First of all, an I AM STUPID admission! I waited two and a half years between mammograms. I had the "I'll show you" mentality of skipping mammos because my insurance company does not (and I doubt yours does either) cover diagnostic mammograms.
If you fell for the Obamacare promise of free mammograms for all women (insert sarcastic laugh here), there is a loophole for insurance companies. Only very basic screening mammograms are fully covered without co-pay or deductible. So, if you have dense tissue..which many women have, you probably require diagnostic mammograms. Dense tissue appears white on mammograms...as does cancer, making screenings more difficult to identify (or rule out) cancer.
Did you know women with high breast density are four to five times more likely to get breast cancer than women with low breast density? Why did I not know that? Since that is a fact, wouldn't you think that insurance companies would make diagnostic screenings for women who are at higher risk free, as well? Okay...enough with that rant!
I might have continued with my one-woman crusade had not my family physician strongly recommended I have one. I specifically requested the free "screening mammo" instead of my normal diagnostic one...knowing full well I'd get a call back for more views. But, God was in control and apparently the Breast Center didn't get the memo. On April 29th I had a diagnostic mammogram and a 3-D mammogram. The radiologist was in-house to read them...more views ensued. I became anxious when told there was an area they wanted to look at more closely with ultrasound.
The radiologist told me there was an "indeterminable nodule" in my left breast which he recommended for further investigation. Of course, no one ever used the "C" word. One week later, May 6, I am having an MRI. I received a phone call that afternoon from the radiologist who read my MRI. She told me that a biopsy was needed; and it was scheduled for the next week on May 13.
The “1 in 8” Sorority – May, 2015
At 12:40 on Friday, May 15, 2015, I received the phone call I was dreading. Dr. K., my radiologist, called to see how I was doing two days post-biopsy. I told him “fine, no problems today; a little sore, but no visible bruising.” His next words were chilling, but not really unexpected. My pathology report was “positive”. The good news, he said, (is there good news when you’ve just been told you have cancer?) --the biopsied cells were “ductal carcinoma in situ”, meaning in the original place of origin, non-invasive. And, yes, that is a very good thing!
After a two weeks and two days initiation process, I was inducted into the “1 in 8 Sorority”--just like that!
Copyright 2015
Laney's Musings
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