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Mammograms save lives

By Suzanne Elliott 4 min read

I am a woman of a certain age and have had yearly mammograms for a while now.

Every late summer or early fall, I dutifully make my appointment. Until two years ago, I would sometimes get scared as the day of my screening approached and cancel my appointment, only to buckle down two weeks later and get it done. Like many of us, I’ve had close relatives die of cancer and I am afraid to get scary news, like breast cancer.

Two years ago, though, I didn’t cancel my appointment. I went on the planned day. I had a packed schedule for the rest of the month and I did not have the time if I didn’t go on that particular day.

I go to a place where a radiologist reads your test as soon as it is done. There are no days of waiting for the phone to ring. In most cases, you’re in and you’re out and you usually don’t have to think about a mammogram for another 365 days.

But, they found something this time. I was waiting to be cleared when the technician came back and said they wanted to do a sonogram on my right breast. The radiologist had spotted something on my X-ray.

And they did the test. Sure enough, something the size of a fingernail was seen. I asked if she thought it might be cancer. The technician couldn’t really say and went to get the radiologist.

I didn’t know what to think. I began to sweat and got a hollow feeling in my stomach, and for some unexplained reason, an old Monkees song, “Another Pleasant Valley Sunday,” would not stop playing in my head.

The radiologist came in. She said she didn’t think it was cancer, but wanted to do a biopsy to be safe. She also wanted to place a metallic marker by what she saw. She said it was for the surgeon.

“It could just be a papilloma,” she said.

But, she said the word “surgeon” and that was the word I could not get out of my head.

I left the doctor’s office not knowing what to think, but looked up breast papilloma. They are small benign tumors that grow in the milk duct of a breast.

A few days later, the doctor called and told me the biopsy showed the tumor was a benign papilloma. I forgot all about calling a surgeon until the radiologist called and asked if I had made an appointment. This was several weeks after I was told the biopsy was negative.

I told the doctor no, because it wasn’t cancer. She said she only took cells from part of the growth and not all of it.

I called the surgeon. Overall, the outcome is excellent for people with one papilloma, according to the American Cancer Society. People with numerous papillomas, or who develop them at an early age, run a higher risk of developing cancer.

Still, there could be some abnormal cells, and that’s why it needed to come out, the surgeon told me during my pre-surgery meeting.

The day before my surgery, I was sent to get the metal marker removed and a radioactive seed put in its place. I was told by the surgeon that during the surgery she would literally stand over me with a Geiger counter. This way she would be able to locate and remove the growth.

The surgery lasted an hour. A biopsy was done that day. It was a papilloma. And I was lucky.

According to the Susan G. Komen Foundation, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and the second-most common cancer overall. In 2015, Komen said there will be 231,840 new cases of invasive breast cancer and there will be 60,290 cases of in situ (encapsulated) breast cancer, including ductal carcinoma.

Komen recommends women age 40 and older get a mammogram yearly. Overall, breast cancer deaths have dropped 34 percent from 1990 to 2010, in large part because of mammograms.

Go get a mammogram if you have never had one, or are due for one. I know one thing – I’ll never procrastinate about getting one again. Mammograms save lives.

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