Music and Cats

What could be more fun first thing in the morning than having two of the most tender parts of your anatomy compressed between cold, hard plates by a complete stranger? You don’t have to answer that; I imagine your list is at least as long as mine.

Here’s one good thing about having a mammogram: you can have your morning coffee before the test. (As far as I’m concerned, the worst thing about having blood drawn isn’t that I have tiny veins that many phlebotomists can’t hit, but that I have to put up with their digging around in my arm while I’m in caffeine withdrawal. Talk about cranky! In a just world, labs would provide IV shots of coffee immediately after blood draws.)

Here’s another very good thing: a mammogram will detect many breast abnormalities before you or your doctor can feel them. That’s reason enough to get regular mammograms if you’re over 40. However, mammography won’t find everything there is to find, as someone I love recently learned. (She’s fine, but we were worried for a while.) If you have dense breast tissue, as she and I both do, your normal tissue may hide cysts, tumors and other lumps in a mammogram. An ultrasound or an MRI can show abnormalities that aren’t detected by mammography. Ask your doctor what she thinks is best for you.

If you’re looking for child-friendly, non-breast-related Advent calendar content, click here. Otherwise, proceed…

To open the Advent calendar window for Day 18, click here:

When I was at my doctor’s office in October, I noticed a stack of pink and white business-sized cards on the exam room counter. When got close enough to see and read it, I laughed out loud. I love this graphic, especially the fuschia nipples. The flip side has instructions for breast self-exams. If you have trouble remembering to do a monthly self-exam (I certainly do!), the folks at Check Your Boobies will send you a reminder email each month.

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