Praying in the Imagining Center

 I have been going to lots of medical appointments.  Happily, nothing is wrong.  One gets to a certain age where preventive maintenance takes more time.  Plus, modern medicine requires more time.  For example, to get a colonoscopy, I have to have a referral from my GP, an initial consult with the Gastro doctor folks, some phone calls about scheduling both before and after the initial consult, and maybe I'll get a colonoscopy one of these days.

Similarly, now we use better technology for mammograms; it all seems to be 3D now, when that technology used to be reserved for people more at risk or for the follow up to anything suspicious.  Now in this part of the country, the 3D mammogram is the first one, which means I have had two follow-ups, one each year, to the first mammogram.

Hopefully, they have both come back with reports that the suspicious matter wasn't anything after all; last year it was "bunched up tissue" and this year a lymph node not a cancer mass.  Hurrah!

I am deeply aware that many women will not be so lucky.  Last year I felt that panic, as I asked myself, "What if these are the last moments of the 'before cancer' life for me?"  Tuesday I didn't feel panic, but there was a detached part of myself thinking that the news might be bad, and I should steel myself.

At the imaging center Tuesday to get the mammogram follow up, I changed into the gown and waited in a room with no magazines, waiting to be taken to the ultrasound room.  I decided to pray instead of getting my book out of the locker.  I prayed for all of us in the building, those of us waiting for scans and those operating the equipment and those reading the scans.  I prayed for the staff that will clean the rooms at the end of the day.  Then I widened my prayers for all who are undergoing tests of any kind, those who are helping the sick, and then even widening my focus, I prayed for the whole world generally.

My results gave me good news, but I am under no illusions that my prayers had anything to do with it.  Nonetheless, I offered up a prayer of gratitude--and once again, I prayed for us all, regardless of the news we would get.