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Too much healthcare... *sigh*
Medical rant cut for the sake of sanity:
So M has a family history of Breast Cancer, aunts, mother, grand mother etc...
Now she is past 40 they suggest she does a mammogram every year. So off she goes and has the mammogram. A few days later they call her in for more films and an ultrasound because she has unusually fibrous breasts that need a closer year. After the second set of films, she always ends up back at a specialist having an ultrasound and physical exam.
She thought she'd head this off this year by going to the specialist first. Who asked her to go for a mammogram, who... yes, I think you've got it.
Even though we're fairly sure the history is post-menopausal, and we're not quite there yet, this leads to a fairly nervous afternoon at the specialist having another round of tests.
Where I do get nervous is the most recent visit yielded the outcome of their latest computer models which give her an 18-23% chance of developing breast cancer in the next 30 years. Now, M took that to be a good number, but I find that terrifyingly high but I can't really say that to her because she's taken comfort in the numbers. There's not a lot we can do about this and the recommendation from the breast specialist was to up her mammograms to twice yearly for the rest of her life. The only comfort I can take from that is we'd at least be in a strong position to have it caught very early while there's something that can be done. We're also now lucky that we've a bunch of doctor friends who have excellent recommendations for oncologists locally and plastic surgeons (including 2 friends who work on plastics specialising in breast reconstruction....). However, it's a worry and really one we don't need at the moment.
So M has a family history of Breast Cancer, aunts, mother, grand mother etc...
Now she is past 40 they suggest she does a mammogram every year. So off she goes and has the mammogram. A few days later they call her in for more films and an ultrasound because she has unusually fibrous breasts that need a closer year. After the second set of films, she always ends up back at a specialist having an ultrasound and physical exam.
She thought she'd head this off this year by going to the specialist first. Who asked her to go for a mammogram, who... yes, I think you've got it.
Even though we're fairly sure the history is post-menopausal, and we're not quite there yet, this leads to a fairly nervous afternoon at the specialist having another round of tests.
Where I do get nervous is the most recent visit yielded the outcome of their latest computer models which give her an 18-23% chance of developing breast cancer in the next 30 years. Now, M took that to be a good number, but I find that terrifyingly high but I can't really say that to her because she's taken comfort in the numbers. There's not a lot we can do about this and the recommendation from the breast specialist was to up her mammograms to twice yearly for the rest of her life. The only comfort I can take from that is we'd at least be in a strong position to have it caught very early while there's something that can be done. We're also now lucky that we've a bunch of doctor friends who have excellent recommendations for oncologists locally and plastic surgeons (including 2 friends who work on plastics specialising in breast reconstruction....). However, it's a worry and really one we don't need at the moment.
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Actually, it's probably on par with my chance of coronary incident if I don't keep an eye on BP etc... We've only one known cancer incidence in my family and that was a straight environmental one, so I'm probably fortunate on that. It's the 140/90 un-medicated BP that'll kill me.
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