Jezebel 
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New York, 1:57 PM
Fri Dec 11
69 posts in the last 24 hours
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11/20/09
I never developed cancer. But, what I did develop were a series of on-going symptoms that resulted from excessive, and reckless surgical procedures. More invasive procedures were then performed to "fix" the problems caused by the previous surgeries. They didn't help, in fact, they made things worse, and no doctor really seems to be able to give me an answer as to whether the symptoms (among them, pain and bleeding) will ever subside. A gynecologist recently described my cervix as "mangled" and then told me that all of the surgeries were likely unnecessary, that it is doubtful I would have developed cancer at all, and the procedures done to avoid it probably caused more harm than good. I may not be able to carry a pregnancy to term. Great.
On the other hand, my father died from undetected testicular cancer. He was otherwise totally healthy, and 46 years old. He probably could have lived if they had caught it before it metastasized.
In any case, two experiences which leave me torn between knowing the harms of acting on any hint that one may have cancer, and not acting soon enough. I don't know what the answer is.
11/19/09
Mammograms are hard to interpret, and young breasts are very dense. These two things combined mean that early mammograms != early detection.
These guidelines are very important for an individual's risk/benefit analysis. You should understand what you will be missing out on if you don't get the mammogram, or don't get one every year (less than you think). You should know what the actual benefit is if you do get one every year (also less than you think).
11/19/09
The decision should rest with a woman and her health care provider, but you can be sure that insurance companies are going to adopt this study as justification to alter their coverage of mammograms as soon as the initial furor dies down. This same panel issued a study last year that our insurer used as the basis to deny coverage to my husband on a procedure that they had covered three years earlier.
Insurers argue that because medicine is constantly evolving they reserve the right to review and alter their coverage as they deem appropriate subject to their ongoing review of medical literature. It's the old "medical necessity" clause that, as my husband put it after reading our plan's language, is big enough drive a truck through. So I will not be surprised to get a memo in the coming year saying that routine mammograms are no longer covered because the science doesn't support it.
Insurance companies giveth and insurance companies can taketh away, unfortunately.
11/19/09
I also thought mammograms were kind of passé anyway - I've had one surgery and two biopsies on fibriods and never had a mammogram - always an ultrasound.
11/19/09
11/19/09
Don't make me have to go back for every appointment until she's 50. I only have the one sister, and I am lucky to have such a sweet one. She, on the other hand, is happy that I am a loud bitch when it comes to our health.
11/19/09
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11/19/09
It's not as simple as "better safe than sorry;" more medicine isn't always better. I don't have the expertise to dig into their methodology completely, but they seem to have been pretty specific in their findings about who this applies to and who it doesn't.
11/19/09
She also said that when you look at survival rates after detection and treatment, there is some evidence suggesting that the reason the number of years of survival is higher for women in their 40's is because they are in their 40's and therefore there are all those years of recovery between when it was discovered and when it would have been discovered if they didn't have a mammogram until their 50's. This is because many cancers detected when women are in their 40's grow so slow that they are still treatable 5 or more years later.
Of course, she also said there are women whose lives have been saved or extended by early detection of aggressive cancers.
To me, this is what you have to balance. It is not just money and there are health risks either way.
11/19/09
Medicine is a science, but also an art - the art is taking the science and applying it to the community you serve and the individual in front of you.
11/19/09
The bottom line to me is we need more research. If there are some breast cancers that actually reverse and go away on their own, perhaps we can learn from them less harmful ways to eradicate the cancer.
11/19/09
#tips
11/20/09
11/19/09
Also, this is going to be the nail in the coffin for health care insurance reform, from what it seems. It's only a matter of time before this gets truncated into a right wing talking point. I mean, don't we recall what they did about the "old people" killing meme?
[www.rightactionforwomen.org]
11/19/09
On NPR yesterday there was a story about how in Japan, MRIs cost about $160.00. Here? 10 times that, if not more. It's ridiculous.
11/19/09
11/19/09
The breast cancer fuck up will be the end of the health care mess. It'll fizzle or die because the president and Congress are taking way too long and continue to make stupid, unnecessary findings like this commission. The timing of this whole mess just seems...opportune?
11/19/09
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11/19/09
Unless they're Democrats, in which case, hard proof isn't remotely enough.
11/04/09
11/04/09
I'd hate to think I looked like as much of a toolio as you did. #nicolerichietwitter
11/04/09
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11/04/09
/goes back to nerd corner #nicolerichietwitter
11/04/09
/says the BElf hunter #nicolerichietwitter