MAMMOGRAM MADE SIMPLE

Well, here we are in October again, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. In addition to being a yoga instructor, I have spent the last 35 years as a Mammogram Technologist. Here are just a few tidbits of information I share with my patients.

PREP

Set your mind right. Healthcare is a choice. No one is making you do anything…..you have the power to say NO. If you don’t want a test, politely tell your doctor you are not interested at this time. Please don’t tell the technologist how much you hate this, or worse yet be rude to us when it is your choice to come in and be tested. Healthcare workers are held to tight metrics and we can be crabby too, BUT a nice patient flips that and we enjoy what we do. Be Kind. Set your mind right. Make your choice.

PROCEDURE

The technologist will take 2-3 images of each breast. More pictures DO NOT mean anything is wrong. It means we must get all the tissue on and sometimes that means extra images. In a screening mammogram, the technologist will take pictures to include the nipple to the chest wall which is called a cranial-caudal (CC), and then an image from the nipple to the pectoralis muscle to include the armpit region. This is called a medial-lateral oblique or (MLO). We frequently hear that “we better get the images right as you had to come back last time”. If you are called back and not charged that is on us, we didn’t get something right. IF you are called back and charged, that is additional imaging considered diagnostic. We will get to that a little further down the blog. We will not tell you what we see. We are technologists, not radiologists. Each tech has a story or stories of when they were sure of what the image showed and we were wrong. Better to keep quiet and take the images.

PAIN

Most of our patients do not think the mammogram is painful. An incident that sticks in my mind is the time I did a mammogram on a lady I knew and we laughed and had a great time catching up. We also were both going to a party later that night. At that party, I heard her talking about the awful procedure it took me a bit to figure out she was referring to the same procedure we were laughing through just hours before. Please know women exaggerate what goes on in a mammogram. Yes, it is uncomfortable, but again your choice to screen or not to screen for cancer. She admitted in the kitchen she got carried away in the moment, but she does not understand that one lady who believes it is so painful that she avoids coming in. The woman who avoids coming in and finds breast cancer too late costs her more than her life, but also the health of her family. Women drive health care and healthy habits in their families' lives. Save a woman and the health of her family by encouraging each other rather than horror stories for laughs.

DIAGNOSTIC

This covers 2 different types of visits. One kind of diagnostic is coming in for a problem: lump, new pain (not period tenderness), or skin changes. This is done instead of screening mammograms and the technologist will work with the radiologist to get all that needs to be done to get an answer. That answer may mean more testing, such as ultrasound or even a biopsy. If you need a biopsy know that most come back as benign.

The second type of diagnostic is additional imaging from a screening mammogram. These images will be done and checked with a radiologist for immediate results. Once again more images do not mean cancer but the radiologist needs to see multiple views and angles to give a result. You can help yourself lessen the need for additional images by having a 3D as your screening. I have done a fair amount of additional imaging that was solved by doing the screening views (CC and MLO) in 3D. The dense tissue can overlap in the breast, but with 3D multiple images can unfold the densities and allow the radiologist to see clearly. Imagine a bowl of spaghetti noodles and cancer is a small meatball or even a coarse grain of salt. The more the radiologist can separate the structures (noodles) the better to see. This is done with compression and 3D. If you had a 3D and it is recommended to have spot compression views with ultrasound, ask if you can start with the ultrasound as in most cases the spot compression views do not add more information, and ultrasound is still needed. Spot compression views are necessary if you had a 2D.

Microcalcifications are as small as grains of salt and sand. They can be the beginning abnormality that will lead to invasive cancer. This type of additional imaging will require more mammogram imaging and ultrasound is of little to no value. When called back the technologist will advise you need magnification views to be done. Once the magnification views are performed the results can be: repeat imaging in 6 months or perform a biopsy.

This is just a small sample of information to aid you in your best self-navigating health care. Encourage each other, make mammogram dates to go in with friends, and celebrate with a coffee afterward. Let’s work together to create an environment of pink power😊

Kimberly Lacey BS RTRM

YogaMomKimberly

WELLNESS YOGA