{"id":18226,"date":"2014-06-05T00:01:58","date_gmt":"2014-06-05T07:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/barbarafalconernewhall.com\/?p=18226"},"modified":"2014-06-05T00:01:58","modified_gmt":"2014-06-05T07:01:58","slug":"at-the-breast-cancer-center-where-everyone-is-super-nice-to-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/at-the-breast-cancer-center-where-everyone-is-super-nice-to-you\/","title":{"rendered":"At the Breast Cancer Center — Where Everyone Is Super Nice to You"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Two<\/a>
Even the dime-sized stickers with metal beads used to mark the location of your nipples during a mammogram are upbeat at the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center. Photo by BF Newhall<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Barbara Falconer Newhall<\/em><\/p>\n

A smiling receptionist is there to greet you as you enter the lobby of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center in San Francisco\u2019s East Bay. She directs you to the registration desk, where there\u2019s no wait. A nice woman politely finishes up a conversation and is ready to help.<\/p>\n

When she’s done, which is in minutes, the registrar directs you through the lobby to the Butterfly Room, where another smiling staffer hands you a deluxe waffle-textured gown that actually fits and keeps you warm — way nicer than the flimsy cover-ups you get at your routine annual mammogram over on the other side of town.<\/p>\n

You leave your things in a locker and head to the Bamboo Room to wait. There, across the room on a video screen, fields of tulips, irises and anthuriums take turns wafting in the wind.<\/p>\n

Moments later a bright young woman is doing your mammogram. That done, she takes you down the hall to the sonogram exam room, where another bright young woman checks that mysterious clump at one o\u2019clock on your left breast.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a mass,\u201d the ob-gyn had said. \u201cIt\u2019s more like a gathering of tissue. I\u2019m not worried.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like the people who decided on the name for the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center, the ob-gyn does not use the C-word.<\/p>\n

The ob-gyn had detected the \u201cgathering\u201d just a week ago, and the folks at the breast center had wasted no time scheduling the tests.<\/p>\n

The sonogram monitor is visible from where you lie on the exam table. Two small dark spots show up. The technician takes a picture, click, and she\u2019s done.<\/p>\n

The radiologist will look at the scans right away, the technician tells you as you sit up. No need to wait and worry for hours or days. She\u2019ll be back in five minutes with the results.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s back. The doctor saw nothing. No, it\u2019s not cancer. No, I\u2019m not going to die any time soon. And, unlike my friend Beverly Rose<\/a>, who died of breast cancer 25 years ago, I won\u2019t be having my life turned upside down for months and years with surgery, chemo, wigs, prosthetics and brain-numbing painkillers.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s good, because I\u2019ve got things to do. A book to get published. A son<\/a> in Minneapolis. A daughter<\/a> in Los Angeles. A husband<\/a> who\u2019s decided to write a thriller and needs help with the plot. Also with his crossword puzzles.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet your doctor know if you notice any changes in that area,\u201d the technician says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s it? I\u2019m done?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than an hour after I handed my car keys over to the red-coated valet (valet parking is free here for patients), I\u2019m handing him my ticket.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cold out here,\u201d he says. \u201cWhy don\u2019t you wait inside? I\u2019ll find you.\u201d<\/p>\n

People are nice to you here at the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center. Really nice.<\/p>\n

And if my luck holds out, I won’t be back in a place where so many people are this nice to me for a long, long time.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>
The dark side of the story: A breast cancer cell. Courtesy National Cancer Institute<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’d like to get regular updates, you can subscribe to email notices, or you can follow me on Twitter or with an RSS feed. Look for the icons at the top of the right-hand column.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

A smiling receptionist greets you as you enter the lobby of the Carol Ann Read Breast Health Center in San Francisco\u2019s East Bay. She directs you to the registration desk, where there\u2019s no wait. A nice woman with pretty eyebrows is ready to help. Everyone here is nice, really nice. Read more.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[103,1232,1233,187,1234,1235,55,1236,82,1237,1025],"class_list":["post-18226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-my-rocky-spiritual-journey","tag-aging","tag-breasts","tag-cancer","tag-death","tag-health","tag-mammograms","tag-family-stories","tag-ob-gyn","tag-on-the-funny-side","tag-the-carol-ann-read-breast-health-center","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/server.stagingweb3.net\/barbarafalconernewhall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}