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NY 1009
04-03-2009, 11:18 AM
Is it common for woman who are at high risk to have yearly ultra-sounds AND an MRI with contrast and a mammogram yearly?

I don't know if other woman get these 3 tests done yearly?

I ask this because I mentioned to my gyno that my right breast felt very dense and weird feeling. so she sent me to have an ultra sound of it.
the dr wound up calling me 3 days later saying that they found lymph nodes. one in the breast further from the nipple and on the outter part of the breast, in a chain closer to the rib, 3 more, along the very edge of the breast.
she referred me to a breast surgeon to get her opinion on it since i"m high risk because of both sisters and an aunt who had breast cancer and a father with colon cancer, brother with hodgkins lymphoma and I"m on estrogen patches due to total hysterectomy back in 2005. total hysterectomy at age 48.

Dr. told me she felt it was ok, and just breast tissue, but it's not in the left breast at all, told me that if I wanted to, to bring back the copy of my next mammo due this coming October and sent me on my merry way.

the next thing I know, I got home, the phone rang and hour later and it was the breast doctor. she said that since I had so much history on the fill out sheet of patient history that she didn't do it all when I was there and that she entered it all in and also was going by her expertise, and told me that 20% is considered high risk and I fell in the category of 30% risk of breast cancer and that she wants me to get an MRI with contrast of the breasts and that she wants to see me again when I'm done having it.
she told me I can wait but get it done within the next month.

she put a little fear into me compared to the way I felt when I first left her office.
I know that having breast cancer in lymph nodes is a very very low chance. something like 2%. IF cancer is in the lymph nodes, it's usually a form of lymphoma.
I have a history of possibility of lymphoma in my neck, same side of the breast with the enlarged lymphnodes that was excised back in 98 which turned out to be "atypical follicular lymphoid hyperplasia'", I was sent to a disease specialtist who performed and HIV test and I never went back to him after finding out it was negative. I wasnt' told if I needed to go back every so many years for follow ups. It wasn't cancer, but it was something.

so I'm asking anyone here if they know if it's common treatment to have all 3 tests performed yearly if at high risk? or is my dr. thinking that maybe something really is going on because of my risk and the nodes being enlarged. It seems she changed her mind after I left her office.
I am having symptoms of malaise, lethargy, flu like symptoms, bones hurt, joints hurt, weight loss, loss of appetite, and having to lay in bed every few days the entire day. I"m on disability and dont' work anymore. so I can rest my body when it needs it.
I have no choice but to lay down when I feel this sick.
I'm being tested by my rheumy dr for an inflammatory arthritis. I was dx'd with a different form of arthritis and fibromyalgia ontop of it all. but with the chills and weight loss she feels an autoimmune problem is going on.

so everything is coinciding with one another and I can't tell what end is up and which end is down if you get my point?

talk about confusion on what type of dr to see for my problems.
too many things going on at one time but in different parts of the body. or is it all related?

thanks for listening and thanks for any info I can gather.

Sincerely,

Linda

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leea1206
04-08-2009, 01:23 AM
Yes, I think it is very common to have all 3 tests done for a high risk women. From what I know the MRI is a "newer" recommendation for high risk women and has only been rxed routinely in the past few years. - I think, given your hx, your Dr. is very smart to order the MRI. _ Sometimes the MRI picks up breast cancer that can't be seen on on mammogram or ultrasound.

I would definitely get the test done, just to have one more "piece of the puzzle."

Leea

NY 1009
04-15-2009, 10:27 AM
thank you for your reply leea,
I appreciate it.
I can NOT believe I missed my apptn this monday.
I got home from being at my brothers, who I had to help put up shades and then I had to take my daughter shopping for her b.friends b.day gift, and I totally forgot all about the MRI.
I only wrote the date down on a small piece of paper by my bdrm phone and didn't write it on my calendar. I could have KICKED myself.
I recieved a msg on my machine from the MRI dept.
so I called the nxt mrning and they rescheduled it for next monday.
I'm telling you.
I'm losing my mind more and more these days.
I have this foggy, cob webby feeling and dont' even know the days anymore.
I think I miss the clarity of mind most of all. forget about all my aches and pains in my joints and muscles. LOL
without a brain, we're nothing.

enough of my complaining.
thanks again,


Linda





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