Breast Cancer History, Please Don't Repeat

I don't have breast cancer. I've waited to hear those words for nearly six months, after a suspicious mammogram led to a host of other tests and procedures. Each round of results revealed more about what was causing the abnormalities. Ultimately I discovered that I have two conditions that generate atypical cells and put me at increased risk for breast cancer. Genetically I'm already predisposed, since my mom died from it at age 46. Because of her early death, I had my first mammogram at age 29. I've long paid close attention to the health of my breasts. For years I figured my small size meant I couldn't possibly face my mom's fate--she was much curvier. I was wrong, and painfully so. Mammograms and biopsies are easier when you have more tissue to offer. With my mom and my maternal grandmother, in the late 1980s. They both had breast cancer; my mom succumbed to it in her prime. A Long Road In late June an initial mammogram showed that both of my breasts had calcifications, tiny calcium deposits that can indicate cancer. They hadn't appeared on my mammogram from five years earlier. My doctor ordered a diagnostic mammogram and an ultrasound, which indicated calcifications in patterns, a more specific sign of possible breast cancer. They also pointed to slightly larger clusters of cells. According to the doctors, I have "very active" breasts, spurred by high levels of estrogen. More imaging was ordered. A breast MRI, to get a closer look at the clusters of cells, an MRI...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news