It was just another morning at work. Pete, the maintenance man extraordinaire, and I were talking while he was collecting the kitchen garbage to be hauled out to the street for pick-up. I have no idea why I did this or what prompted me to do it but without thinking I reached up with my right hand to touch a spot on the left lower part of my neck. I felt a small lump. A nodule which shouldn't be there. WTF. I kept my finger on it and asked Pete, as he was walking the garbage to the front door, if he would take a look at it. He said "Sure" because that is the kind of guy Pete is. We got close to the window and I took my finger off of the spot. Pete said, "Yeah. I see something. You can see it. It's a little lump." To which I replied, "Is it under a scar?" Pete said, "No."
I thanked him and said out loud to no one that now I had to call my doctor.
I don't want to go through this again.
I walked into my office, grabbed my purse, and pulled out my wallet to look for my endocrinologist's business card. I was panicking. My emotional response was immediate.
Felicia, one of my co-workers fantastico, walked over to my office and stopped at the door. I told her what was going on and yes, I started tearing up.
I don't want to go through this again.
Felicia is an excellent listener. When I apologized for my obvious loss of control of my emotions, she said if it were her she would be doing the same thing. I shouldn't worry about it. She didn't pepper with me with questions I couldn't answer but instead let me talk and made it clear to me that she understood. She was supportive without going overboard and didn't fall apart with me.
After digging around I had to admit to myself that I didn't have the doc's business card so I went online. Through all of this Felicia stood by until I picked up the phone to call his office.
I feel better because of Felicia. I don't know that I will have to go through this again.
I got through to the office and after explaining the situation to the woman that answered the phone she passed me on to my doctor's nurse, Melissa....I think. I am so bad with names. She pulled up my chart and started asking me questions. What was the size of it? Where exactly was it located? In order to answer that question I had to walk to the bathroom and look in the mirror. I kept leaving the bathroom and she would have another question and I kept having to walk back in. We ended up laughing about it because she could hear me opening the bathroom door over and over. She tried to catch Dr. Lupo (yes, like the wolf) between patients but wasn't successful so she said she would have to call me back.
Felicia staunched the emotional bleeding some more simply by listening to me as I tried to busy myself as I waited. I didn't know if Dr. Lupo would see me or if he would send me to my primary care first. After a few minutes she and I went back to our respective offices. It wasn't too long a wait when my cell phone rang.
Hope. Please good news.
It was the original woman that answered the phone asking me if I could come in at 4 pm as Dr. Lupo wants to see me and perform an ultrasound, too. Felicia had walked to the door of her office and was looking at me. "Yes", I said. "I can come in at 4." Felicia nodded in agreement. The woman reiterated it was today at 4 pm and I reconfirmed.
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