Yesterday was my second least favorite day of the year. The day I go for my "routine" mammogram. I'll bet you can all guess what my first least favorite is? Anyway, I am militant about getting this done every year, as about a half dozen of my friends have been through breast cancer already.
My problem every year is that I have (and this is a medical term), "dense breasts." The glandular tissue has not been replaced with fatty tissue. Usually, this happens by age 40. For some reason, I'm still waiting on this change, five years later. Having dense breasts pretty much ensures you a false positive reading. The first time this happened to me, I went through two weeks of sheer hell, thinking I had cancer. The doctor phones you, says there was a spot on your pictures, and you need to go back for spot compressions. You can never get in right away, so you wait in agony until the day you can go back, then wait some more for the new results.
After having this happen to me my first two years, I now go to a breast specialist who orders all my work to be done the same day. It is usually a four hour process: go get the routine bilaterals done, sit in waiting area while the first ones are read, get called back in for more pictures, wait some more, get called back in for spot compressions, wait some more, get sent down to the ultrasound department because they still see suspicious areas, go back and wait in an exam room for doctor, doctor comes in and feels me up and says everything is fine, see you next year.
And the brochure in the waiting room claims that their digital technology is better for imaging dense breast tissue than the traditional film method. Yeah, right. Anyway, yesterday was particularly frustrating because this time, they saw spots on both sides, so it meant twice as many compressions and an ultrasound for both breasts. And then, I was there so long, the doctor left for surgery, so she was not able to keep my appointment. I have to go back next week. Fortunately, the ultrasound technician was kind enough to tell me that she didn't see anything abnormal, so at this time, I think I'm okay.
I won't even talk about how my chest wall feels today. But I do often wonder if all of this radiation to check for cancer isn't going to give me cancer someday.
The procedure looks really painful. Is it? I can't help but think there was a tiny bit of misogyny in the design of the glass plates and the compression.
ReplyDeleteTrooper - It's not as painful as it looks. The worse part for me is when they need to get a compression up high. I'm rather thin, so it feels as though they are crushing the top of my rib cage, where there really is little tissue/fat. It can also sometimes pinch the armpit, which doesn't feel too good. I'm always surprised when I don't find bruises the next day!
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me that I should get my dense breasts in gear and make an appointment for this. I've not done it for some time, and haven't since I turned 40.
ReplyDeleteGlad things seem to look positive.
i had to have my first mammogram when i was a nursing mother. wasn't that great fun? i'll let your imagination go wild with that.
ReplyDeletegiven that you wind up having false positives i can certainly understand why you hate it so much and why you've opted to go with a doc who will do everything on the same day. who needs the stress of wondering for weeks...ugh. i am sorry.
I had my first at age 29 because I found a lump (aunt had breast cancer, so we're all a bit on edge). It wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to be. The waiting for the results was MUCH worse than the procedure.
ReplyDeleteFADKOG - yes, go get it done. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
ReplyDeleteLime - I wouldn't think they'd do a mammogram on someone who is nursing! Sounds awful.
Mama - Yes, as Tom Petty says, "the waiting is the hardest part."
Uhg. I hate doing that! I, for one, thinks it really, really, really hurts. You've got dense boobs, I've got lumpy boobs. At least I haven't had false positives. But I had my first lumpectomy at 22--before mammography. And my mom has had breast cancer twice. They were after she had turned 50, which means I'm not as high risk as I would be if she had been under 50. At any rate, I go. Grudgingly. Blech. Every February.
ReplyDeletethe mammogram was necessary due to a lump i found that didn't go away. turned out to be benign but needed biopsy to determine that since the mammogram was inconclusive and other manners of looking at it were unavailable.
ReplyDeleteLime - Sounds horrendous, but I'm glad to hear it was benign.
ReplyDeleteUrg so glad I don't have to do that yet. When are you supposed to start by the way? Would it be less bad if you have smaller breasts, or doesn't it matter?
ReplyDeleteTulip - You are supposed to get a base line reading by age 40. I don't think size makes any difference as to the uncomfortableness of it all.
ReplyDelete