Some Good News
Last week, the day after the infamous MUGA scan, I had a fun test known as a breast MRI.
You know about MRIs, right? You lie on a table wearing absolutely no metal at all while a big loud whirring magnet revolves around you and takes pictures of your innards, kind of like an X-ray only much, much, much better (and louder and more expensive and more time-consuming). The extra added attraction with a breast MRI is that you get to lie on your stomach with your breasts dangling (if they're of a certain size, at least), each one in its own receptacle-like thing. You have to do a little wriggling to achieve the proper placement. It's kind of like—well, it's kind of like nothing else I've ever done.
Here's a PG-rated photo of what a breast MRI looks like, although in my case the the receptacle-like thing was different—there was an actual receptacle, not just an opening.
The whole point of a breast MRI is that it is much more sensitive than a mammogram and can detect problems that might not be detected by mammography. The reason I had one was to be sure that nothing worrisome was going on in my right (aka healthy) breast. If something had shown up on the MRI, we would have had to do a full work-up (i.e. a biopsy) and then, if that showed something untoward, well, we've been down that road before.
So the very good news is that the MRI results came back clear.
Whew.
Now, one could make a case that, given my body's talent and propensity for creating breast cancer, I should have a prophylactic mastectomy on my right side. Doing that would dramatically reduce my chances of developing breast cancer on that side. By dramatically, I mean reducing the risk by something like 98%.
Even though 98% is a pretty big number, you have to remember that I already had a mastectomy on the left side, and that didn't keep me from developing a second breast cancer. That's because a mastectomy cannot remove every last bit of breast tissue (that's the 2%). Some people have breast tissue that goes all the way up to their collarbone. Some people have breast tissue that goes all the way down to their rib cage. And some people (like me, apparently) have breast tissue all the way around their side, near their armpit.
The other thing to know is that having a mastectomy could actually make it more difficult to detect a problem if one were to arise, because scar tissue or a breast implant (like I have on the left side) could obscure a lesion or tumor on, say, a mammogram or sonogram or MRI.
So the consensus that my doctors and I have reached is that absent any evidence of a problem, we will just monitor the right breast aggressively for the rest of my life. And yes, we were doing that anyway. So this just means, in addition to annual mammograms and sonograms and multiple clinical exams and my own self-exams, I will probably add annual breast MRIs to my dance card.
I can handle that.
You know about MRIs, right? You lie on a table wearing absolutely no metal at all while a big loud whirring magnet revolves around you and takes pictures of your innards, kind of like an X-ray only much, much, much better (and louder and more expensive and more time-consuming). The extra added attraction with a breast MRI is that you get to lie on your stomach with your breasts dangling (if they're of a certain size, at least), each one in its own receptacle-like thing. You have to do a little wriggling to achieve the proper placement. It's kind of like—well, it's kind of like nothing else I've ever done.
Here's a PG-rated photo of what a breast MRI looks like, although in my case the the receptacle-like thing was different—there was an actual receptacle, not just an opening.
The whole point of a breast MRI is that it is much more sensitive than a mammogram and can detect problems that might not be detected by mammography. The reason I had one was to be sure that nothing worrisome was going on in my right (aka healthy) breast. If something had shown up on the MRI, we would have had to do a full work-up (i.e. a biopsy) and then, if that showed something untoward, well, we've been down that road before.
So the very good news is that the MRI results came back clear.
Whew.
Now, one could make a case that, given my body's talent and propensity for creating breast cancer, I should have a prophylactic mastectomy on my right side. Doing that would dramatically reduce my chances of developing breast cancer on that side. By dramatically, I mean reducing the risk by something like 98%.
Even though 98% is a pretty big number, you have to remember that I already had a mastectomy on the left side, and that didn't keep me from developing a second breast cancer. That's because a mastectomy cannot remove every last bit of breast tissue (that's the 2%). Some people have breast tissue that goes all the way up to their collarbone. Some people have breast tissue that goes all the way down to their rib cage. And some people (like me, apparently) have breast tissue all the way around their side, near their armpit.
The other thing to know is that having a mastectomy could actually make it more difficult to detect a problem if one were to arise, because scar tissue or a breast implant (like I have on the left side) could obscure a lesion or tumor on, say, a mammogram or sonogram or MRI.
So the consensus that my doctors and I have reached is that absent any evidence of a problem, we will just monitor the right breast aggressively for the rest of my life. And yes, we were doing that anyway. So this just means, in addition to annual mammograms and sonograms and multiple clinical exams and my own self-exams, I will probably add annual breast MRIs to my dance card.
I can handle that.
posted by Jody Rosen Knower at 2:51 PM
5 Comments:
You, my darling, are absolutely amazing.
I thought I was the most candid person I ever knew but I bow to the better woman!
Love, Mom
Happy belated birthday, Jody! Congrats on the clear MRI. And thanks for the blog. You guys are giving us a real gift by letting us in in this way. Let us know if there's anything we can actually do for you. You're always welcome at our CT place for some R&R (you're welcome at our NYC place, too, but somehow I don't think that would be as relaxing!).
Love, Karyn
I think a huge added attraction of the breast MRI is: you don't get SQUISHED. Especially by someone who's cranky for some goodness-knows-what reason and decides to take it out on you by giving just one more crank on the plates. UGGH!
--Torre
A breast MRI? Sounds intriguing. Probably doesn't require CRI (creative resuscitative imaging) to get through it. I had an MRI on my brain once. Nobody told me not to open my eyes when I was in the tunnel. So I did, and thought I was spelunking upside down. Before they could even push the button, I howled, 'Let me out of here!!' They did, and this time they suggested CRI (my term). They told me to imagine a favorite outdoor space and not to open my eyes. I picked a beach, and there was this handy little sea breeze (in reality, fresh air pumped into the machine). I got through the 20 minutes this way. The only problem was that an oil rig was pumping right next to my cabana (the noise from the MRI is like living inside a construction site).
A breast MRI? Sounds intriguing. Probably doesn't require CRI (creative resuscitative imaging) to get through it. I had an MRI on my brain once. Nobody told me not to open my eyes when I was in the tunnel. So I did, and thought I was spelunking upside down. Before they could even push the button, I howled, 'Let me out of here!!' They did, and this time they suggested CRI (my term). They told me to imagine a favorite outdoor space and not to open my eyes. I picked a beach, and there was this handy little sea breeze (in reality, fresh air pumped into the machine). I got through the 20 minutes this way. The only problem was that an oil rig was pumping right next to my cabana (the noise from the MRI is like living inside a construction site).
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