Sometimes You Just Have To Go With Your
Gut
I have to admit that I go to the doctors'...a lot. I have new insurance so it seems like instead of reading my chart, I get tested and retested and retested then to find out that things are normal. Among the many appointments for my MS, there are other health issues for women over 40, like taking an annual mammograms.
To be truthfully honest, I have dense breast and coagulated milk ducts, which always show up on a mammogram. This ofcourse is well documented by my previous insurance company and my previous doctors. All this being said, after my yearly mammogram the fun began, yet again. Maybe because none of my doctors have read my previous medical history.
After my annual, I was called back to get more scans. Then after the scans I had to have an ultrasound. This was quite unnerving as the technician is telling me as I have my ultrasound that if things don't look quite right I would be immediately ushered down the hall to have a biopsy. I have always been an opponent for prayer and starting praying that this was just unacceptable.
Needless to say, after the ultrasound I was allowed to go home and later on that day I received my results stating that I have present in my breast a fibroadenoma cluster, or could possibly represent an
intraductal papilloma.Now, both of these could be benign and I claim that they are and I was told to come back next year for my regularly scheduled mammogram.
intraductal papilloma.Now, both of these could be benign and I claim that they are and I was told to come back next year for my regularly scheduled mammogram.
This would have been great had I not called my primary and told her that in that particular breast I had some twinges of pain occasionally. I was scheduled immediately for another breast exam. The nurse told me that this was necessary to make sure that there were no lumps, inflammation or dimpling of the skin and no nipple discharge. I ofcourse raced into the office, ofcourse, exhausted as I usually am to get yet another breast exam.
On this breast exam, my breast looked normal, no dimpling of the skin, no inflammation, no redness, no lumps, and no discharge. Yet, if my doctor had read my previous history, all of this would have been understood that I have wacky breast. But, my doctor, and yes I know she is playing it safe, signed my up to go on yet another appointment to see a breast surgeon to see what she has to say. Annnnddd...here we go again.
Now, I don't want you to think that I am casual about my overall health, and casual about the risk of African American women having breast cancer. But sometimes, you have to think for yourself on whether you want to go through unnecessary testing, poking and prodding. So, after discussing this with my husband, and mother, I decided to thank my primary for the referral to the breast surgeon, ask her to keep the referral active just in case my breast changes and come back next year for my annual mammogram.
In the meantime, I have been focusing on my change of lifestyle to combat MS symptoms and now I will continue to change my lifestyle to combat possible cancer. I am overweight. Well, according to my chart I was obese and now I am overweight. My BMI needs to continue to go down. With my overall MS diet, I will continue to go lean to become lean. I know that being overweight is a health risk factor for breast cancer, so I am working on lowering my numbers. My diet now is full of fresh or frozen produce, green tea, olive oil, fish oil supplements and exercise. I am determined by next years mammogram I will be of healthy weight, health HDL and LDL numbers and my mammogram will be normal. As a patient, I do take my health serious, but I don't want medications and procedures pushed on me when taking control of my lifestyle should be the first preventative step. So, I am going with my gut and saying I am procedured out and I will see you again for this issue, next January.
