I don’t make New Year’s resolutions so I don’t have to worry about breaking them. I make New Year’s Mini-goals. When I joined Weight Watchers over three years ago, I never had a goal weight in mind and still don’t. I was always content to lose a little each week (which didn’t always happen). Now even though I still pay monthly for the Weight Watchers app, I only loosely follow the program. I say I follow the program enough so I can cheat later. My mini-goal in that respect is to stay in “Onederland” and just maybe lose the five pounds I gained.

I started out the new year on a good note. In December I saw my Primary Care Physician for my annual Medicare Wellness exam. Because I’m a former smoker, she told me she wanted me to have a “Low Dose CT Lung Screening”, a new lung cancer screening encouraged by The American Lung Association (lung.com). They describe it as:

A low-dose CT scan is a special kind of X-ray that takes multiple pictures as you lie on a table that slides in and out of the machine. A computer then combines these images into a detailed picture of your lungs. A study on early detection of lung cancer found that the low-dose cancer screening test can reduce mortality for those at high risk. If you’re a current or former smoker over the age of 50, you could meet the high-risk eligibility criteria

‘Medicare covers screening for individuals 50-77 who have a 20-pack-year history of smoking and are current smokers or have quit within the last 15 years.” “Pack-year” history is based on the number of years you smoked and the number of cigarettes you smoked per day. I  smoked about a pack of cigarettes a day for 25 years, which gave me a 25-pack-year history. Because I have Medicare, am between the ages of 50-77 and I had smoked within the past fifteen years (I quit in 2010), I was eligible for this scan.

I waited several weeks before I scheduled the exam and the first available date was after New Year’s Day. I was good with that. I had mixed feelings about the exam, mainly the same feelings I have each year when I have a mammogram. What if they find something? What if this is the year I have to start fighting for my life with doctors and drugs and surgery or hair loss. It really scares the crap out of me. However, with my family history, I often wonder how long before it’s my turn to start battling cancer. I’m not ready to start living my life that way. I’m not ready, but then, whoever is?

So as I lay in the CT machine, I said a prayer that they wouldn’t find anything. But later thinking about it, before I got my results, I amended my prayer to “If there is something there, let them find it, but please don’t let there be anything there.”

My prayer was answered. The doctor said there was “nothing worrisome” on the scan and I only needed to repeat it in twelve months.

Happy New Year from Momma Kitty (and the rest of the clan.)