Part of my to do list today (not that you can read my handwriting):

…………….

With the smoke having mostly cleared from what seem like weeks of bang up 40th birthday celebrations .. my mind is turning back to the things I would like to do, have to do, and should do.

Especially for my overall mental and physical health.

Like .. catch up on work.  Run an extra mile each day to counteract my (I’m certain) ever slowing metabolism and the fact I’m not willing to give up good beer.  Or chocolate.  Eat more salad.  Check in with my life coach.  Catch up on email and continue to purge all this non-essential electronically and otherwise in my home/office/surroundings and life.  Finally schedule that yard sale with the neighbors, an appointment for my new crowns ..

And, a mammogram.

Check.

………………

I was waiting the other day to hear back from someone close .. on a biopsy she needed to have done to determine if the lumps she had found in her breast, were cancerous.  Or, just plain old lumps.

But at 32-years-old and with a history of breast cancer in her family we were all holding our breath, I do believe.

It was that morning, and I was rushing through my morning routine and had about 2 minutes to shower and get out the door ..

I thought to myself:   When is the last time I even did a self-exam let alone think about scheduling a mammogram given I’m now ‘at that age’?

I did a quick self exam that morning, now about a week ago.  Not that I would have known if something were abnormal.

Because it had been so long.

I actually had my first mammogram a few years ago, as there was a suspicious area my doctor and I both wanted checked out.  Turned out it was nothing.  But .. I haven’t thought about it since.  Other than the fact I know I am at risk because 1.) I am a woman.  (although men can receive the diagnosis)  And 2.)  I, like my friend and so many others out there, have a maternal history of breast cancer in my own bloodline as well.

My girlfriends biopsy, thankfully we celebrated as benign.

While there are a lot of suggestions out there right now as to how often one should have a mammogram if ever, how effective they might actually be and who should get them .. mine is now on the calendar.

Finding the energy to call both the dentist and the IRS will have to wait until Monday.