All Shelley wanted for her 59th birthday was a little pink piece of paper.
But she had to wait.
Shelley, which is not her real name, was diagnosed with breast cancer five years ago. At the time, she underwent surgery and radiation. Then came twice-yearly mammographies, to be sure the cancer was gone. She found that frequency reassuring.
"You have four (mammographies) in the first two years, which feels great because you know six months isn't that far and then you'll have another one," she said.
Each time, she asked for them to be read on the spot by a radiologist -- and got it. She needed to know, to put her mind at rest.
In year three, the screenings were reduced to one a year.
"The worst year was probably the third because that's your first year where you have to go for a full year," she said.
Then came her fifth screening, just recently, on what happened to be her 59th birthday. After, she asked for a reading.
"I needed to know really bad because it was five years," Shelley said. "(The technician) said, 'It's a screening, you don't get a reading.' I said, "But I've always gotten readings on my screenings. I need one.'
"She sort of looked at me and said, 'What do you want me to do?' in an angry way. I said, 'I want you to go get a radiologist to read this.'
Apparently, the radiologist was in a procedure at the time. Shelley learned later that she could have waited for the doctor to be free, but that wasn't offered as an option.
Needless to say, Shelley spent the rest of her birthday very upset.
After thinking it over, she wrote a letter to her doctors and the head of the department. She told them what happened to her and how she didn't think it was right.
Their response was immediate. Her doctor said she should have been able to get a reading that day. She's been promised that there will be changes so other patients don't have to go through what she did.
"I wanted to make sure that I made my point, that I just didn't walk away and not say anything," Shelley said.
Oh, she did get a belated birthday present. It came the next day -- that pink piece of paper saying she'd passed her mammogram.
Not that she'll ever feel cancer-free.
"I'm never going to say I'm breast cancer-free," she said. "I will just go to my mammograms and ask for a reading every single time, because then I'll know. And I need to know."
And she'll never schedule one on her birthday again.
Reach Kathy Gibbons care of the Record-Eagle or at gibbonskath@yahoo.com. Northern Notes will run on Monday.
Print this story
E-mail this story
