Getting a mammogram is an annual exercise in pain - but mammograms have been proven to save lives. In this episode Meg describes the experience and why, despite the pain, they are worth the potential gain.
CDC data on the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer and the number of deaths from breast cancer is here.
Mammogram technology has improved significantly, with the introduction fo 3D technology. You can learn more here.
Tig Notaro is a comedian and a survivor of bilateral, invasive breast cancer. She incorporates her cancer experience into her comedy act. She talks about the experience here.
I recommend the podcast Seizing Freedom, from Virginia Public Media at the end of the podcast.
No Pain No Gain
Hello and welcome to Uplifted. My name is Meg Luther Lindholm. And I welcome you on this journey from stories of adversity towards new insights for a better life. Today’s step on the journey is called No Pain No Gain.
Every year I get a letter in the mail telling me what I don’t want to hear. It’s time for my annual mammogram. My first reaction is always primitive. Ouch! Nooo. Damn! And on the heels of my cursing comes resistance. I wonder Is it really time already? Didn’t I just have one a few months ago? Surely there’s a mistake. I can put this off for a few months, right? And then that’s exactly what I do. Another letter arrives and then another. It usually isn’t until this third reminder that I’m actually overdue for my annual mammogram that I dial the number and schedule my appointment. And then, more often than not, I space it out. I’ll look at my calendar the day after the appointment and realize that I missed it. Oh Darn. Well, I know I have to go through with it. Not just because of the statistics about breast cancer. But also because of the experiences I’ve witnessed with loved ones who have suffered because their breast cancer was not caught early enough to prevent serious illness or death.
Approximately 250 thousand women are diagnosed with breast cancer every year and about 42 thousand women. Which makes it the second leading cause of death for women. Men also get breast cancer and die from it - though in far fewer numbers. Women of color are impacted at far higher rates than white women.
And sometimes when it seems surgery or radiation has killed the breast cancer it comes back. One of the really insidious things about breast cancer is how easily it travels through the portals of the lymph nodes to other parts of the body. Breast cancer cells most commonly migrate to the lungs, the brain the bones and the liver.
And so eventually despite all my hemming and hawing, my postponing and forgetting, I make my way to the radiology lab at my local clinic. There a nurse guides me from a changing room to what I call the room of doom. I often wonder how other women get through this trial by fire. I once told my husband that getting a mammogram is how I imagine it might feel to have my breast run over by a car. Or put into a vice like we used to do with pieces of wood in wood shop. We’d turn the clamp as tightly as possible to prevent any movement. I grit my teeth as the tech turns the nob that pins my breast to the x-ray table so hard I can hardly breathe and tears spring to my eyes. Then comes the kicker – “don’t move,” the tech says. Oh, right – and where exactly would I go – maybe for a smoke in the hallway or some primal scream therapy? But honestly in that moment I’m not even thinking because I’m focusing all my energy on just breathing. “you ok?” she asks sweetly? She hesitates, while I summon all my strength to weakly answer “yes” when I’d rather just yell take the damn picture and get it over with.And I wonder - are torturers ever so solicitous of their victims? And then the ultimate kicker “don’t breathe,” she says sweetly, as beads of sweat begin forming on my brow. And then just when I think I can’t hold my breath any longer and the pain from my chest has shot down to my toes I finally hear the tsssst sound of the picture being taken. We go through several more rounds of this until she releases me and I feel a flood of relief and gratitude for having made it through the ordeal. Have I made it clear how much I hate mammograms? And yet I know they hold the key to potentially prolonging my life.
The good news is that since annual data for breast cancer began being compiled in 1930 there’s been a lot of progress. For many years the number of breast cancer deaths was pretty much the same from one year to the next. Then starting in about 1990 the numbers began a rather strong, steady decline. This decline coincides roughly with when the American Cancer Society began recommending annual mammograms for women starting at 40 years of age.
The technology for mammograms has also gotten a lot better. Back when I first started getting mammograms the xrays were 2-dimensional which made it hard to see clear pictures of dense breast tissue. There were a lot of false positives. I’ll never forget my fear after getting a call from the clinic right before Christmas one year. I was told I needed to have a second mammogram because there was a shadowy area in one of the images from my first mammogram. It turns out the image just wasn’t clear enough to read. The weeks I had to wait prior to that second test were filled with anxiety – anxiety which turned out to be groundless. Yes, better to be safe than sorry. But now, with 3D technology false positives are much less common. Because 3D technology provides many more images than 2D technology. And so there has been a decline in the number of false positives and better detection of true positives.
There is some debate over how often mammograms are needed. But there’s no debate that early detection is the key to successfully recovering from breast cancer. Not that people with more advanced breast cancer can’t recover. Many, like my Stepmother do. But for the best chance at a long, healthy l ife - the pain really is worth the gain.
Tig Notaro is a comedian who has spoken about the emotional and physical devastation of invasive breast cancer. Tig found out she had bilateral breast cancer in a year that had already knocked her down. A serious relationship ended. And then her mother tripped, fell, hit her head and died. It was after all of that that Tig found out she had breast cancer. She knew that she needed to incorporate her experience into her comedy act.
TIG NOTARO YouTube clip
Thank you for joining me on this step of the Uplifted journey. Before I go I want to leave you with a recommendation for a podcast that I find Uplifting. It’s called Seizing Freedom, personal narratives from primary sources of the struggle to define freedom after 400 years of slavery, produced by Virginia Public Media and hosted by Dr. Kidada E. Williams. I’m Meg Luther Lindholm. The theme music for Uplifted is composed by Richard Smithson.
Please subscribe to Uplifted on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. You can find Uplifted on Facebook and Instagram. And if you like what you hear I would so appreciate your sharing the episode or podcast with your circles. Until next time, take care of yourself and each other.
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