Sticking around.

A few months ago, I started feeling a small pain in my side near my hip. It would hurt when I leaned or when I was lying on that side. I tried to trace it back to when it started and thought, at first, that I must have hit it on something. Like a roller coaster seat (we went to one in late December), or something else. But it never bruised. I tried to ignore it since I figured the doctor would say it was nothing, but it didn't go away and after three plus months, I decided to have him check it out. In between the time I made the appointment and went in, I found a small lump near my pelvic bone. Great. If it ain't one thing, it's another. God knows what the hell is wrong with me this time. Bad back? High thyroid levels? Kidney infection? I figured a call to my mother was in order to come help take care of the kids.

So I went in yesterday to get the bad news. The hip thing was nothing, as I imagined. A bruised bone from some bump. Takes a while to heal. Call him in a few months if the pain hasn't gone down.

So then I go to show him the lump. I find it right away since it's a big lump and he feels it. Then he says (as I'm expecting him to tell me I have cancer and three months to live), "Oh, that. Everyone has that. It's the cartilage where the pubic bones come together."

Duh.

I've never felt it before, I explain to him. He tells me that sometimes childbirth makes it widen or enlarge. I don't mention that I had c-sections while I smile, get dressed and leave quite happy that mom doesn't have to hop on a flight that night and Michael doesn't have to become a single dad.