So I went to a boob show last night, otherwise known as the Breast Reconstruction Group at Seattle’s Polyclinic.
I’ve been once before and found it a great place to learn about all the different types of reconstruction out there — and trust me there’s a lot — as well as talk to women who are going through the various stages of breast cancer school. (Hey, if they can call it a journey, I can call it a school.)
Some of the women were newly diagnosed and surgery-bound, asking questions about immediate reconstruction, just as I had when I went to my first BRG right after my diagnosis last year. Others were there to show off their newly reconstructed breasts so the freshmen and post-treatment/pre-reconstruction sophomores and juniors could see what kind of results they might expect from tissue expanders and implants or tram flaps or lat flaps or what have you.
While it’s always interesting to hear about reconstruction (especially now that I’ve cleared the six month post-rads mark and can actually start thinking about getting new girls), hearing each woman’s cancer story is even more riveting — and heartrending. Some of them had had more than their share of experience with the disease. They’d lost mothers (or even fathers) to breast cancer. Others were hit by a diagnosis like a shovel upside the head.
What struck me last night — and this seems to happen every time I hang with a group of BC survivors — was the number of women who didn’t find their cancer via an annual screening.
As some of you may know, I’m one of those women. My cancer didn’t present as a lump but as a small “tuck” just under the left nipple. After going to my ob/gyn (who assured me it was nothing but a cyst), I went on to get a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. Just like all the other times I’d had a mammogram (including the one 12 months previous), mine came back clean as a whistle. No lumps, no bumps, no funny business at all. But when they took me in for the ultrasound, it was a much different story. I had four masses — two on each side.
Here’s the problem: this is a story I’ve heard again and again from breast cancer survivors. Somebody will go in for their annual mammogram and walk out with a clean bill of health. Then three or six or nine months later, they’re diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer, an aggressive cancer that could have — should have — been caught much earlier. Worse yet are the women who die because they put all their faith in a clear mammogram, even though one family member after another has been hit with this wretched disease.
After my diagnosis, I immediately began lobbying my four sisters to go in and get checked out, pushing them to get their doctors prescribe ultrasounds as well as mammograms. My gut told me that the five of us share more than just a dark sense of humor and a penchant for antiques. I have dense breast tissue — which is why the mamm didn’t reveal the masses lurking in my breasts. I’m guessing my sisters are every bit as dense as me (so to speak).
Unfortunately, thanks to the way things are set up (with the insurance companies, with the medical providers, with the gods, etc.), you can’t simply request an ultrasound in lieu of — or in addition to — a mamm. Not even if you pay for it yourself. One after another, my sisters were told they could get mammograms, but unless there was something wrong with their breasts (or they had tested positive for the BRCA gene mutation), ultrasounds were not an option for them. Even though their sister had just been diagnosed with BC.
This kind of crap drives me crazy, especially as I read stories about the push to get moms to go in for mammograms as a way to celebrate Mother’s Day. Mamms are all well and good for some women, but they don’t seem to do squat for those of us with dense breast tissue. And there are a lot of us out there with this stuff. In fact, according to AreYouDense.org, a website devoted to exposing what it calls “the best kept secret,” two thirds of pre-menopausal and one quarter of post-menopausal women are saddled with dense breasts. Boobs that are full of connective tissue that appears white on a mammogram — same as a tumor — making it very difficult to see who does and who doesn’t have cancer.
And yet, millions of women consider their annual mammograms the end-all, be-all when it comes to their breast health. They trust mamms and mamms alone to tell them whether they have breast cancer.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like those suckers can be trusted. Not on their own, anyway.
I’m not anti-mammogram. I know of at least one person who found their cancer during their annual screening so they absolutely do work for some women. I just don’t know how many. Or how often. Or how much the technician or radiologist has to do with the final results. Nor do I know why women aren’t automatically offered a choice of a mammogram or ultrasound (or both) when it comes to their annual screening. Especially when some states are more than happy to force a woman to have an ultrasound — at least a transvaginal one — if they’re thinking about terminating a pregnancy.
Last night at the Breast Reconstruction Group, a couple of the women talked about how confusing the world of breast cancer can be. “You have this choice, you have that choice,” one said. “I just wish there weren’t so many choices, so many decisions.” I understand exactly what she’s talking about. It’s confusing and upsetting and mind-numbingly horrific to have to sort through all the options one by one, especially as you get deeper and deeper into surgery, treatment and, finally, reconstruction.
Here’s my thought, though (and no doubt it’s a naive one). If women had a few more choices up front, maybe there would be fewer choices to be made down the line. If women were routinely told about their dense breast tissue and routinely allowed to have whatever type of screening they needed — or their bodies necessitated — maybe there would be fewer late stage cancers. Fewer mastectomies. Fewer rounds of chemo. Fewer deaths. And yes, fewer hissy fits pounded out by angry boobless wonders like me.
So I’m curious, dear readers. Did any of you discover your breast cancer via your annual mammogram? Or did you discover it through self-exam? Or via MRI or ultrasound or a physical exam? Does anybody know why women — especially those with dense breast tissue — can’t automatically get an ultrasound and have it covered by insurance? Inquiring minds want to know.
Double Whammied 