friday, drove eight hours back on Tuesday night. Drove back down the next Monday through Friday. That is a lot of time on International Drive. So for those of you traveling there anytime soon, here is my review of the area.
Hotels
Trip number one had me staying at the Rosen Center Hotel, not to be confused wit the Rosen Plaza, Rosen Inn or any of the other Rosen hotel chains on International Drive. It was a really good location for a conference. We were in the Rosen Center conference space, but it was directly next to the Orlando Convention Center too. The rooms were really nice and spacious, we had a lovely view and could see all the way to downtown Orlando. There were several places to eat in the hotel… a Starbucks, a deli and pizza place, a buffet restaurant, a sushi place and a sit down restaurant. It was all easy access and the staff was super helpful. I only had two complaints the whole time… there was one light bulb out in the bathroom they never changed and they could never seem to be consistent in the time they would clean the rooms, which messed up some down time. But really, I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars for comfort and convenience. I would definitely stay there again.
Trip number two had me staying at the DoubleTree Orlando at SeaWorld and it was by far the worst hotel experience I have had since a random hole in the wall back in college when I went to a DMB concert and we all piled in a room and I hardly slept. The DoubleTree was awful from the moment we checked in. Across the board the staff were rude and unhelpful, even after the fact when I emailed to tell them about how horrible it was, they never responded. Even as a smoke-free room, it smelled like smoke because people would step out onto the open walkway to smoke and it would seep into the rooms. The walkway was grooved, so when the housekeeping staff would push their carts down the path it sounded like a plane taking off. This went on from 5:45am-7pm ALL DAY. Plus, we were by the pool, which had music blasting from 9am-9pm everyday, and then people out hanging out after that. The showers were nasty and the staff just rude across the board. Do not stay there, avoid if you can. I know I’ll never go back.
Shopping and Entertainment
So many great options! Universal Studios is right there and all the Disney parks are just a bit further than that. I’ve been to all of them now, and I definitely prefer Disney over Universal. Disney just had more rides and is a lot more fun for me… no matter what park I go to. The Harry Potter section at Universal was cool, but that was about it. The rest of the park just wasn’t that exciting and it just didn’t pull me. Sea World is there as well as a few water theme parks. Lots to do.
Entering Harry Potter World
There are two separate outlet malls, one on each end of International Drive. Orlando Premium Outlets on International Drive is on the north end. I got a great wallet at Kate Spade. They also had a Victoria’s Secret outlet, which was a little overwhelming. There were sooo many lotion and perfume spells, I couldn’t take it… but they did have a lot of deals. This mall was really big, we ended up spending most of the morning and early afternoon there! The second outlet mall is on the way south end of International Drive and it is the Orlando Premium Outlets on Vineland. This was great, it had a lot of non-outlets, like Prada and Tory Burch… but they were fun to look at anyway!
I did some good shopping
Food
Lots of chain restaurants on International Drive, not so much local. But this whole road is full of hotels catering to tourists or people like me that are at a conference. Here were four of the highlights that I found memorable.
- Maggianos -My all-time favorite chain Italian place. We had a big group so we did the meal family style, passing around plates and devouring the food. The chopped chicken salad is by far one of my most favorite salads ever, and is my most favorite thing on this menu. Everyone loved this place and I will always make a point to eat at this place if I can find one!
Family Style at Maggiano’s
- Ming Court– Chinese. It was pretty good, very elegant. It wouldn’t be my first choice to go to again, but I would go back.
- Copper Canyon Grill– AMAZING. American style food… I had a half-roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and something else…. amazing. The servers shared the tables, so the service was excellent. Nothing but good things to say about this place.
- Tommy Bahama’s Restaurant Bar and Grill- Good, but way overpriced. I had some stuffed shrimp with a spicy sauce. The place was just a bit pretentious. It wouldn’t be my first choice of a place to go back to eat.
Stuffed Shrimp at Tommy Bahama
As I mentioned, International Drive is really designed for conference folks and people on vacation. It is easy to navigate, and all the parking is hid in garages behind the hotels and shopping places. There is a little trolly that will take you up and down the road and it is perfectly safe to be out there at night (I felt safe). International Drive is VERY long though, so I don’t recommend trying that. We drove everywhere. I’m sure I’ll be back there sometime in the next few years for another conference… but you can bet I won’t stay at the DoubleTree!
Throwback Thrusday, Thanksgiving 2010
As I’ve mentioned several times, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I’ve talk about traditions HERE and food HERE and HERE. There a few more buried here somewhere I’m sure. I love good food and spending time with family. My Dad and I are both recovering from nasty colds and I’ve been running non-stop for weeks, so we opted to have a low key holiday this year- a Dad and Daughter day. We had lots of invites from other family and friends, but we decided he would make a turkey and some sides and I’d make a pie (caramel apple pecan, see link above) and we’d call it a day.
I’m thankful for so many things this year… and I could make you all a list, but it is pretty similar to the lists of a lot of other people out there…. my family, my friends, a good job, health and happiness…. in just a lot more detail than that! I got up and went for a walk along the lake this morning… the first time I’ve been able to go in a few weeks because of being sick, and as I walked I realized this will be the first Thanksgiving in almost 14 years that I will not be with my Nana. Consistently, every Thanksgiving since 1999 she has been a staple in my holiday. Even before that we were often together every other year or so. It is a little odd to realize she won’t be able to yell at me about how I messed up the cranberry relish or how she just wants a little slice of pie or how great my hair looks. So, for today’s throwback… it is to 2010. This was the last year where she was really able to move around by herself. I’m blocking out how bad 2012 was… my Dad’s house is not wheelchair friendly…. and I am going to remember 2010 as the last happy Thanksgiving holiday I had with her and it was a good one.
With Nana. 2010.
Above, with Nana at my Dad’s house.
Some of the food… there was a whole other table!
Above… FOOD!
With my Dad. 2010
Above, with my Pops in the kitchen in the middle of dessert prep and dishwasher loading
Me with my Carmel Apple Pecan Pie
Last, me with my hot from the oven- Carmel Apple Pecan Pie
Translation Tuesday: Dressing. Not Stuffing.
Oh, the debate between stuffing and dressing. That lovely side dish that at the very least involves bread crumbs and seasoning served alongside the turkey on Thanksgiving. In the North, they often stuff it inside the turkey cavity to cook… hence the title stuffing. In the South it is cooked in a casserole dish all on its own and is “dressing” for the turkey. A lovely side dish to add to dress up the plate.
Should you stuff the stuff inside? Does it cook all the way if you do? Does it absorb things it shouldn’t? You stuff a deer and mount it on the wall, you don’t stuff something and eat it. These are some of the lines I’ve heard over the years. Personally, my family has never been a fan of stuffing it inside the bird… especially with the advent of deep-frying the turkey, which is another southern invention. I do used the terms interchangeably though, pending whom I’m talking with.
So. Is is stuffing or dressing? If you live below the Mason Dixon line you better have the right answer!
Southern Confession: I judge… on football team choice
It is rivalry week in my state. Eh, I guess it is rivalry week in a lot of places. The lovely week of the year leading up to all the “big” games in college football. My college team is a great team, and as much as I really dislike (strongly dislike) our rival team, they are (sadly) pretty good this year too. It is a fun week leading up to the game… even with it being Thanksgiving! There is a blood drive between the two schools, the running of the game ball from one school to the other (about 150 miles) that raises money for a charity, a no texting while driving pledge competition and a number of pep rallys. This rivalry has been going on for more than 100 years and has a long and storied history. Here is hoping my team pulls out a win, but regardless… I know it is going to be a great game. Since it is the last game of the regular season, I’m running out of time to post things about football in the South, which is tragic, because there is a lot to post! But I’ve been wanting to get this one in for a while:
I don’t care about your politics, your fashion, or your taste in music. I judge you solely based on your football team preference.
Yes, I do.
Fall in the South: Reward for Surviving the Summer
There is a saying in the South “Fall is a Southerner’s reward for surviving the summer” and after experiencing the summer here as compared to Ohio over the years, I would absolutely have to agree. Even though the 2013 summer was mild in comparison to other summers, it was still sweltering. Late September through the end of November is hands down one of my favorite times to be in the South. It is still warm during the day, but the mornings and evening are cool and the humidity is minimal. I love it. There is football, the fair, and all sorts of activities…. but it is the weather and the change of season that really makes it great. While many places further north hit their peak leave times in late September/early October, it is normally late November before we get our bright color changes. And it has been lovely to see. Below are a smattering of photos I’ve taken from around the South this fall season.
one
Tree on campus
two
Yorktown, VA, November 2013
three
Old Observatory on campus in twilight. Fall 2013
four
A low country river. October 2013
five
My Yard. November 2013
Seriously…. I love looking at this tree in my front yard everyday. All the leaves will be gone in a day or a few weeks, but I’ve been enjoying them while I can! Love fall in the South!
Throwback Thursday, The Winter Trip- 2008
Senior year of college a group of friends and I decided to take a long weekend trip, just to get away and have fun… and soak in a hot tub. The first year there were six of us and we rented a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains. After college the tradition continued for several years.
The Annual Winter Trip- Lake Lure, 2008
We’ve done Gatlinburg, Hilton Head, Lake Lure, Maggie Valley… and maybe some others in-between. My memory struggles as I get older. This is a picture of the group that went to Lake Lure in January 2008, several years after the first trip. I remember some excellent football watching, really good chili and stuffed french toast, a big game of scrabble and watching the primary debates for the 2008 election. It was a lot of fun. I’m the top left with the black scarf. My college roommate Heather is in front in the blue, her husband Brooks is next to her in the Duke shirt. One of my other roommates, Ashley is in the back right in the white shirt, her husband Greg is next to her in the orange shirt. Many other friends are in this picture, these two ladies though… we were the three that started this trip. Over time the trip has fallen to the wayside…. living all over the county, families, careers…. life has just happened. Still, love these people though and all the fun we’ve had over the years.
It was always a requirement to have a hot tub on the deck at house rental. I mean, it made or break the decision on the rental. This really makes me want to add one at my house!
“Just Call Me Kris”
“Just call me Kris” is what she said. Happened at a camp in the 1940’s. She was a camp counselor and there were too many other counselors with her name, so she said, “Just call me Kris.” And it stuck for the next 70 years of her life.
Kris in Youth
My Nana’s birth name was Marion. Her parents, her brother and her brother’s kids called her that. That’s about it. Oh, and the IRS. To me she was my Nana Kris, and she passed away this past summer at 86 and a half years old.
We knew it had been coming. We had put her in the nursing home a little over a year beforehand and she had been steadily declining in the last six months of her life. It is hard to watch someone die. I’ve seen it before, with both my Grandma (my mom’s mom) and my PawPaw (my mom’s grandfather). But it never gets easier, I don’t think it is supposed to. Maybe that is the part that reminds you are alive yourself. Maybe it gets easier in that you begin to know what to expect and how the process works, but the emotion that goes with it… the grief, never gets easier to deal with. As my father likes to point out, I would know, I’ve lost a lot of people in my life.
I made a point to get to the nursing home once a week after we put her there… usually on Sunday. But in those last few weeks I went more. Not that she could really recognize I was there. That slow fading away and memory going is a real witch. We had our last real conversation the last week of June. I had been there for about 15 minutes before she woke up and realized I was there. She said she was happy to see me one more time before the end, and that she loved me and she was happy she had the chance to tell me that one more time. Oh, and that she wanted me to get married and have kids. She knew it was getting near the end and even towards the end she still liked to be bossy. She didn’t really recognize me in the the weeks that followed. Briefly, for a moment on the afternoon before she passed, but it was just a moment and she was out of it again.
Those last 24 hours were rough. We knew it was coming, but I really thought we had a few more days than we got. I had been scheduled to go out of town that Friday- a grad school crew reunion on the coast. I was driving to work and had just gotten off the interstate when my Dad called and told me to get back to the nursing home. My Aunt Wen was scheduled to get into town from New York the next week, even changing her flights to leave that day didn’t give us enough time. I spent that Friday afternoon with my Dad, Aunts and Uncle in my Nana’s little room. I kneeled there by her bed and held her hand and kept telling her that we all loved her. We all took turns holding her hand, saying what we each needed to say, telling her it was okay to go, or not saying anything at all. And on a Saturday morning in the middle of July she peacefully passed away.
Kris sailing in the 1960’s
I loved my Nana very much, but she wasn’t an easy person to love. Kris was, how shall I say this nicely, opinionated. Not only was she opinionated throughout her whole life, she didn’t have much of a filter when it came to sharing what was on her mind. Nor, did she do it with tact (or kindness). As she got older, it got worse and she rarely realized it. Honestly, she made it very hard to be around her many times- for many people. When I accepted my job to return to my alma mater, she criticized the decision as foolish and selfish, when she knew nothing about my field. She criticized everyone’s look and weight. For a family that genetically is a little on the round side (especially in the rear for all of the women) she was obsessed with slenderness. She hated red hair, God bless Emily, my cousin’s fiancee who has red hair, for her patience with Nana. Heaven forbid I ever mentioned my Grandma Pat, my grandfather’s second wife, without her pursing her lips and going into a rage. It was impossible to go out to eat with her, good luck to any server who filled her water glass too full- instant criticism. It wasn’t just a matter of trying to remember to respect your elder’s when you were around her, it was also a matter of trying to watch the line of when was it being respectful to someone who was older vs. telling someone when they were being intentionally unkind.
I realize that we often want to always say the kind things about someone after they pass, and don’t get me wrong, she had many wonderful traits, but I would lying to myself and every member of my family and good friends who read this would know I was lying if I didn’t write about this honestly. It wasn’t easy to love her, which to be very honest, makes me appreciate the relationship I did have with her a little more… because it wasn’t easy, it took effort and care. That may not even make sense, but it does in my head.
As I reflect though, I think that may be part of being a family and that love that goes along with it (storge or philia in Greek love types, look at that, busting out the old college elective courses). You accept the unpleasant habits along with the good ones. As critical as she was, I never doubted that she loved me, was proud of me and wanted the best for me. She helped teach me to drive, even took me to my driver’s test that I passed (my second, I’m still bitter that I failed the first). She always praised my photography hobby, every nurse at her facility and every member of her choir knew all about her grandchildren. The reason I learned German and studied abroad in Germany was because she was so proud of our German heritage and passed that down to me. I have her blue eyes. And like most members of my family, I am pretty damn opinionated, and I can back up that opinion with reason… as can every member of our family. I’ve tried though to be kind (more often than not) when sharing that opinion, and I’ve managed to do it without needing prescription drugs 🙂
Nana, thanks for the various life lessons and the love that was there, even when it was hard to tell. Even though you pushed for perfection, you taught me that it doesn’t have to be perfect. I value everything you taught me, even the lessons you didn’t intend to teach.
Abschied meine Oma. Bis wir uns wieder treffen. “Farewell my grandmother, until we meet again.”
Kris in her 70’s
Translation Tuesday: Sick as a Dog
This is not my favorite phrase, mainly because I only think about it when I am sick. In Southern slang, sick as a dog is just our unique way of saying that someone is really sick.
As I am sitting at home in bed for third day in the row (I’m on day two of missing work, I’m not a fan). I couldn’t help but wonder, why on earth do we say “as sick as a dog?” I mean, that is a weird phrase right? So, I turned to the trusty source of most quick reference: GOOGLE. Type ” where did the phrase he’s as sick as a dog come from” into the search box and came up with a lot of results, surprisingly. According to the wisdom of everyone else out there in the world that shares things on the internet, the phrase goes back to the 1700s. And apparently using the word “dog” to describe bad things is pretty common. I mean think about: dog days of summer, dog tired, hair of the dog, etc. I mean really, it is used a lot. Apparently the “as sick as a dog” comment refers to the fact that dogs will eat just about anything and can often get super sick as a result. And that is why we say as sick as a dog. Who knew?
So, I’m curled up here in my bed, as sick as a dog. I don’t like colds… the coughing, the stuffy noses, the massive pile of tissues in the trash can. My whole house smells like disinfectant spray at this point and I’m sick of chicken soup. Here’s to feeling better soon!
Clark Casserole
There is a saying in the South that a shared recipe is more precious than gold and ALWAYS comes with a story. Now, I love a lot of the recipes that I’ve been given over the years and some have good stories associated with them. The story associated with this one is that a) families are complicated and b) recipes don’t always come with great instructions.
I got this recipe from my Grandma Pat, who got it from my Uncle’s wife- my Aunt Joy, who got it fro her ex-husband. And I have no idea who he got it from. When Aunt Joy gave it to Grandma Pat, it was just mix this, and this and this. My Grandma Pat tried to break it down a little more for me and I’ve finally gotten some specifics down after trying a few times. Since my Aunt’s ex-husband is Clark, I call it Clark Casserole and it is a favorite among my family. And lets be honest, Clark Casserole is a lot easier to say than chicken/sausage/ squash/onion casserole.
Clark Casserole
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts
- 1 lb hot sausage
- 2 zuccuni
- 2 yellow squash
- 1 onion
- 1 can cream of chicken soup, but I make my own- look HERE for that DIY recipe. You could even go up to 1 1/2 cans.
- 2 cups Pepperidge Farm Herb dressing
- 1/2 cup butter- cut up
- sour cream
Steps
1. Bake chicken breasts, season as you like, when they are cooked and cooled, shred/dice/slice… whatever your preference is to have them be in small bites
2. Fry entire pack of sausage and break into crumbles as cooking. Mix cooked chicken and cooked sausage together, set aside.
3. Slice all three veggies into thin rounds and lightly steam them. Do NOT forget to steam them before adding to the casserole mix. I did this once and it took forever to cook because the veggies were still hard.
4. Mix steamed veggies in with meat, add in 1 and 1/2 cups of the Pepperidge Farm dressing. Then mix in the soup mix. If it looks too dry still, add in some sour cream to the mix. Really, it just depends. If you use 1 and 1/2 can you probably don’t need the sour cream
5. Put the entire mixture in a large casserole pan… 9×13 or 10×14
6. Sprinkle the remaining 1/2 cup of Pepperidge Farm dressing on the top of the mixture, slice the butter into small pads and dot all over the top.
7. Bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Serve it hot as a meal then, or let it cool, break into smaller portions and freeze.
My new neighbor, the flock of birds?
As I’ve mentioned, I moved out of downtown and into the suburbs this past summer. I live near a lovely lake and am only 20 minutes from downtown (12 miles), six to seven minutes from the mall and major shopping area in town… so not exactly the middle of nowhere. However, because it is near the lake and the river that comes from the lake, it does feel a little like you are in the country. It is nice… some long and windy roads with lots of trees along them and it is far enough from the lights of downtown that you see the stars nicely. And there are plenty of neighbors, lots of subdivisions… so it is not the middle of nowhere But for some reason, a new family have moved into the neighborhood… a family of birds?
Hens in the yard?
I’ve seen them twice now, they are noisy as a group of 13 year-olds having a sleep over and they run around like they have no plan. I posted to Facebook and someone said they may be domesticated guinea hens? Anyone heard of these? And if they are domesticated, does that mean they belong to someone and I need to track them down? Excuse me neighbor down the road, do you mind keeping your guinea hens out of my yard? They’re waking me up on my day off.
Only in the South, folks. Only in the South.
Throwback Thursday: On A Beach in Honduras, 2007
This is where I would like to be right now. On a warm beach, with a good book, a frozen fruity drink and people I care about.
Honduras, 2007
This is a beach in Honduras, Central America, and it was a perfect day in 2007. I was on a cruise to the Caribbean that May as a member of a bridal party (you know, because I can’t say no when someone asks me to be in a wedding). Heather and Brooks, the bride and groom, are two of my dearest friends from college and they decided they wanted a destination wedding. So about 70 of their friends and family all joined together on a week long Caribbean cruise and it was a blast.
They got married on the second day while we were docked in Grand Cayman, the rest of the trip was just a great vacation. On this day the Bestie and I went to the beach off the jungle. Good music, a good book, time with the bestie and one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been. It was super fun and relaxing. Given how cold it has been this week and how stressful this semester has been, I could go for another day like the one pictured above ASAP.
Translation Tuesday: The Southern Freakout
Now, there could be a number of things that would actually cause a southerner to freak out. The loss of a major college football game, a category five hurricane, the loss of a favorite BBQ joint, and snow.
Yes, snow. And what is it doing right now on the car in the my driveway? SNOWING! In November. I moved out of Ohio to get away from this stuff! Sigh.
via Pinterest
Now, it is not accumulating…. it is not cold enough and there is still a lot of rain mixed in. But there is definitely a dusting of white stuff on the top of the cars. But southerner DO freak out about snow. I’ve already seen two Facebook posts asking if school will be canceled tomorrow. It won’t- we don’t need much to have schools closed, but we do need more than we will see. Snow It doesn’t happen here a lot. I’m not a fan, but it is super entertaining to see how Southerner’s react. When the weathermen call for any accumulation, even if it is an inch…. there will be a run on bread and milk. Complete with TV news stations reporting live from the grocery store. Seriously. Gotta love the Southern Snow Freakout. Based on the weather tonight, I have a bad feeling we may get several reports of this in the coming winter.
Easy and Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup
A few weeks ago I shared the yummy Crockpot Salsa Chicken dish I made. I mentioned that I made my own Cream of Chicken soup to use instead of using that crap in a can. I really am trying to be better about eating better. Not only have I added a lot more veggies and lean meats to diet, but I’m trying really hard to be aware of what the things I’m eating are made from. I’m not perfect, but I’m trying. So, when I looked at the back of the can of condensed cream of chicken soup and saw all the sodium and ingredients I couldn’t pronounce, I said no thanks. I called my Dad, who is a great cook and runs a restaurant and asked him how to make my own. Below is what I used!
Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 3 tablespoons flour
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
Steps
- Melt butter in sauce pan over medium heat, slowly add the flour and mix together.
- Slowly add in the chicken stock and mix it all nicely
- Then add the milk, slowly
- Stir until thickened
This made just enough to replace the yucky canned stuff!
Live Pink: Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Last month, I wore a pink ribbon a lot. As most people know, each fall Breast Cancer Awareness month is recognized in each October. When I was five, my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. At the time she was just 32 years old and she is a survivor. If I remember the details correctly, she had a double radical mastectomy. Which means my mother had both of her breasts and the underlying lymph nodes and some fatty stuff completely removed. I was a kid at the time, so a lot of the details escape me, but she beat the cancer.
It was the mid-1980s and at the time, the doctors advised her that she could just look like a normal woman in her early 30’s with implants and reconstructive surgery. Silicon implants. Seven years, three sets of ruptured implants and countless surgeries later, my mom said enough. That was around 1990 or so. My mom had her 19th surgery about a year and a half ago. She has so much scar tissue, she can’t lift her arms higher than chest level or so. Her immune and nervous systems are a mess. The level of pain she is in is always high. My Mom was one of the first people who signed on with attorney Stan Chesley in the breast implant litigation against Dow Corning. I have strong feelings about silicon breast implants. I spent many of the afternoons of my childhood waiting in doctor’s offices while my mom had one appointment after the other, which probably explains my aversion to to doctors. Alas, while this is an interesting topic to share, it is not the point of this entry.
The point of this is that I am now 32. The exact same age my Mom was when she found out she had breast cancer.
This is actually the reason I dreaded turning 30, I’ve been terrified that history would repeat itself. Every doctor I’ve ever had knows about the details of my family medical history (which is a lot of really odd stuff). And every doctor I’ve had as an adult has said the same thing: it is odd that someone so young would develop breast cancer, there is family history… therefore I’m a higher risk. And while most women start getting mammograms at 40, I got to start my very first one this summer when I was 32.
It wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend a morning in late July when I had a lot to get done at work, but I knew I needed to. We have a number of facilities in the area that do just mammograms and all of the staff were so kind. I was incredibly nervous. Internally, I was freaking out as I sat there waiting for my appointment time. I tried to calm myself with the fact that my doctor had said it was just a precaution. I was doing an okay job until another patient came out from the back and was very visibly upset and crying. She was an older woman and quickly went out into the outer lobby to get her husband, and they came back into the inner lobby and stood there together to make an apparent third appointment. Clearly, it was not good news.
This ramped up my anxiety even more, but at the same time made me feel like a horrible, awful, selfish person. Here I was doing something because my doctor wanted to be cautious and take my screwed up genetics into account and here was this other woman who absolutely had a major medical issue and her life just drastically changed. It was very sobering.
The very sweet and kind technician who ran the test for me tried really hard to calm me down and we had some random conversations. Apparently my pupils being the size of saucers and the giant red splotched across my chest gave away my anxiety. There is a reason I can’t play poker, I can’t bluff worth a damn.
So, for those of you who haven’t had a mammogram yet, here is how it goes. Yep, I’m writing about it. Feel free to skip this part if you don’t want to know. You change into a gown just like when you go to the gynecologist, granted you do get to leave your pants on for this one. You have to take off all of your jewelry and any metal that may be somewhere on your body. Then you stand in front of this giant machine, that was surprisingly smaller than I had imagined it to be, and place one breast on a flat plate. Another plate comes down on top of the breast. Then the machine squeezes them together while the image is taken.
Yes, it hurts. Granted not as much as I thought it would. One side hurt more than the other though, which the technician said happens sometimes. In total they run this four times, and take four different images. One from the top to bottom, facing front and then a second on the side, where they try to get a closer image of the lymph nodes along the side. Then they do it to the other breast… so four total. All in all, it took less than 20 minutes once I was taken into the back.
A few weeks later I got this:
Things I learned: according to the technician, it is easier to detect cancer if the woman has had children, because the tissue in the breast is less dense and it is easier to see anomalies. So, it is a strike against me that I haven’t had kids. Humph. Also, easier to detect when you are older because the tissue has broken down more. I’ve also learned that fighting with my insurance company about what they pay and do not pay for is a pain in the ass. Also, I realize that this fear that I’m going to develop breast cancer is never going to go away. And I have to keep figuring out how to best manage that. Yes, I could do the genetic testing… but I don’t know if I want to do that yet. I’ve leaned away from it for a number of reasons, but I’m still processing through it.
So, my friends who don’t have to do this for another 8- 10 years, now you know what to expect. Friends who have had it done, did I leave out any part of the process?
*And yes, I know I’m posting this in November. I spent a lot of time on the road in October!
I Wasn’t Made For Winter
And this is why I live in the South.
I wasn’t made for winter, I want my flip flops.
Even if there are some cold toes in January, I can still pull them off if I want to. Even though they are pretty, I don’t think Michigan or Minnesota are ever going to be on my list of places to live. I can’t imagine all that snow.
convertedsoutherner 