Friday, October 5, 2007

Yearly Mammogram

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Thus, I decided to bring the Daily Click Site to the top of my blog. Don't forget to click it regularly, throughout the year, to give FREE MAMMOGRAMS.

At the same time, I thought I'd re-post this story because it's a good read, a good reminder and a good laugh. Cancer is no laughing matter but we all need some humour in our lives, don't we?

Here it goes:

The Dayton Daily News published the winning entries in the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition. This is the 1st place in Humor category by Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon. Do we relate, or what?

"The First Time's Always the Worst"

The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister – right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside out. I'm pretty sure Victoria's Secret doesn't have a bra for that.
Suddenly, there was a loud popping noise. I looked down at my right breast to make sure it hadn't exploded. Nope, it was still flat as a pancake and still attached to my body.
"Oh no!" Gail said loudly. These are perhaps, the words you least want to hear from any health professional. Suddenly, she came flying past me, her lab coat whipping behind her, on her way out the door. She yelled over her shoulder, "The machine's on fire, I'm going to get help!"
OK, I was wrong, 'The machine's on fire,' are the worst words you can hear from a health professional. Especially if you're all alone and semi-permanently attached to A MACHINE and don't know if it's THE MACHINE in question.
I struggled for a few seconds trying to get free, but even Houdini couldn't have escaped. I decided to go to plan B: yelling at the top of my lung (the one that was still working).
I hadn't seen anything on fire, so my panic hadn't quite reached epic proportions. But then I started to smell smoke coming from behind the partition. "This is ridiculous," I thought. I can't die like this.

What would they put in my obituary? Cause of death: breast entrapment? I may have inhaled some fumes because I started to hallucinate. An imaginary fireman rushed in with a fire hose and a hatchet. "Howdy, ma'am," he said. "What's happened here?" he asked, averting his eyes.
"My breasts were too hot for the machine," I quipped, as my imaginary fireman ran out of the room again. "This is gonna take the Jaws of Life!" In reality, Gail returned with a fire extinguisher and put out the fire.
She gave me a big smile and released me from the machine. "Sorry! That's the first time that's ever happened. Why don't you take a few minutes to relax before we finish up?"
I think that's what she said. I was running across the parking lot in my backless paper gown at the time. After I'd relaxed for a few years, I figured I might go back. But I was bringing my own fire
extinguisher.

The end.

Hope you all laughed as much as I. Now, ladies, get those mammograms but be prepared.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, Isabelle! This is so hilarious!! Thank you for sharing. I needed these laughs today. Just didn't know I needed the waterproof mascara, but at least it didn't flow out of the other end! Happy Weekend!

Tracie said...

Great piece ~ and now, a couple of weeks before my first mammogram, I am worried! With my luck, the stupid machine will probably blow up!

Colleen Schaan said...

Thanks for the reminder AND the laugh...I usually go to doctor appointment prepared with a book and maybe some stamping. I guess I will have to throw the fire extinguisher next time too!