Yeah, you know, REALLY looking forward to my mammogram today. It’s in just a few hours and I simply don’t know what to wear, except not deodorant, per the instructions, because little flecks of white from one’s pits can mimic calcifications on the film, prompting re-shoots and unnecessary biopsies and altogether more breast smushing and poking than is strictly necessary.
Stinky, apprehensive and lacking in bacteria-killing antiperspirant is not a recipe for a great morning, for me or the guy next to me on the subway.
The most anyone hopes for on routine mammo day is to discover that they were exactly as they thought they were before they had those weird little sticky things that look like the male half of a snap stuck on their nipples and had the Oxford English Dictionary slammed down on their boobs: PERFECTLY HEALTHY. It’s not as if there’s a net gain or anything. You don’t come out ahead. I may have to buy myself something, like chocolate or a lipstick, to feel like something positive came out of it.
Oh, joy.
Like thousands of women, I’m one of those who has had multiple mammo scares. Aside from having breasts, I have no particular elevated risk, thank goodness. Nonetheless, they found a funky mass back in 2002 when I was about to undergo IVF. Yucky needle biopsy–sounded like a staple gun–followed by a wire-guided mammogram and surgery to confirm that it was, in fact, nothing. Since then, I’ve had a calcification, which, happily and after another biopsy–this time with my boob hanging through a hole in a table–was determined to be nothing, either. Fan-f&*%g-tastic.
I’m the kind of gal that the new mammography guidelines were written for last year, the rationale for not getting routine mammos in your 40s being that the false positive rate is so high relative to the number of cancers found that it’s puts women through hell for no reason. (Those with risk factors should, of course, get them early and often). And I hear that.
But I’ve had enough friends my age or younger who have had breast cancer (one just started chemo last week) to wonder if maybe I should find a way to view these false positives as signs that people are on the job–like the Sloman Shield dude frantically calling on vacation because the cat set off the alarm. That’s kind of a good thing, right?
Kind of. I guess it depends how often it happens and what the crime rate in your neighborhood is.
What do you Formerlies think about all this? Would you rather have the crap scared out of you a few times with a false positive and maybe even surgery for an abnormality which in all likelihood will turn out to be nothing? Or would you (assuming you’re not in the high-risk category) rather roll the dice that you’d be OK with fewer mammograms?
Wish me and my boobs luck today.
Photo by fauxto digit CC
May 10, 2010 at 9:27 am
I am so glad you asked! According to the new “recommendations” against routine mammos after age 40, I had no risk factors. My maternal grandmother had breast cancer post-menopause (lived to 101), but everybody except *her* doctor said that it was not universally accepted that my risk was increased. So new recommendations would have had me feelin’ my boobies and waiting till 50 for my routine squash-n-irradiate.
I had my mammo based on “old” protocol, discovered stage 0 rapid growth ductal carcinoma (“the best kind of breast cancer!” or so I’ve been told. Grrr.). This common type of breast cancer is usually *undetectable* my self-exam or by a doctor’s exam. That is, until it becomes invasive. Feeling my boobies, and even paying a trained professional to feel my boobies, would have meant invasive cancer before I ever qualified for a “routine” mammo.
With my very early detection, aggressive treatment (mastectomy), and tamoxifen for 5 years to prevent recurrence, my odds of living many years with one real & one reconstructed boob are very very good.
I understand the concerns: medical costs in the US are out of control & abnormal mammo results are extremely stressful. False positives waste everybody’s time and money and energy.
Except they don’t.
Life is stressful. False positives suck, but seriously, I am woman: hear me roar: I can handle it, and so can you.
Early detection and early treatment are the best weapons we have against cancer.
Period.
May 10, 2010 at 11:16 am
I would rather be scared by a few false positives than find out that I had something bad that could have been treated quickly had I not waited.
I just had my first mammogram a month ago. I turned 40 this year and had to make all of those “big 40” appointments like mammograms and dermatologists.
My biggest concern is that insurance companies will stop paying for them routinely. Those of us who still want to get them yearly may not be able to since they won’t be affordable without insurance.
Good luck today!! Hopefully all goes well for you!
May 10, 2010 at 11:59 am
I agree. Like you I had a big fat nothing discovered several years ago (in my mid-30s) and now go for my yearlies (except not right now, cuz I’m lactating). The way I get around this being the most stressful day of my year is by going to a comprehensive breast center that gives same-day results, and by taking some serious retail therapy after the appointment.
May 10, 2010 at 8:24 pm
Count me in among all those in favor. And while we’re at it, did you know there’s some new law about PAP smears, too ? Basically, if your result is normal and you’re over 30, you only need to be tested every three years. That’s a reduction from once a year. Yikes! Of course, you can opt to do them more often, but insurance won’t pay. Whadd’ya make of that?
May 17, 2010 at 8:14 am
wow… amazing how we can create ‘new threads’s from the ‘Formerly Hot’!!
Annelisa, thank you SO much for your ending to your note beginning with “Except they don’t”. Inner strength is everything.
Also, Gina with ‘serious retail therapy’? I’ll have to remember that advice. ;p
As a breast cancer (here it comes . . .) survivor, with an upcoming mammo, I needed this! I went from pure laughter with all the memories that come from this FANTASTIC, Formerly Hot site, full circle to now.
Thank you ALL for taking the time to write. 🙂
Now….where does one begin with the “I Once Was Hot” personal story?!?
hhhmmmmm 50 looms in december……… xox!
May 17, 2010 at 11:20 am
I would rather take the few false positives, then a false negative. I had to go thru the booby squish a year ago (at 28) because I found a lump, and breast cancer runs on mom’s side of the family. Mom so far has been clean, but my grandmother died from it and one of her sisters also had it. Before them nobody knows, great-grandma died in her 30’s, her mom before her, also in her 30’s both in childbirth so no idea how far back any history may go. All turned out to be OK thank goodness. To me it’s always better to be over safe, than sorry later.