At 47, despite a wellness routine that included mushroom powder and collagen in my morning coffee, hiking, running, daily pilates with weights, strictly organic and healthy meals, and a largely nontoxic home and beauty routine, I still felt something might be off. I was forgetting everything that wasn’t written down, shedding hair and gaining weight from simply looking at food. I assumed I was in the throes of perimenopause.
I wanted to get ahead of anything suspicious, so I went to the doctor, but my labs always came back normal. I was told that my symptoms were likely a combination of stress and yes, perimenopause. I thought I was healthier than ever, doing all the right things, but as a mother of two, there was still the underlying fear of: What if it’s something else?
As a journalist, I started researching preventative, full-body MRIs and arranged a complimentary scan with one popular company so I could write about my experience. I thought, at worst, the test might uncover an autoimmune disease or some deficits from all the drinking I did in my 20s. Coincidentally, the night before my scan, I was showering and felt a small lump on the side of my breast.
It caught me by surprise, but I thought it felt like a cyst. I’d had one before and it felt the same: the size of marble, not too hard, and it seemed to move when I touched it. I was especially grateful for the MRI the next day and wasn’t too worried because I didn’t have a family history of breast cancer.
The scan took under an hour and was more comfortable than expected thanks to the Netflix shows I watched to take my mind off the fact that I was packed tightly into a metal tube. I did a blood draw, stocked up on coconut water and snacks in the lobby, and the technician told me that if there was anything alarming, they would call me within 24 hours. Once 24 hours had passed with no news, I felt confident that everything was fine.
When the doctor called to share the results a week later, she said they found a small (1.5 cm) “indeterminate lesion” on one of my breasts. Part of it was smooth and part had irregular edges (which you don’t want). The doctor didn’t seem overly concerned but did emphasize that I needed to get it checked.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
