Kitty Chat

...went very well.

A few months back, I heard from a friend of mine from San Diego who has just discovered she has Breast Cancer. This rather shook me up because she is about 5 years younger than me. They begin breast screening a lot earlier in the USA, 35 in California so since one of my Aunts has had breast cancer, as did my Grandmother, and cancer runs in my family, I thought it would be prudent to be checked as soon as I could. On my first screening, they picked up a 'shadow' that they said they would need to monitor over the coming years. In Vermont, they decided to do a core biopsy as the 'mass' looked suspicious. No cancer cells were found, however again they said I would need to 'keep an eye on it'.

So my mammogram yesterday has taken place after I have lost close to 8 stone... thats a heck of a lot of mass.

I have felt these lumps after I started doing a breast self-exam again. They are clustered around my right nipple and they feel like little dried peas.  When I told my doctor and he felt them he said this was something I had to take care of right away. He called the Radiologist there and then and got the next appointment for me, 14v days later. You have to have a mammogram within the 10 days after you begin your menses, luckily I keep track of when I have my menses and the appointment date was bang on 10 days.

My appointment yesterday was at 10.45. I was in a room getting undressed by 10.47 and having the mammogramm minutes later. I was taken into another room to wait and the consultenet came in 10 minutes later with my film already processed! He looked over all four films with a magnifying glass and then we got down to discussing my lumps. 'They are calceres. Calcium deposits or calcifications which are usually non-cancerous and quite common in women.' They looked like a cluster of little pale and bright white planets and are probably the 'shadow' that was seen all those years ago. They are large, large enough to be felt, which is unusual but large calcifications are rarely cancerous, he told me. 'Come back to see us in two years and guard your films most preciously!'

Oh yes... indeed I will!

The entire procedure took just over 35 minutes and the total cost? 66.47€ But my Mutuelle covers 100% so I wasn't out of pocket at all. My insurance co-pay in California alone was more than that and that was back in 1993 or so.

So I have a clean bill of health, breast-wise at least. I was so relieved I wanted to text or e-mail everyone I knew but restrained myself to just one dear friend...

Kitty is one happy girl today. Thank God I live here in France. The whole thing would have taken weeks on the NHS!