Imaging Inspirations

Yesterday I went for my mammogram.  In some ways, it's no big deal; women go for mammograms everyday, and I have hopes that mine will be just as routine (in other words, it wasn't a follow up mammogram).  But yesterday, I reflected on how much has changed since my first mammogram, and that seems worth a blog post.

--My first mammogram was in 2019, just after I turned 54, which is much later than many women get their first mammogram.  But I was using earlier guidance, which said a baseline mammogram at age 50 was fine, and I hadn't seen any evidence that convinced me to get an earlier mammogram.  I might make different decisions now, an earlier baseline, but not annual mammograms until I was in my 50's.  

--When I got my first mammogram, I didn't know any women my age with a recent diagnosis (maybe I did, and they didn't tell me; I can't be sure).  Now, just 5 years later, I know several, including my sister.

--I got my second mammogram in 2021 because of my sister's diagnosis.  I paid extra then, to get the 3D imaging.  Yesterday, it was the standard mammogram.  Back then, my health insurance that my company paid for was supposed to cover preventative care, like mammograms.  It was cheaper for me to pay for the 3D imaging out of pocket, the fee charged to people with no insurance, than to cover my portion of the health insurance fees that came with extra imaging.

--I thought about how many people I know with a cancer diagnosis in the past four years, and perhaps more significantly, how many people my age and younger who are dropping dead of massive heart attacks.  Maybe it's just the result of getting older (I turn 59 this summer).  But it feels ominous, like hearing that bird flu has arrived in Antarctica.

--Why did I wait so long between my 2021 mammogram and this one?  I had no idea that there would be such a wait to get a primary care doctor in my new location.  We moved in July of 2022, a summer of hand therapists and surgeon's follow ups after my broken wrist.  I thought about a mammogram, but decided to get one later, since I had just had one ten months ago.  Going forward, I do plan to get a yearly mammogram, since so many of my contemporaries have some scary stories of regular exams and still developing cancer.

--I signed up for the very first appointment of the morning, at 7: 15.  The imaging center was in one of those Town Centre type places, which was nearby, but not well marked.  Because it was so early, I walked around the building a few times before seeing the door.  Perhaps the bank of electrical equipment should have been a cue, but I thought it was servicing the elevator in the lobby behind the locked doors.  The entrance to the imaging center was obvious because of the privacy blinds that blocked not only intrusive gazes and sunlight, but also the light from inside that would have let me know that the door existed, that there was a portal to the clinical office.  Happily, I gave myself plenty of time to arrive early.

--As I walked back to the car, I saw the shelves of a restaurant kitchen through a window, shelves with lots of huge cans of tomato based products.  Maybe it's for decoration, or maybe they really do use that much ketchup in a week.

--I have several poem ideas, which was a happy surprise.  And let me record something that is more of an inspiration than a full blown idea.  I thought about the term "tissue" and how I often think of it as a wispy kind of thing, the Kleenex in a pocket.  I thought of body tissue, which is often dense and fibrous, and yet, easy to destroy, in some ways.