Unigram Time

Today was the day I was dreading-----the day for my annual mammogram, well, now it's my "unigram" since they only squished my left breast today. It actually wasn't nearly as bad as it used to be BC (before cancer.) I was shocked at how little I had to lay up there on that cold little panel. Going from a 40 DD down to a 36 C certainly makes a difference!



I did get a little anxious because they kept me in the little waiting room with my gown on for over 45 minutes. It just brought back memories from the last mammogram and how that all turned out. The tech kept coming back in the room asking me more questions about my surgery and my cancer.



She finally came back in with my films and said that everything looks fine. What they were seeing was scars where Dr Hodges did the reduction on that breast. I looked at the films after she told me I could get dressed and take the films up to my breast surgeon's office. There was a huge difference in the amount of "cloudy white junk" in this film as compared to my mammogram last November of 2006. It was much easier to see areas of clear in there now.



Have you had a mammogram on the last year if you're over 40 or have cancer history in your family? Regardless of age or sex, have you done a breast self-exam within the last 30 days? Now's the time! Here's a link to a good video on the process: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorials/mammogram/htm/_no_50_no_0.htm

The Sonogram & Mammogram

My sonogram was done by a wonderful young lady named Erica. She was warm, fun and caring. She did the sonogram with a younger trainee, who was left in the room with me while Erica got everything set up. Bless her heart, the trainee told me all sorts of horror stories about sonograms and what showed up on them. I'm thinking, "this girl is going to have to work on her bedside stories to make it in medicine."

Erica does the sonogram, over and over and over and over. She tells me that she is going to go get the radiologist to look at the sonogram picture, that this was standard procedure. That's when the first "ping" went off in my head. He comes into the dark room and runs the wand himself over the mass in my right breast, over and over and over. He leaves. He comes back and tells me that we need to do another mammogram to compare to the 5-2-06 one that I had done in Rockwall. He tells me that there are 2 masses there, not just one.

I walk with Erica to the mammogram room and the lady starts the torture, especially on the right breast, which was already tender just from the sonogram wand. She does the standard pictures, then leaves the room. She comes back and says that we need more pictures. Great. Worse torture. She leaves the room again. For a long time. The radiologist comes into the room and tells me that I need to have a needle core biopsy TOMORROW to see what we're dealing with to see if it is cancerous or not. Ping.

When I got home and told David what happened and what was scheduled, he said, "that's it, whatever you're doing from now on, I'm going with you." We talked and I cried, scared for the first time.

Life as I Knew It BC (Before Cancer)

Thursday, October 19, 2006 was no different than most days. I got in bed that night and did a breast self-exam, which I've always done about every 2 weeks for years. I've always had large breasts full of little fibroid cysts, so OB/GYNs have always advised me to do self-exams. But that night was different than all the exams prior. That night I found this huge mass in my right breast. At first I thought I must have hurt myself and wondered how in the world I didn't remember the assault that would have caused this swelled up place. Then I remember thinking that surely I was just wrong and made the familiar circle motion again with my fingers. No doubt about it, something was definitely there. When David came to bed, I asked him to feel of it. He did and said if I thought it was something, to go see my doctor. And we both read a while and then went to sleep.

That weekend we went to Kyle to watch our grandson, Nikita, play soccer. He scored 3 goals! Tony was his coach. Tony borrowed a smoker from some friends, and smoked some brisket, ribs and pork tenderloin. YUM!!! Kelly & Tami and the girls came up from San Antonio Saturday to watch the game and to eat, too. It was a fun, food-filled day. We came back home to Rowlett Sunday night.

Neither David or me talked about the mass coming home and didn't say anything to the kids because, well, because we were sure it was nothing. I had had a clean pap test and a clean mammogram on 5-2-06 and this was only October.