Happy March

Happy March!
I turn 25 this month. Boo.

It's depressing. If I live to be 100 (ha,ha, not likely) 1/4 of my life is already over.

But really, I should look at it as 1/3, because statistically I'm more likely to only live to 75.
Sad.

I thought this article about hormone related side effects was interesting. I see anecdotal evidence of this when I'm doing mammograms on women that have taken HRT in the past. Their breasts are very firm and hard, so it's much more difficult to get adequate compression. We all hate doing HRT pts.

However, the worst are women with breast implants. We draw straws to see who has to do those.
One woman came in to the dept. and was suprised at how difficult her mammogram was now that she had breast implants. Her surgeon told her that mammograms would be easier now that she had the implants, because there 'wasn't as much breast tissue'. -Not true!

As you can see from these pictures.
First, standard mamm views are taken with moderate force to the breast and implant.



Then, implant displacement views are taken. The implant is pushed back against the chest wall and the breast tissue is pulled forward and compressed. Imagine a half empty tube of toothpaste. Just like pushing the toothpaste toward the cap, we push or squeeze the implant toward the chest wall. There are double the views(x-rays) = more time and more times compressing the pt.