Holding on to our ‘hoops’

Today’s Mom Daily is written by Fremont mom and Momaha Magazine columnist Myra Katherine Fritz.

I was 8 weeks pregnant with my daughter, Emma Claire, when my son first noticed.

“Mom,” he said, “why are your hoops getting bigger?”

From then on, against all advice to use proper names, my breasts have been my, ahem, hoops.

Recently, I found a small lump in my left hoop. Unconcerned, but needing my yearly physical, I made an appointment. We are new to the area, so I didn’t have a doctor. The woman on the phone asked me if I had a preference and I said no.

But I should have said yes. I should have said “Meghan” sounds like a young name and I’m really going to need someone who’s been out of school more than three minutes.

When I checked in, I started to panic. The nurse was also young. She asked me if I was OK and I said no. I’m here because of a lump. She asked me if I was peri-menopausal and I almost hit her.

She asked about my family history and I burst into tears and said, “Why don’t you just go ahead and cut them both off?!” (I was referring to my hoops.) She apologized and left. She didn’t come back.

Dr. Meghan was beautiful and caring and I shouldn’t judge her just because of her name. She felt the lump and scheduled an ultra-sound. The radiologist scheduled a follow-up with the surgeon. The surgeon decided to take it out. It took five pokes, three nurses and one anesthesiologist to get my IV going and one surgeon to take out the lump and call to tell me that it’s not cancer.

During my recovery, Coulter wanted to see my hoop. It was fully covered in bandages and I didn’t want him to be scared of the unknown, so I showed it to him.

Emma Claire handled it a little differently.

“Mom, does your breast still hurt? Do cows have breasts? Do the baby cows drink milk from their breast?”

Oh, my, sweet Emma Claire.

I get to keep my hoops after all. I am blessed.

And every October as women everywhere fight for a cure – in fact, demand a cure - I’ll look at my little scar and remember just how blessed I am.  And then I’ll schedule another mammogram.

Myra Katherine Fritz is married with two children. She is a stay-at-home mom.

posted by Veronica Daehn on Thursday, October 20 @ 5:00 am