Dear Ayelet, Diane and you other wonderful women on Lactnet,
the timing of this topic is point on!
I just got an earful from my younger sister who was rejected today from a
mammogram facility on Broadway here in Manhattan.
She volunteered that she was still nursing her six month old son and
therefore, was not going to be given a mammo. She could reschedule, "when you have
ceased nursing for six months."
My sister then explained that I, her older, meaner sister, was still getting
chemo for the breast cancer diagnosed one year ago (while I was nursing my
then toddler). So,
1) there was a family history- (also my grandmother), 2) my sister is
planning on having another child very soon and would like to have a baseline mammo so
that she can fit it in pre-pregnancy and another nursing period
3) since she plans on nursing until her son weans himself, she has no idea
when that weaning point might be and it might even become a tandem nursing scene.
4) she is 39 years.....etc. etc.... you get the picture, right?
None of it swayed them, she was told to leave without the test.
I read then, with great joy, the notes from Diane and Ayelet....and I knew
from my own previous attempt at getting a mamo (with a verfied cancer diagnoses
while I was nursing pre-masectomy) how difficult it is to get a mammo if the
techs doubt their ability to read it with accuracy (I was booted from two
facilities!)
So for my sister, I will contact the very intelligent doctor who read my
mammo and see what she thinks about it all and then send my sister to see her,
insurance coverage or not...
But the question is ....what can we do to get these mammo places so that they
don't turn women away or persuade them to wean?
I shudder to think about women who are asymptomatic but b/c of
family history, current age, or intention of new pregnancy and long weaning
periods are turned away when they want a baseline mammo.
I think that perhaps we (lactnet or other breastfeeding organizations) could
try to assemble a list of places that are not afraid to
"get a false positive" or delve into pea soup pictures.
There are other options as well, sono and breast MRI.
I have left a message with Dr. Ruth in Rochester....
and I plan on passing this info out to my customers, some of whom were told
by their ob/gyns to wean in order to get a mammo- but these women had not
planned on weaning.
Thanks for letting me get this off my chest (ha-ha....a little bit of my
cancer humor inserted here)...
goodnight, Felina
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