Just sayin’...

By Donna Kelly

THIS is a public service announcement. Ladies, check your boobs. Firstly, I am all good. Yay. But not everyone is so lucky. And it is one of those things, like so many of the health checks available, that if you get it early, you have a very good chance of winning. And it is usually very simple. Usually.

For some reason I have been asked by a specialist to get a check every year. Lumpy, bumpy breast tissue I think was the medical term. So every year in March I go along to Lake Imaging, even during Covid, and get a mammogram done and mostly after that, an ultrasound, just to be sure. That is their decision, not mine. They always say it is just routine but once I only had a mammogram so I dunno...

Anyway, a few weeks before I was thinking about making my appointment I thought I felt something, a little lump, and nearly died of a heart attack. I felt again, and nothing. Again and something. By this time I was starting to feel like a sex offender so I stopped feeling myself and called the doctor to get a referral. You need one if you have more than one mammogram every two years.

They, the doc, were a bit like "why are we doing this" and "it is radiation" but I mentioned maybe a lump and they agreed and I called to make the Ballarat appointment. The closest was about three weeks away, and yes, I did try other places, but they were all busy.

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So the three weeks went by and some days I thought about it, and some days I didn't. Well, most days I did, just wired like that for health things. Kyle could tell me we are about to go into bankruptcy - came close a few times over Covid - and I would think "oh well, bummer" but health is health.

Anyway, the day came and I went in and stripped off the top half and plopped my boob on the mammogram tray, leaned forward, with my right elbow back and my left hand holding the rail at the front, and my bum back and my hips twisted to one side and they lowered the top to squash my boob flat. A man made this machine.

And then I sat in the gown while they looked at the images and then they said they would just do a routine ultrasound. Hmmm, here we go, I thought. And felt a bit sad. Then I lay down and they pushed my boobs with the ultrasound thing and then the person said "something of concern here" and I felt really sad. It was noted as indeterminate and would need a biopsy.

So I went to another doctor the next day, the first one was busy, to get a referral for the biopsy and also to that breast specialist for any findings. And the doctor said it was already eight centimetres big and marked the referral with "urgent". By now I was pretty much getting my affairs in order...

I couldn't get a biopsy for two weeks, even though it was marked urgent, but finally the day came. They give you a local anaesthetic, which hurts a bit, which I find strange because its only job is to stop pain, and then put in a big needle which pulls out a bit of tissue, three times, making really loud clicking noises each time.

I had my next appointment lined up but not for a week. It was a long week but eventually came along and then I sat in the waiting room for 30 minutes past my time. I imagined the specialist was putting on his game face. And then in I go.

"Well Donna, what brought about this mammogram?" he asked. "You told me to go every year," I blurted. "And they found something?" "Yes." "And then had the biopsy?" "Yes..." "Well, it's all good, nothing wrong." F%$K! I mean, great news, but who is training these people? "Was it 8cm," I asked. "No, 8cm from the nipple, just 6mm, gee 8cm would have been a worry," he laughed. Yeah, it was.

Anyway, boob check done. I think I will take April off health worries. Just sayin'...

Ageing DisGracefully members, including Max Primmer, get together at the Daylesford Mill Markets cafe on Thursdays at 11am. All welcome. For information email ageingdis3461@gmail. com, call 0427 131 249 or head to the Ageing DisGracefully Facebook page.

Ageing DisGracefully is an initiative of Hepburn House.

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Liquor licence application

We, BFG Daylesford Pty Ltd, applied to the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation on 28 February 2023 for the variation of a packaged liquor licence at 1 Howe St, Daylesford. The requested variation is to allow us to trade on Good Friday and to increase our liquor licence trading hours from 9.00am to 11.00pm on any day other than Sunday.

Any person may object to the grant of this application on the grounds that:

• it would detract from, or be detrimental to, the amenity of the area in which the premises are situated, and/or

• it would be conducive to or encourage the misuse or abuse of alcohol.

An objection must state the reasons for the objection. All objections are treated as public documents. Objections must be made in writing to:

Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation

GPO Box 1988

Melbourne VIC 3001

Objections must be made no later than 30 days after the date of this notice.