The Importance of Getting a Mammogram
“It’s important to keep up with your routine health screenings.”
When I was married to the doctor, my healthcare was absolutely top shelf. Specialists who depend on referrals for their patient load may go above and beyond for a physician’s family. A referral pattern is a terrible thing to waste. I never had to wait for appointments. My doctors always answered my calls. Testing, including my mammogram, was done quickly. And, they accepted whatever insurance paid and never charged me a dime. Professional courtesy, it’s called. I have to admit, I was pretty spoiled. My doctors in Colorado were the same ones who took care of me when I was married to the doctor so my level of care pretty much continued even after the divorce. That changed when I moved to West Virginia.
My insurance changed when I moved here and I could not find anyone who took my insurance AND took new patients. I could find one or the other…not both. So I didn’t have a primary physician until Mr. FixIt and I started dating. His doctor was kind enough to take me on. I really like him. He’s thorough and gives the same quality of care I came to expect in Colorado. I have not always heard good things about the level of care here. I didn’t have a good experience with my mom’s healthcare and that was my frame of reference. I have no complaints here.
The problem with not having a primary care doctor is not keeping up with routine health screenings. The current issue is a mammogram. I had a routine mammogram in September. I received a call a few days later saying they needed compression films and an ultrasound. They found something “suspicious.” I do not have a family history of breast cancer and this mass had every hallmark of being a fibroadenoma which is the most common benign breast tumor. My doctor and I discussed it and decided to repeat the tests in six months.
I had the repeat tests done the first part of May. This time the suspicious area was bigger. I was scheduled for an Ultrasound Guided Core Needle Biopsy, which I had done on Tuesday. If you have never had one and you need one, they really aren’t bad. The doctor numbs the area then makes a tiny nick in the skin. Then, guided by the ultrasound, a needle is placed in different areas of the lesion and small bits of tissue are removed and sent to the lab. A little bandaid over the boo-boo and off you go. Tylenol every four hours for a day and you’re left with something that feels akin to the breast tenderness you feel at the beginning of your period. Since it’s been 25 years since I’ve had one of those, I had kind of forgotten what that felt like. But, really…it wasn’t bad at all.
I went back to the surgeon yesterday for follow up. Because of the place where this mass is, getting a really good sample was difficult. The radiologist who did the biopsy told me he wasn’t sure he got a good specimen. The surgeon came in and said the good news was, there was no cancer found. But the bad news was, he wasn’t sure the specimen was the tissue he wanted to see because it didn’t quite correlate. He suggested removing the mass surgically and we scheduled that to be done on 6/21.
I know this is probably TMI, but I can’t stress enough how important it is to stay on top of your self care. Here I am, turning 65 next week, and having this done. It’s easy to blow it off, procrastinate, ignore. It’s just as easy to wait too long and miss something. My surgeon is still quite sure this is benign, but it’s something that cannot be ignored and we need to get it taken care of. Then they can do a proper test on the tissue and I can stop worrying about it. Get your mammogram, girls. It’s important. ❤
“Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 NIV