Last Friday, I had an uneventful doctor’s appointment. Let me say it again – I had an uneventful doctor’s appointment. It feels weird to write it. Kind of a foreign concept to me at this point.

Last Friday I went for my first doctor’s appointment of 2014. The appointment was with my gynecologist for my annual exam.

We spent the first part of the appointment with her asking me how I was feeling since having my ovaries removed. How were my hot flashes? (Not great but bearable.) Was I having any pain? (Thankfully, no.) Was I having any vaginal dryness? (Again, thankfully no.)

Then I asked her a series of questions. I will never menstruate again, right? (Right. I knew the answer to this, but just wanted to confirm it before throwing away all my tampons.) What about osteoporosis? (Since I’m at a higher risk for osteoporosis from having my ovaries out, I should eat more foods with calcium or take a supplement.) Since I don’t have ovaries, I don’t have to worry about an unplanned pregnancy, but I should still protect against STDs, right? (Yes, condoms are suggested.) Do I need to continue to do ultrasounds since I still have a 1% chance of ovarian cancer, even though I removed my ovaries? (Thankfully the answer to that was no! Even though you can get ovarian cancer that starts in the uterus, the symptoms will show up in the early stage. Doesn’t seem fair that I remove my ovaries and can still get ovarian cancer, but ok. I also can get breast cancer again even though I removed both of my breasts. But that’s another blog post for another time.)

My gynecologist then told me she wasn’t going to do a breast exam, which I said was fine since I have a regular check up with my breast surgeon at the end of the month. I told her that I have a rash on my left breast, which is my breast cancer breast, but it’s only been there for a few days. Rashes are a warning sign for breast cancer, but I’ve had these on and off over the last year. My doctor’s attribute it to perhaps a reaction to the chlorine in the swimming pool. I told my gynecologist that I’d talk to my breast surgeon about the rash.

Then it was time to get into the stirrups for the vaginal exam. I laid down and my gyno put the speculum in place. She started examining me, then looked up and said, “You’re going to hate hearing this, but there’s a mole on your labia.” I told her that this mole has been there for over 10 years and we biopsied it 10 years ago and it was benign. She said, “Phew. OK, good.”

She finished the exam and said she’d call me with the results of the pap within two weeks. If the test came back normal, she didn’t want to see me again for another year. Fingers crossed.

I got dressed and got out of there as quickly as possible before she could tell me anything else. I know I should continue to be vigilant about my body and anything unusual. But I just want some time where there are no more tests. Where there are no more doctor’s appointments for a while. Where no one is touching me and prodding me. Where no one says, “I see something I don’t like. We need to look at this closer.”

I know you’re never really “done” with cancer. Every week I hear about someone who has a recurrence of some type of cancer. So I do carefully listen to my body and will call my doctor the moment something isn’t right.

But please, could I just have some peace and quiet for a while.