Mammogram and the new Mass State Law

When you have barely size "A" boobs and a quarter of one is missing, mammogram will forever be a contact sport. I had my mammogram first thing in the morning on my last day of work before vacation. As, I am now a mammogram seasoned professional I did not put deodorant on in the am was thankful for the cool temperatures. No deodorant = better pictures (and no need to use the hospital supplied Mammo-wipes to remove it. Because I am 12, I giggle everytime I see them).

I check in for my appointment, put my pink johnny on and sit in the waiting room filling out the forms about my breast cancer history. I take the liberty to draw in my scars on the diagram for the technician. I also see a couple of women in the waiting room who also work at the hospital with me. Their faces are horrified to see me in there. I feel like I need to turn my paper over and write "Just standard follow up". But they see me looking back and all just smile and then pretend like we do not see each other. I run into one of them up on  one of the hospital floors later and she looks horrified again as I approach her, but when I start asking her questions about a patient and their plan or care I can see her relief. The majority of people in the hospital know that I am always happy to discuss all things breast health related, but I do know the time and the place.

After waiting only briefly the mammogram tech comes to get me. This time instead of a horrified look, her face lights up. She is the same mammogram tech who did my 6 month follow up mammogram when I was just starting to regrow hair. She remembers what department I work in and what side my cancer was on. I told her how impressed I was. She let me know that my age and great  attitude left an impression on her.

She gets me all set up and lets me know how she'll be looking for the metal clips I have in each breast. We do our very fun coordination of press your face against this plastic shield here, stick your butt out over there, grab the handle and pull yourself in here, now let me squeeze the boob vice and don't breathe. The don't breathe part still cracks me up; pretty sure I couldn't breathe if I wanted too. The mammogram tech also remembers me because of my pain tolerance. While trying to view my surgical clips she really needs to jack up the the pressure. I read off the machine: 12 lbs of pressure. 12! She is happy with the view and takes the pictures quickly. My skin at this point is hot pink. All I can think of is that if men had to have 12 lbs of pressure applied to anywhere on their body the method of testing would have been changed 50 years ago. She does the pictures on both sides, with significantly more photos on the right side to really capture the clips near my chest wall.

After a brief return to the waiting room, she comes back to let me know the pictures look good and I am free to go. I thank her and go to get dress. I instantly regret picking a v-neck shirt for the day. I have large red welts on both boobs and reach out to my sternum. I consider walking around with my lab coat closed all day. It takes 4 hours for the marks to go away, but knowing she got good pictures was an excellent send off to vacation.

The state of Massachusetts passed a law in  June 2014 An Act Relative to Breast Cancer Early Detection.  The purpose of the law is to notify you if you have dense breast tissue, the degree of density, why that could pose a risk for breast cancer and where to find more information. Knowing that I indeed have dense breast tissue (as I should at age 33) I was intrigued to see my letter. Well, my letter came and let me know that I have "extremely dense" breast tissue and other screening methods may be beneficial. I chuckled knowing that this was a form letter and that a CT scan and multiple physical exams were my "other" screening methods. It listed some resources if I felt I needed more follow up. I understand the purpose, as it is important for folks to know about their density and perhaps can open a dialogue with someone's PCP if it is not already there. I think it's great to make people aware of their dense breasts and hope that does lead to additional screening where warranted, because early detection is better.

There are 22 states that have passed similar laws and did you know that there are breast density advocacy groups? Neither did I until I was doing some research to see how many other states have enacted such laws. They even have a free app on itunes for dense breast folks in order to provide them information. How cool is that? But, this also makes me wonder why do we need to have state laws? Shouldn't this just be standard practice of care. Get's me fired up. Same way that some health insurances don't cover the BRCA genetic test. Nope, standard of care. Good thing we have advocacy groups.

Happy to know that me and my legally declared extremely dense breasts can continue on being NED for another year. And another year until I can see how much pressure my boobs can take in the mammogram machine. I don't want to know what kind of training that would involve.