I got the letter from the hospital today. They’ve decided that whatever they saw on the second mammogram is benign. How they can tell that from a scan screen? Don’t know, don’t really care.
So I’m fine. And they urge me to “return to my usual mammogram schedule.” Like I had one of those.
Okay, I’m glad I’m fine. I guess it’s good that there’s a way to catch these sort of things before they become a problem.
But I tell you, I am really, really sick of doctors finding some little blip or ping or spot or whatever and then sending me to hell and back, scaring the shit out of me for days on end, and then it all turns out to be fine.
This is not the first time this has happened. My doctor once called me at work and told me to go to the emergency room immediately because my potassium levels were dangerously high. The emergency doctor there told me the test was probably faulty because if my levels were really that high, I would be way sicker. Of course, after a couple of days, the retest came back normal.
I would say that of all the tests I take, at least one quarter have to be redone for whatever reason, and after I’m done being scared shitless, it really pisses me off. Just like it’s pissing me off now.
I think I would’ve liked the old days better, when diseases just flat out killed you, without all this pussy-footing around testing for this and for that. At least, you didn’t spend healthy days wondering what was wrong with you.
I know that’s a stupid way to think, but I don’t care.:mad:
Is there a local woman’s breast cancer group you can attend? It seems to me that explaining your story to them might help. They might have names of doctors who don’t give you the run around and can do another test/second opinion. If the second test is negative, no harm done, and you will have made some friends. OTOH, if the second test is different you will have some friends that will help.
If I understand correctly, this WAS her second test, and it did come out negative, but she’s pissed at being scared for nothing. The revised schedule for mammograms and pap smears here has actually backed off on them because of all the false positives that were coming up; I’d say that’s probably a good thing.
Would you rather have a false positive and have to endure the agony of waiting and re-testing, or to find out that you did have cancer but that it had advanced to a stage at which chances of a cure were not good? Spoken by someone who’s had her share of the former, including a biopsy that showed nothing to worry about.
I also had a borderline ovarian lesion that was entirely without symptoms detected by a doctor on a routine checkup. It had grown to, IIRC, the size of an orange in less than a year. My mother was also cured – cured!!! – of breast cancer because of early detection.
Until the magic blood test that detects hidden cancers is found, I’ll go for whatever other tests are available and be glad they exist.
When the medical profession decides that the tests are being done so frequently that they are coming up with enough false positives to necessitate a recommendation of reduction of testing frequency, that’s got to be a shitload of false positives. The medical community are not known for their daredevil policy changing.