It was there, nudging me — look at me, look at me!

But,

like most things in life, I chose to push it aside.

Self diagnosis concluding the overall inability to diagnose lumps due to an overall lack of expertise and life-accumulated incapacity of following written instructions.

But,

like most things in life, the lump did not disappear simply because I wished it so.

That bumpy pop remained.

Come December 23, the diagnosis was printed:

Invasive Breast Cancer.