Boob Drama

With plans to go overseas for over a year, I thought it would be wise to get all the yearly medical things out of the way. My mammogram was uneventful until I got THE CALL. "We need you to come back and re-check something abnormal, bla, bla, don't worry, bla, bla the earliest is 5 days."

Five days? Five days of utter, put your life on hold and "try not to think bad things, opps, too late, I'm dieing, no I'm not that's stupid, oh God, I feel something it's the left one they said, yes, I do feel it. Crap."

Five days. I'm surprised the left one didn't just fall off from all the worry. On d-day, I report early to radiology only to find out it was not the left but the right one.

So for 3 hours. 3 hours. Yes, 3 hours I sat in radiology waiting the results of the 2nd, and "oh, can we see you again", the 3rd smashing of the ta-ta. I watched at least 25 women come and go. It was down to 2 of us and I couldn't make eye contact with her. I just couldn't. I didn't want to risk seeing fear.

The light in the registration room had been shut off and at 2.5 hours I started pacing. By then I had my speech written in my head. "Dear Friends, I'm dieing. Stop it. Think positive. Why do I do this to myself?"

And as casually as the first phone call, the peppy 20-something assistant pops in the room and says, "Okay you can go."

"Wait, wait, wait...I can go? I'm okay? They've been read and it's okay?"

"You are Edee right?"

"Yes, yes, that's my name and that's my chart?" I dropped to the chair, arms dangling to my sides and head back tearing up. I looked up at her.

"I mean, It's been 3 hours. I appreciate your thoroughness and I realize not everyone gets good news" I choked out.

The facts are that. Not everyone gets good news so having a retake in retrospect is not a big deal compared to those women who have had to handle the real battle against breast cancer.

Still, the rates of retakes or, false positives are overall 10% in the US, according to the American Cancer Society. And according to new guidelines released the United State Preventive Services task Force, an influential group that provides guidance to doctors, insurance companies and policy makers, recommendations are now that women have mammograms starting at 50. That stirred a controversy that outraged many and relieved some.

Is it the Doctors or the Insurance Companies? Who is driving this bus and how are women reacting? Depends who you ask. My friend under 50 who fought it all the way through Chemo would disagree, yet my friend not yet 40 is sick and tired of being called back in. When asking around I heard that more and more: being frustrated with repeat tests and all the anxiety it causes. A discussion with my Doctor would say that doctors are frozen in the process because the minuet chance that they could be wrong is not good enough for the general public, that NOT accepting that things go wrong in life every once in a while drives the re-testing mania. When did we all become so sue-happy?

Yet my friend would argue that every test reaps the Doctors more revenue, and they love revenue. And big houses.

But so it goes. Drama over for me...until next time.