Puberty

I bet that, upon reading the headline of this post, you assumed it was going to be about one of the boys. Well, you were wrong.

I had my annual exam a couple of weeks ago, and I had been feeling a small, tender lump on my breast that week, so I told my doctor about it. He figured it was just a milk duct acting up. He didn't do a very thorough exam, like I have had in the past. He is a family doctor, not an OB/GYN, and he seemed like he was uncomfortable throughout the entire exam. So, when the lump got bigger over the following two weeks, I decided to go see an OB/GYN.

The appointment was yesterday. Dr. Freitas did a thorough exam, like I remember having in the past, and she could feel the lump. It didn't feel like a milk duct to her, so she set me up with a mammogram and ultrasound to explore it further. She said it was most likely just a cyst. While I was there, I also discussed my issues with my IUD and too much bleeding, and she offered up a possible solution. She gave me a sample pack of a low-dose birth control pill, and said that often just one month on the pill will allow enough estrogen to get back into the lining of the uterus that it will regulate and shorten my bleeding. If it reverts, then we can do it again after my next annual exam.

Anyway, back to the lump...

I went to have the mammogram done yesterday afternoon, which wasn't nearly as bad as I have heard from other people. Other than the part where I had to stand half-naked in front of a lab technician, it was not at all uncomfortable. There was a lot of waiting involved for both of the labs, but after two hours, I sat with the radiologist, who took the ultrasound from the lab technician, and showed me what we were seeing. He showed me that the bubbly-looking stuff was the normal layer of fat under the skin. He then showed me what normal breast tissue looks like. Then, he showed me what the lump looked like. He described it as a "knotty area," and it didn't have a layer of fat over it, under the skin, like the rest of the breast (which would explain the tenderness). This started to worry me, but then he explained that it was merely "prominent breast tissue." He couldn't explain why it was there, just that it was perfectly healthy breast tissue. It finally occurred to me what he was saying...

My breasts are growing. Hahahahaha! Maybe all of the pimples I've been getting over the past few months should have tipped me off. After 14 years of having babies, my body has decided to resume puberty at the age of 34. Hahahahaha!