Breast Ultrasound and stranding

After seeing my breast surgeon last week who by the way is simply an amazing, outstanding and incredible lady, I am going for a breast ultrasound this afternoon.  Her MOA is also fabulous.  I had phoned and asked if the surgeon could request the images from BCCA as the technician said she would just get the report.  The surgeon was on holiday but her MOA did this for me.  Thank you N!   At my appointment the surgeon was able to call up the images on her computer and show them to me.  This was great!  Nobody has done this before and it was helpful to see it as she was explaining it.   The remaining breast shows some density and stranding and a few calicifications.  Due to my past experience (repeated miss of cancer detection on mammograms for those new to the blog) which has led to my lack of trust with mammograms and anxiety about recurrence, this wonderful lady ordered an ultrasound.  I could have hugged her!  She totally gets it and said she doesn't blame me in the least for feeling the way I do.  My MO has never said this to me.


I tried looking up "stranding" in regards to density in breast tissue but can't seem to find any good links.  The way I heard it explained is that the dense tissue is spread out like a string across the breast as opposed to being a lump or mass of dense tissue.  This, I believe, is what makes it harder to feel and detect.


I am still working on getting all the images and reports from my old mammograms.  I have kind of taken two weeks off due to a whack of appointments and a biopsy on another body part.

Have you received a "Happy Gram" report?

To learn what a "Happy Gram" report is, check out Dr. Nancy Cappello's story on the "Are You Dense?" website.  She ends her story by saying she is on a quest to expose this best-kept secret of dense breast tissue to ensure women receive screening and diagnostic measures to find cancer at its earliest stage.  Remember early detection can save lives!


In her quest for information, Dr. Cappello found "that there have been 7 major studies with over 42,000 women that demonstrate that by supplementing mammograms with ultrasounds increases detection from 48% to 97% for women with dense tissue."


I encourage you to go and read her story.

Breast Diagnostic Centre (BDC) - Washington State

 In rereading my initial post I realized it might be helpful to include a picture of what dense breasts look like on a screening mammogram.  From a google search I found a good picture on the Breast Diagnostic Centre website.  This medical centre has kindly granted me permission to post the picture below from their website on to this blog so you can see what I mean by the "white on white"!

The BDC website says that, "While there is no law yet in Washington State mandating mammography facilities to notify patients of their breast density and the option for supplemental ultrasound, it is clearly on the horizon.  BDC (their clinic) is taking a proactive stance by notifying patients of their breast density via their mammogram report and providing education and the latest technology available, including 3D Mammography (tomosynthesis) and Ultrasound Breast Screening."  Imagine the difference we could make if we could get the same proactive stance here in British Columbia and have women be notified if they have dense breasts.  I can tell you that my life for one would be very different!

Mi-Jung Lee has a link to a website in the USA called Are You Dense?  The site's mission statement reads, " Are You Dense, Inc. is dedicated to informing the public about dense breast tissue and its significance for the early detection of breast cancer."  The site has lots of information and a story about a doctor who ended up with Stage III breast cancer.  I can definitely relate to her experience!  Between May 17, 2013 and November 25, 2013, I had 8 "dose-dense" sessions of chemo - 2 weeks apart,  28 days of radiation and then a modified radical mastectomy.  On the 'Are You Dense?' website you can learn the fourteen states that have density reporting legislation to protect women from delayed diagnoses.  Let's get the word out and try to make BC the first province to have the same kind of legislation.