The Best Place to Pass a Kidney Stone

After a cancer scare, the experience was pure joy

Leslie Kleinberg Zacks
Elemental

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Photo: Bike_Maverick/Getty Images

About a year ago, while hiding from my children in the shower, I discovered a lump in my breast.

As an Ashkenazi woman over the age of 40, I was being watchful and groping myself regularly. I wasn’t really expecting much, but during this shower hideout, I felt something I couldn’t ignore. I got a hollow feeling, and the look on my obstetrician's face a few days later when I pointed it out to him didn’t make me feel much better.

After a biopsy that yielded good news, I met with the recommended “breast guy.” He explained to me that while I should be quite pleased with the results of the biopsy, he was actually only 98% confident in the results himself. My smile froze a bit as he explained that mistakes were known to happen, and if I wanted to be absolutely sure, I should have an MRI.

Since my insurance was willing to cover it, we both shrugged genially and once again I returned to the scheduling nurse. I was confident that my procedure would be nothing more than a good excuse to lay down in a dark room for an hour.

This time, the results were grim. The girls were both perfectly fine. However, the MRI, which was able to capture images of my vital organs from the lower ribs up, identified several…

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