Heartfelt Follow-Up
Those of you who tuned in to the October episode of the SICK WIT IT podcast heard the very personal testimony from TANYA DOOLEY-ADIJA on her battle against and victory over breast cancer. She recently went in for her 5-year milestone mammogram and had a lot to say about the experience. With her permission, I am reposting this from her Facebook share.
Long Post Alert
I feel like I haven't shared a testimony on this journey in a while, so here goes...
As I have said, I still have anxiety when I go for my mammogram, which I'm sure you all would agree is understandable. Some of you may even experience the same when you go for yours or any other similar medical procedures or testing. I was doing pretty well. I was keeping myself occupied so that I wasn't thinking about it, but let me explain how my anxiety escalated over the 30 minutes that I waited.
I have been getting mammograms at this hospital for 10+ years and my experience has always been the same. They put you in a waiting room pre-mammogram, do the mammogram, then put you in a different waiting room post- mammogram while you wait for the radiologist to look at your images, and then they have the tech who performed the mammogram come tell you that the radiologist looked at your images and said you were good to go or they need more images and/or an ultrasound. My dense breast ladies know what I'm talking about. I don't think I ever met a radiologist in the 10+ years except for the time that they told me they saw something and they needed me to do further tests and then breast cancer, etc. If you know my story, you know. Still following? Anyway, I don't know if they have changed the procedure since my visit last year or just for this particular doctor, but this is what happened this time. When the tech came back in the waiting room, she told me to follow her around the corner. She said I could get dressed and meet her back in the waiting room. She was going to take me to another room. That's when my mind started questioning and my stomach started doing that thing, so I got dressed quickly and followed her to another room. She said the radiologist was in with another patient, but he would come speak to me as soon as he was done. So, I sat in the room, which happened to be an infusion room, and proceeded to have PTSD. Maybe 5 long minutes later, while my heart was pounding out of my chest, she came back in the room followed by the radiologist. Neither one said anything at first and they both sat down and said "how are you?" In my mind I was thinking, "how do you think I am?" I don't think I answered. My anxiety was at 10 at this point! As he introduced himself (none of which I heard), I guess they both saw that my eyes were as big as saucers and popping out of my head so he said, "First of all, your mammogram looks good, consistent with your history, etc", and in my mind again, "then why are you here?" And, maybe he read my mind because he said he just wanted tell me himself. He said "he figured that as patients, we take our time to come see him, and the least he can do is show his face." He asked if I had any questions, but I couldn't even think, so I said "no." He kindly walked me out and said "see you next time." He probably won't, but he was still very nice.
Now, while I appreciate that that was a thoughtful gesture, I'm not sure it was fully or thoughtfully thought through. He looked like a young doctor, so maybe he has ambitions of changing the doctor patient interaction. Maybe they got feedback from patients and the hospital thought this would be better for patients. Maybe they just want to be able to bill for a doctor visit. All or none of these could be true. All I know is, it would have been helpful for me if he/they had thought it through from the patient's perspective, particularly a breast cancer survivor's perspective. Walk through it as if you or your family member were the patient who had a previous traumatic experience. They could have also told me the process as if I had never done this before, including that I would meet with the radiologist at the end to get my test results. I had some time to do some deep breathing and calm myself before my next appointment, which was with my breast surgeon for confirmation with an ultrasound, but this experience tested me yet again. I survived. If you made it this far, thanks for listening. Get those mammograms while we still can! #MyPSAForTheDay #TheBreastCenter #GetYourMammogram #1in8 #EarlyDetection #PublicHealth #Prevention #CancerPrevention #MammogramsCanSaveALife #MammogramMotivation #SelfBreastExams
#GodIsGood #SelfCare #LiveLaughLove #TodayIsAGoodDayToScheduleYourMammogram #BreastCancerAwareness #BreastCancerSurvivor
