Daily Archives: February 6, 2013

This again

I had my repeat mammogram yesterday. It was my right breast that was in question, and initially seven additional views were taken. Those of you who are of the female persuasion are only too familiar with this procedure, but for the rest of you, here is a precise description of a mammogram copied from womenshealth.gov (italics mine):

“You stand in front of a special x-ray machine. The person who takes the x-rays, called a radiologic technician, places your breasts, one at a time, between an x-ray plate and a plastic plate. These plates are attached to the x-ray machine and compress the breasts to flatten them. This spreads the breast tissue out to obtain a clearer picture. You will feel pressure on your breast for a few seconds. It may cause you some discomfort; you might feel squeezed or pinched. This feeling only lasts for a few seconds, and the flatter your breast, the better the picture.”

Ironically, after coaching you into an awkward position, and then squeezing your breast so hard you think it might just pop, the technician advises you to ‘try to relax’. Yup. Thats the same line repeated at our other annual exam, the pap smear. In both situations, relaxation is simply inconceivable.

After a sufficient amount of squashing I was ushered into a special waiting room while the radiologist reviewed the films. Morning television, a pile of tatty magazines, and, curiously, a large collection of Chicken Soup for the Soul’s. And a reassuring sign that read “We compress because we care.”

Soon I was joined by another woman; a real Chatty Cathy. The first thing out of her mouth was “Do you have breast cancer?” I was momentarily mystified, but then I realized that my lack of hair is a potent signifier. So I told her that no, I had lung cancer. Her next query: “Oh, and it spread to your breast?”. Oh my. After telling her that I hoped not, her final, and I suppose inevitable, question was, “Did you smoke?” I was relieved when my name was called and I was spared from further conversation.

It was but a brief respite, and I was returned to the waiting room after two further (and even flatter) compressions/impressions. Fortunately Chatty Cathy’s nose was buried in a magazine.

When I was fetched again I was led to a far room for ‘privacy’. There was no way this was going to be good news.

Sure enough, The findings were as follows: “Diagnostic views of the right breast including spot magnification views were performed demonstrating a cluster of suspicious looking amorphous calcifications in the right central medial breast. A second grouping of calcifications is noted within the right superior breast. These 2 groupings appear to contain morphologically similar calcifications. The breast tissue is heterogeneously dense, which may obscure detection of small masses. There are no dominant masses seen with the right breast.”

The radiologist explained further that these were ductal microcalcifications and that worst case scenario, she felt they might represent a ductal carcinoma in situ.

Tomorrow I will meet with Dr. Shaw for a scan review (I had a chest CT scan on Monday) and then my third round of chemotherapy. On Friday I will return to the Avon Breast Center at MGH to meet with a breast surgeon and to schedule a biopsy (80% of breast biopsies are not positive for cancer–I’m hoping mine will be one of those).

And just to make things more interesting, this is the regional forecast for Friday:

...A POTENTIAL HISTORIC WINTER STORM AND BLIZZARD IS EXPECTED TO
DROP 1 TO 2 FEET OF SNOW ACROSS MUCH OF THE REGION FRIDAY INTO
SATURDAY...