Boobs On Ice™

Digital Mammograms: More Insecurity and More Recalls

The New York Times observes that

"Most women know someone who has breast cancer, and even the calmest, most rational minds may think the worst when summoned back" after a mammogram.

Now as radiologists switch from traditional X-ray film to digital mammograms, while doctors learn to interpret digital and compare them to patients’ previous X-rays, many doctors run into problems. To make sure they're aren't making mistakes in the comparisons Doctors are more often looking to ultrasound and biopsies to make sure that women do not indeed have breast cancer.

The increase from 10% of clinics having digital machines two years ago to over 30% using them today is happening in part because for younger ones and others with dense breast tissue digital machines are better than film at finding tumors, tiny calcium deposits, or calcifications, which are sometimes signs of cancer. And although Mammography is not perfect and can miss tumors even its critics say it has helped to lower death rates from breast cancer, which is the second only to lung cancer as the cause of cancer deaths in women,.

nearly a quarter of the 178,000 women diagnosed with breast cancer each year in the United States, will die of the disease

Better detecting problems does not make the new images easier to read. Dr. Mary Mahoney, a professor of radiology and the director of breast imaging at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, said,

“I am living through the pain of this transition period on a daily basis. ...It’s just so much harder.  increase in callbacks and biopsies is coming into play. It happens every day.”

Dr. Margarita Zuley, director of breast imaging at Magee-Women’s Hospital at Pitt Medical Center, estimated that in six months to a year interpreting the new images will be much easier, just through experience with a new medium.

“When you first start out, you may feel a little anxious and recall more patients because everything looks like a cancer to you. It’s O.K. Just bring the patients back. It’s part of the learning curve.”

I'd be worried to the point of saying that I wanted to be seen NOW if they called me back.

“I know it’s not a small thing, the anxiety. Patients are practically in tears because they’re so worried" Dr. Mahoney said "but I think in the long run it’s going to be to everybody’s benefit.”

Let's hope so. And let's also hope that the insurance doesn't balk. Someone's going to foot the biil and you know it's not the docs. I just don't want it to be us, the patients.

Cha Ching! Ya kind of know who's footing the bill for this hands on training.

I better get some more art pieces ready to sell to pay for my callback visit because down the road it could very well happen to me.

February is Full Body Nuclear Bone Scan Month - for me

Before chemo starts my oncologist, being the smartest cog in the wheel as far as looking at the big picture since I saw my General Practitioner, ordered a bevy of tests. Assuming that it's good to rule out other issues before we get rolling, this sounds workable to me - as long as nothing turns up.

If something does show up I'm not so good, but let's take this one step at a time. In the meantime, being smarter now after the test than before they started, I recorded some thought on the process and also made notes to pass along.

Wait - Susan - you went nuclear?

OK, it's true, a nuclear bone scan process uses tiny amounts of radioactive materials called tracers which are injected in a vein. These tracers then accumulate in certain organs and tissues, such as bones. I'm not any crazier about it than you are reading it but we do what we need to do.

I was a little hesitant to walk around the streets of Washington DC with  gamma waves radiating from my bones but apparently I didn't glow and they only could be detected by a special camera that produces images that will be gone over sometime today or tomorrow by the radiologists and nuclear medicine specialists at Sibley Hospital.

In the meantime, I'm OK - and here's what I recorded to share when I got home. Maybe it'll help someone else  .......

So tomorrow hopefully they wil have some news for my oncologist. No funky spots will mean I'm clean for now.

I mean lets be realistic. This is an invasive form of breast cancer and it could have sent little emissaries out to hide or grow anywhere in the past 10 years or so. I'm pretty positive most days but still I understand that anything other than a squeaky clean scan means I start worrying - and everyone else will then know to send goodies because I'll be a basket case if that happens - and with good reason.

Do I wish I'd gotten some quick tips before I went today? Sure. But face it people don't like to talk about this stuff. Plus who remembers little details like not wearing something with a tag that will bug you for however long you're lying there.

And I don't want fact sheets from some cold clinical cancer clearinghouse nor someone who wants to sell me a bracelet and a hat and a pin and a a sweatshirt and a . . .  well you know; sometimes the commercialism is just too much and I start avoiding some cancer websites.

Just give me a human face telling me like it is. I hope this might be what you're looking for too.