Mammary Update

Got my mammogram results today and all is well. No signs of cancer detected. Phew!!! The twins recovered nicely from their squashing, although they have requested that I don't do it to them again any time soon. And now I can assure them that so long as they stay healthy we won't have to repeat the experience for another 2 years.

I did want to touch on the whole ultrasound thing that came up in the comments from that post. Mammograms are a screening tool, which means they need to be used on a high volume of women at the lowest possible cost. They are not a diagnostic tool - that is what surgery and biopsies are for. An ultrasound can also be used as a screening tool, but anyone who has ever had an ultrasound knows they take time. My mammogram was over in 30 minutes - that included an extra set of pictures to make sure the lower parts of the twins were properly captured and explaining everything to me as it was my first one. I don't know exactly how long a proper ultrasound of a pair of breasts would take, but I imagine it would be a lot longer than half an hour. It just wouldn't be feasible, which means they would not be able to screen as many women as they currently do.

Mammograms have come a long way in the past few years:


The image on the right is the old film-style mammogram, the one on the left is the new digital mammogram. What a difference! The tech was good enough to show me mine on the screen after she took them and I was pretty blown away by the detail. Looking at the old ones I wonder how the hell the radiologists ever saw anything that wasn't bleeding obvious. The digital films will allow even smaller cancers to be found, saving lives.

So ladies, while mammograms will remain our own private few minutes of torture - or not so private if you have a blog such as this - please have them done on a regular basis. The life you save could be your own.