A Tough Lesson Learned

14 years ago this May I lost a dear friend of mine, Beth, to ovarian cancer.  An added perk to moving into my very first apartment was that Beth lived just a few doors away from me and I could always count on her if I ever needed anything.  Beth was a funny, charismatic and crazy friend - to this day a huge smile will come to my face thinking about the tons of ridiculously funny things we did and I can still hear the silly voices she used to deliver a lot of her comedic dialogues.  When Beth passed away I was not quite three months pregnant with Alex. I had just found out and I remember clearly standing in the hospital parking lot with Beth's mom and her telling me, Beth knows you're having a baby and she's happy.  She passed right after that conversation.  Beth's death had a huge impact on me and Alexandra's middle name is Elizabeth, named after Beth.  I still miss Beth.  Sometimes Alex will look off into the distance and it's like she sees something I can't and then she'll laugh and giggle.  I will often times ask her if Beth's visiting with her and tell her not to listen to a word of any of her silly stories, I was never that crazy and goofy :)

I learned a valuable lesson from Beth and I vowed that I would make sure I would make time for my annual appointments every year without exception.  And I have.  I even started getting mammograms when I was 34.  Last January, like every January, I had my appointment scheduled but I had to cancel because of Alex's surgery.  I had rescheduled for the Spring but got sick with my throat and kidney infection and had to reschedule yet again for the Summer.  And with Summer came Aaron and Zach's melanoma drama and well, life got in the way and I never made it to my appointment.  This January I was back on track, I went to my appointment, had my check up, had my mammogram, made a mental check mark in my mind and went about my business.  A few days later I received a phone call that something had shown up on my mammogram and that I needed to go to an advanced imaging center at our local hospital.  Um, what?  First available appointment, two weeks away.  Really?  Do you have any idea the amount of stress and turmoil you can put yourself through with two weeks of playing the "What If" game?  I have had 7 mammograms and have never received a phone call.  And of course the same thought kept hitting me like a ton of bricks over and over and over again - you never went to your appointment last year.

I am VERY happy to say that after three hours of 3D Mammograms and ultrasounds, I am fine.  What they saw that represented a mass was overlapping tissue because apparently I have "very complex breast tissue" - seriously, even THAT has to be complex in my life?!?  Sorry, that is probably a lot more information that you ever needed to know about me, but, since I'm throwing it all out there (education and awareness are power, right?!?) I learned a few things that I think you need to know if you didn't already.  First is there are four types of density and the higher the density the more risk you have.  I have what is called heterogeneously dense tissue, the term refers to extremely high dense glandular tissue.  Research states that high breast density is a leading reason why mammography screenings fail to detect cancer in young and older women. Up to half of breast cancers cannot be seen on the mammogram in women with dense breasts and, unfortunately, women with heterogeneously dense breasts run the risk of having their breast cancer missed during the early stages of development. When the cancer is detected, it is often in the latter stages and requires invasive treatments with poorer prognosis for survival.  Hence my three hours of testing.  I asked why this is now just being brought to my attention after 7 previous mammograms and I was told that until recently doctor's were not required to let patient's know their level of density.  Sure enough in my research I found "As of 2014, New York, California, Virginia and Texas have breast density notification laws that require women to be informed about their breast density levels after a mammogram procedure."  That's only 4 states!  How can a state determine what you should or should not know about your own body??  Pretty mind boggling if you ask me.  If so many cancers are missed, why does every state not require this??   I also said I still didn't see how that would change the fact that I had "a mass" and was never tested any further than my routine mammograms and the response to that was technology has made leaps and bounds, but not enough leaps and bounds to battle density issues.

The morale of this post is "ladies - make time for your annual appointments!"  Life is crazy, it gets in the way, but you have nothing if you don't have your health.  We are always taking care of everyone and everything else in our lives, we have to take care of ourselves or we wont be able to care for those around us.  If you don't know what your risk factors are, ASK!  I know now that because of this "diagnosis" I will require 3D mammograms PLUS ultrasounds every year going forward, crazy life and all. 

Sorry if this was a TMI post, but if it helps just one person, I'm glad I shared.