"Why are you scheduling a mammography of the breast you are way to young!?" the nurse on the other end of the phone asked.
UGH!.... for the hundredth time I had to explain to the nurse that, "I have the BRCA1 gene mutation, and I need to be screened every 6 months for breast cancer or any lumps." I felt bad for the person on the phone because I was so annoyed, but I felt worse for me. I was the one having to get a mammogram at such a young age. I was the one who had this gene mutation.
At age 23, after I found out about having the BRCA1 gene mutation I started getting mammograms and pelvic ultrasounds every six months. Talk about being violated!!! ( I will talk about the pelvic ultrasounds in another blog, Yay!) After my first mammogram I thought my perky, dense breasts were going stay flat like the cartoon on the right!! No joke! Your breast get squished, pushed, shoved, and pulled in all directions. Like the picture below you have to stay there with your breast squished to a flat plastic board that is below and above it while the nurse goes into another room and presses some buttons. It hurts! No Bueno! Thank the Lord my boobs never stayed flat!
My sister Rachael is amazing with keeping up on all the latest research about the gene mutation, and the exams/screenings I have to have and she found out that mammograms aren't the best way to detect breast cancer. Mammograms can in some way cause it because of the radiation from the x ray machine.
After we found this out, 2 years ago I got my first breast MRI. Double UGH! The upside to the MRI over the mammogram is that there was no squishing, and shoving of my breast! The down side was that I needed to have an IV put into my arm before I got placed inside a tunnel where I could not move at all. The other downside, is that I had to lay there for forty five minutes while some contrast/ink was being injected into my arm, and the tunnel machine makes the loudest clicking/robots noises I ever heard. The picture below and to the right explains it a bit. NO bueno!
I should have read up on what to expect during a Breast MRI before I had gone in to get one because it was one of the most horrible exams I had ever had done. I didn't know that I had to have an IV put in my arm along with some weird contrast being squirted into my veins. That was the part that was so horrible. Thankfully my sister Rachael has been able to sit in the room with me every time I have had a breast MRI. Her presence in the room helped calm me even though we couldn't talk to each other. Thank you sister!
My surgery is in a little over 3 months, and I do not believe, thus far, that I need to be breast screened anymore!!!! At least the doctors haven't said I needed to be. Thank God for that! For the last 7 years I have had about 14 breast screenings and thankfully they have all been clear. But waiting for the results every time isn't easy, it's nerve racking, and it puts your life on a little bit of a hold. This is one of the many reasons why I am choosing to have this surgery. I don't want my life to be put on hold anymore. I am taking charge of it and I am choosing to lift a huge weight off my shoulders (and chest literally, he he) once my breast are removed.
Bye Bye Breast MRI's and Mammograms!!
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