Tea Man is The MAN

You guys know by now that I am ALWAYS crusing around Etsy. And, you should all know that I am a tea person (had a British Grandmother you know) and am always willing to try new tea. Well, that's how I found TeaMan!

I'm usually a strict "black tea" person and I tend to stay within say English Breakfast, Chai etc as far as flavors go. I've never really been a fan of fruit flavored black teas..usually the fruit overpowers the tea and it just tastes like I'm drinking hot juice. One Saturday Night during Etsy SNS sales time..TeaMan was offering 25 free bags of his new Cherry, Orange & Almond tea with any purchase. So, I thought it was about time I tried his tea, I'd seen him on the promotion forum often enough. I ordered myself a black tea sampler and got the free tea.

It was $7.50 for the sampler which has 65 tea bags in it and shipping was only $3, fairly reasonable. He shipped them rather quickly and I got my tea in a matter of a few days, so that is also impressive.

Here are the flavors I got in my sampler:

Darjeeling and Ceylon tea

Peach and Apricot tea

Northn comfort tea

Chai black tea

Black Currant black tea

Earl Grey black tea

Strawberry black tea

Cranberry tea

Vanilla black tea

Gingerbread tea

Black Raspberry black tea

English Breakfast black tea

Plus the 25 Cherry, Orange & Almond tea.

I already went thru my usual lovies, the vanilla, the chai, the gingerbread and they are excellent. The quality is outstanding for a home made tea. The flavors are just perfect and meld in just the right way with the tea leaves. There's no overpowering of any spice or flavor. The tea just comes out perfect every time.

I already said I wasn't a big "fruited" tea fan. But, now that's all I have left to try. Tea Man is so good with his blending techniques that the fruit and tea go so well together. I actually enjoy his fruited black tea. It's like good strong black tea with a gentle touch of fruit so you get the flavor of both the tea and the fruit without your tea tasting like hot fruit juice. Even the Cherry, Orange & Almond, which I thought I wasn't going to like, is excellent.

I can truly say with all honesty that if I brew a cuppa Tea Man's tea, I'm going to be content and happy. Prices range from $2.50 for 25 bags to $14 for the Super Sampler. He seems to have special going on all the time. If you purchase $5 or more you'll get 25 of the Cherry, Orange, Almond teabags or if your purchase is under $5, you'll get 10 teabags for free. If you're a tea person like myself, you have to give his tea a go. I highly recommend the Chai and the Gingerbread tea, some of the best I've ever had.

Tea Man ROCKS!

Where Have I Been?

Ok, I've been on a little hiatus not of my own doing. I had a cancer scare recently and I just had to take a break until things were figured out.

As some of you may know, my mother died of pre-menopausal breast cancer back in 1994. Because of that I've been having annual mammograms since I was 30 (37 now). I had this year's mammogram back on May 15th.

On the 20th I got a letter in the mail, which is what they usually do to tell you there's no change, but it said my mammogram was incomplete and I had to come back for more imaging. Well, I was pissed thinking that the technician didn't do things right. So, I made an appt. for the 22nd. I went in and the tech I had then told me that they wanted to do an ultrasound as there was a small round mass detected in my right breast. I was like, what!! The letter just said it was "incomplete" (they really need to change that). So, ultrasound was done and the doctor couldn't find it. She thought it might be a cyst and usually "fluid filled" masses can be seen. So, she had them take 3 more mammogram images. The mass was still there. I was told I would need to get it biopsied. Of course, with my family history I just lost it and all the way home. Talked with my husband and scheduled the biopsy as soon as I could, which was MOnday June 1st.

I found my self surprisingly calm during the week before. I guess I had resigned myself to the fact a long time ago that eventually this would come to be.

Monday June 1st...biopsy day. I was nervous but not too bad. They put me on this table with a hole in it..yes how original..where I had to stick righty thru. There's a mammogram machine underneath and I was "compressed" and they took images till they found the mass. Then they injected me with 200 ccs of ladocaine (sp). This is where things went really really wrong. Being compressed, I couldn't really tell if I was numbed up or not, I assumed I was. The doctor told me I'd hear a POP..well I heard it and I f'ing felt it too. It was very very painful. I felt everything....then the nausea hit and the panic attack, sweats etc followed. They took the needle out of me and luckily they got one sample b4 they removed the needle. However, they usually like to take 3 more. The doctor told me she was pretty confident the report would come back as a fibroid adenoma (benign fibroid basically). Results would come back in 2 days. The nurse mentioned after that sometimes women with fibrous breasts...the ladocaine doesn't work on them. Um, hello that fact has been in my files for like EVER! Could've asked me.

Wednesday, June 3rd. I got the call around 2pm from the nurse. She told me the results were inconclusive and it just said "fibrous tissue". Since the Dr. was looking for a more specific diagnosis, this was not good enough and I would have to come back for another biopsy. I was able to get in this past Friday the 5th at 7:45am. As soon as I got off the phone, I began my nervous breakdown. The first biopsy just traumatized me and I was scared to death about going for a 2nd..even though they would use a different medication for my local.

My good friend and neighbor, Suzie, suggested I call my GYN and ask for a valium prescription. I figured why not, I am freaking out anyway, might as well try something. So, she called in a 1 pill Rx for Ativan. Took it in the morning and I'm thankful it worked for me. I was drowsy and it put me in a "I don't give an F" type of mood. So, I didn't freak out when we got there.

I'm back up on the table and they're taking images again and I hear the tech and the nurse talking and saying, "I don't know, it was clear as day on Monday." I began to giggle to myself because I realized they couldn't find the mass. They must've took about 12 images and couldn't find it. The doctor had them take a few more on a regular mammogram imager..still couldn't find it. I was brought into a room to talk w/the doctor. There were two screens..the left had the images they just took and the right had the images from Monday. Monday's images, there's the mass clear as day. The images they just took, the mass is gone. Now, she doesn't know if it's gone or the previous procedure (blood or whatever) may be obscuring it. I asked about the pathology report, she read it to me and explained it. They found cystistic cells and fibrous tissue (the nurse didn't mention the cystistic cells) all benign. No atypical cells or malignant cells. She was truly at a loss as to where the mass went. But, I have to heal up and come back in 2 months (August 7th) for another mammogram and see what's what.

So, in a nutshell, that's where I've been and why I haven't had any posts/reviews. If you find yourself in the position I was and you have been diagnosed with "fibrous breasts", be sure to tell the doctors before they perform your needle biopsy. You do not want to go thru what I went thru pain wise.

I'm good and calm now so reviews will be back soon. I really wanted my readers to know where I was and why I was gone.