In the beginning….there were mammograms

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Mammogram Refresher – What, When and Why Breast Imaging Matters — Oregon Medical Group

In April, I scheduled my yearly mammogram for October 18th. Exactly 366 days after my previous screening. By nature I am a “get it done, get it off my plate and move on” type of person. At the time I remember thinking “This is 6 months in advance, isn’t this a little early?” Ultimately my “get shit done” attitude took over and I called to schedule my mammogram. I could tell the scheduler thought it was strange that I was scheduling a mammogram 6 months in advance but she of course scheduled it and on I went with my life. I’m not a religious person, except for mammograms and oil changes, but I see now that this was an inspired move. You can chalk it up to the universe, or karma or whatever you believe in, but I do feel I was urged to make the call that day.

October 18th came and all went well. I even told a friend that wished me good luck that “It’s just a routine one, it’s not a big deal”.

October 23rd I get a call about an abnormal image and a call back for a diagnostics screening. This has happened before on my first mammogram and it was nothing. “Dense breast tissue, calcifications…blah blah blah.” I was a little nervous but I just figured the image wasn’t clear so we were doing it again. I went in the next day, October 24th for the diagnostic imaging and the nurse told me that she was going to share the results with the radiologist right then and “either he will tell me to come talk to you or he will come back with me”. Less than 5 minutes later she comes back….with the radiologist. My exact words were “Well, that’s not a good sign”.

He showed me the image. There were calcification spots here and there, then he showed me the area of concern. The calcifications looked like little planets where the concerning areas looked like a little galaxy or a spatter painting I would have done with a toothbrush and paint in the 80’s.

I was told I needed a needle biopsy to determine if it was cancer or not. Yes, someone dropped the “C” word on me that day and my “get shit done” attitude again kicked into gear.

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