Are You Dense?

My cell rings a-lings.

"Hi Mom," I say.

"What are you doing?" asks my Mom.

"I just finished getting my Mammogram with ultrasound," I say.

"I didn't know you were getting a mammogram today?" says my Mom in surprise.

"Yeah, it was time," I say. "But I also had a boob lump that needed checking, that's why I got the ultrasound, too."

Complete and utter silence.

"Oh, um I see," says my Mom.

But what my Mom was really thinking was, "why is this the first time I'm hearing about this?! Wth!"

"I didn't tell you about the lump because I didn't want you to worry for nothing," I say. "I figured I would tell you after I had it checked. And I'm fine, so don't worry."

"Yeah, you're probably right," says my Mom in relief.

I found the boob lump about three weeks ago. It was right at the beginning of my womanly cycle, so I waited a week to see if it disappeared. It didn't.

I quickly got an appointment with my OB/GYN who said, "It's probably nothing, but you need to get it checked out with a diagnostic mammogram to be sure."

I felt a little better. And I was due for my annual booby, "it hardly hurts," squishing. I scheduled an appointment in two weeks and tried not to think, or touch the boob lump. Besides, I was focused on my concussion, anyways, which for the most part made thinking and worrying intolerable.

I didn't tell anyone, save for Hubby and a few friends. There was no point in worrying everyone, for nothing. I hoped.

A regular mammogram screening takes Xrays. If anything looks suspicious on the film, the patient is invited back for more boob squashing Xrays and an ultrasound. That happened to me last year.

On the other hand, in a diagnositc mammogram, the boobs are assigned their own doctor and given Xrays and ultrasound in the same appointment.

Once at the diagnostic screening, I felt relieved to finally be on the brink of finding out if I had cancer or not.

"So if my Xray or ultrasound looks suspicious, what next?" I ask the Tech nervously.

"You get a biospy," answers the Tech. "And we can do it right here."

"Today?" I ask.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

"Yes," answers the Tech. "But first let's do the Xrays and ultrasound."

After the mishmashing of boobs and Xrays, I went straight to the ultrasound room where I had a disappointing short wait for the Radiologist. I say disappointing, because I really wanted to finish reading Vanity Fair's interview with Katy Perry. The same interview I started at the Gyno's office for my original booby lump feel up.

"Your mammogram looks great!" exclaims the Radiologist, walking into the room. "Your breasts are very fatty."

Awesome, now my boobs need their own workout routine? I don't have time for that.

"Uh, thanks, I think," I say.

"Fatty breast tissue is good, because it looks grey on the film, and cancer is white so it shines like a star in the night sky. Glandular or dense breast tissue, on the other hand is white. Finding a white cancerous tumor on dense breasts is like looking for a needle in a haystack."

The Radiologist went on to say, "Women with dense breasts should also have an ultrasound. I've already found seven breast cancers using ultrasound that didn't show up on their mammogram."

"Wow, that's amazing," I say.

"Every woman should know if her breast are dense," says the Radiologist. "If a woman has dense breast tissue, a mammogram isn't enough to detect breast cancer. "We're trying to get insurance coverage for women with dense breasts for ultrasounds."

"Where can I get more information about this?" I ask.

"Go to www.areyoudense.org,"
answers the Radiologist."It's a website started by a woman whose breast cancer went untected by mammogram."