Sunday, May 29, 2005

Me and Breast Cancer?

The routine mammogram was scheduled. I had a conversation with my mother, that I might cancel it, that every two years should be plenty, why every year?? What a pain to go get squished and bother to take time out of my vacation. But, then I decided, oh what the heck, I might as well. This mammogram went a little different, they took more pictures of my left breast, and used a pin pointing squisher, you might say. I still wasn't concerned, curious but not concerned. A couple days later, I received the letter and a phone call from my family doctor's office. There was suspicion of an irregularity, please schedule to come in. Everything, started to happen very fast then, I went to see my doctor, who said "it is probably nothing, but I think you should have a biopsy". We decided to try a Stereotactic Biopsy.
Within two days, I was flat on my stomach with my left arm above my head and my left breast hanging through a hole in the table. Everyone involved in the actual procedure was very nice, comforting and jovial. But, my breast wouldn't cooperate, it was too dense. A procedure that normally takes 45 minutes, took 2 hours and 15 minutes and was unsuccessful. I could not move during the whole thing, and felt like a dried up pretzel trying to uncurl itself, when I fianlly could ! Everytime, they tried to hit the spot, my dense tissue got in the way and pushed it away. They did get one very small sample, that made them decide I should go for the surgical biopsy....

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