supermom3
09-01-2007, 02:42 PM
Hi all!
I suffer from health anxiety, and am going to see a psychologist in September who specializes in it, but in the meantime . . . . .
I have had my mammos done for the past couple of years at a body imaging center who share space with a breast center - the medical director/radiologist (a sweet, very intelligent, older man) has looked over my mammos I've had done there as well as done 2 or 3 breast exams (at my request) and I've always felt confused/frustrated with doing self exams because, to me, my breasts feel lumpy/ropey and I feel like I can't tell the difference between what's normal and what could be abnormal - anyway, I went in this past Wednesday and asked for a breast exam because I thought I felt something small and round near my right nipple area - he did a very thorough exam (armpits, collarbone area, all areas of my breasts, etc.) and said everything felt absolutely fine, but the right breast in the nipple area felt more "glandular", so he had the tech do some films on the right breast - he looked the films over while I waited and said they looked fine - he told me to come back in March of 2008 (last mammo was March of 2007), unless of course, I find anything unusual or different in the meantime. He said he suspects my mammo in 08 will be fine, but if the mammo comes back show dense areas, he may want to do an ultrasound - ??? My confusion is the fact that they've never said I've had dense breasts before - I thought younger women have dense breasts - I'm 41 - I've read on these boards that dense breasts make it harder to detect cancer - is that the reason for him to want to do ultrasound? (with health/anxiety I find I analyze everything I'm told :( ) anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated - my mom died in 2005 from leukemia, which I think has intensified my cancer anxiety - thanks!
supermom3
I suffer from health anxiety, and am going to see a psychologist in September who specializes in it, but in the meantime . . . . .
I have had my mammos done for the past couple of years at a body imaging center who share space with a breast center - the medical director/radiologist (a sweet, very intelligent, older man) has looked over my mammos I've had done there as well as done 2 or 3 breast exams (at my request) and I've always felt confused/frustrated with doing self exams because, to me, my breasts feel lumpy/ropey and I feel like I can't tell the difference between what's normal and what could be abnormal - anyway, I went in this past Wednesday and asked for a breast exam because I thought I felt something small and round near my right nipple area - he did a very thorough exam (armpits, collarbone area, all areas of my breasts, etc.) and said everything felt absolutely fine, but the right breast in the nipple area felt more "glandular", so he had the tech do some films on the right breast - he looked the films over while I waited and said they looked fine - he told me to come back in March of 2008 (last mammo was March of 2007), unless of course, I find anything unusual or different in the meantime. He said he suspects my mammo in 08 will be fine, but if the mammo comes back show dense areas, he may want to do an ultrasound - ??? My confusion is the fact that they've never said I've had dense breasts before - I thought younger women have dense breasts - I'm 41 - I've read on these boards that dense breasts make it harder to detect cancer - is that the reason for him to want to do ultrasound? (with health/anxiety I find I analyze everything I'm told :( ) anyway, any thoughts would be appreciated - my mom died in 2005 from leukemia, which I think has intensified my cancer anxiety - thanks!
supermom3