In my continuing disillusionment with the Mayo (which remains the pinnacle of western medical care), I doggedly advocated for myself again. Which is a thankless and emotionally tumultuous endeavor, I might add. I had a mammogram a few weeks ago with the “old” technology, and was declared “good to go” for a whole year. That was great news since I have been on a six month cycle since the diagnosis.
Then I got the obligatory legal letter from the Mayo telling me that because I have dense tissue matter in my breasts, they cannot guarantee that they were able to detect any/every abnormality. Say what?! I’ve gotten that letter for many years, actually, as have a multitude of women sharing the same density issues, and there are a lot of us, believe me. Emboldened by Angelina Jolie’s surgeon, who appeared on Good Morning America for the breast cancer awareness month kick-off, I called my dr. and suggested that given my history, should n’t I have an ultra-sound and/or HD/3D mammogram? After the usual administrative run-around from the underlings, my doc referred my results to their weekly “genius” panel for review. Long story short, I am scheduled for a bilateral ultrasound in a week. And to sweeten the package, I finally got a new nurse assigned to me after 2 years of suffering through this journey with a woman who should have chosen a different career path.
So, I won, right? But I cannot help but think that if they ordered the tests, then maybe, just maybe…NO! I refuse to go down that road. Even my doc told me that my full YEAR of chemo killed every damned cancer cell (and then some) in my body. The waiting is a killer, but I am determined to ignore and even obliterate those niggling doubts that keep popping up. Perhaps ignorance is bliss…
Oct. 24, 2014
Judy Richter 