My mom had breast cancer, then died of complications from bladder and liver cancer. My sister Tracey had breast cancer, I think stage 4 (we didn’t talk about stages) and went through hell with chemotherapy and radiation and a lumpectomy and beat it. Even though T and I both have had genetic testing that says it’s not the kind you inherit, with the family history, I’ve been having routine yearly mammograms since I was 35.

Every time I have a mammogram, I reflect on how fast the technology would have changed if using a vise was how testicular cancer was detected. I have fibrous boobs, so they have to crank the ol’ grilled cheese maker waaaaaayyy down to see through all my  tissue. They’re dense, which is probably why they are called boobs. Hardeharhar. This is painful, but I still get it done, partially because my gynecologists usually hold my birth control pills ransom until I do.

So when I moved to Vermont, I was a bit overdue for a mamm, so I made an appointment for one at South West Vermont Medical Center in Bennington. Easiest mamm I ever had. Didn’t hurt much at all. I even liked the tech. All seemed routine and normal.

Until I got a call two weeks later. They wanted to take a better look at an area, and wanted me in for another mamm. I still wasn’t too concerned, this had happened before with my concrete-filled boobies, they sometimes took extra films. The woman on the phone was super sweet and kind of apologetic. Eh, whatever, I went back and bellied up to the vice. They took me to a room to speak to The Breast Health Navigator, which made me expect she would have a pink beribboned sea captain hat on. She didn’t. Now, at this point this experience started to be different than those past extra films. The way everyone was acting so sweet and hand-patting me, they had to have seen something. She told me apologetically that I would have to have a biopsy. She gave me a few handouts about the method of biopsy I was to have, and scheduled it for the following week.

Tune in to the next post to read all about how I stuck my boob through a hole in a table!

 

 

Blog Reprobation #witchstit #mammogram