Just heard a report from the American Cancer Society. They said

a mamogram just isn't enough. For a good exam, everywoman whould have a mamogram AND an MRI every year.

Now can't you just see the insurance companies paying for THAT ONE?

I do and found a suspicious lump last year - they paid for both a mammogram and an ultrasound. Luckily it turned out to be nothing, but I was glad they went the extra mile.

that's NOT what the ACS said. There was no caveat that "If you had a historyi you family" statement. They said MRI'scan find very small, early stage cancer when it can still be cured. All I'm saying here is that my understanding of most insurance companies indicate they would denythat expensive test as unnecessary!

And not good. I wonder if ACS is lobbying for inclusion of the MRI in plans, at least in those patients who have a family history (although in today's society with all sorts of other factors, those aren't the only ones who should benefit!).

A breast MRI costs $1000-$1500 - not like many of us could afford to pay for that out of our own pocket!!

They wouldn't get me in one of those MRI tunnels. I was supposed to have one taken and they came out with a mask that look like one of the old robot heads. I looked at the tech and said "forget this". He asked me what was I talking about. I said I'm not putting that thing on and I'm not taking the MRI if I have to put it on, he said you do. I said no I don't and walked out.

I didn't have to put anything on my head! Yes,youlay on a flat hard bedthat slides intoa round tube like structure,but unless you are really paranoid about small spaces, it's really no big deal. It doesn't hurt, and it doesn't take very long either.

I have had MRI's before and never had to wear any mask. My daughter had to have two (after lyme disease to check her brain) and she didn't have to wear a mask either.

I am curious as I have never heard of anything like this before.

I have an implanted nerve stimulator in my hip...the battery part...with leads going up to my neck and shoulder. I also have a metal plate and four screws in my neck. I'll just have to make do with the mammogram, and even, possibly, an ultrasound.

I found a suspicious lump and the mammogram couldn't determine the situation - but the ultrasound did right away. Apparently cancerous lumps appear much different than non-cancerous in ultrasounds. So, you should be ok!

I'll be 64 soon, and there is no history of breast cancer in my family. This goes for both parent's side, so while I do get regular mammograms, I'm probably not as worried as if my family had a history of this type of cancer.

but it hasn't stopped me from having MRIs.
Maybe it's your nerve stimulator

Due to very dense breast tissue for a woman my age (almost 60) the mammogram doc suggested last year that I have an ultrasound in addition to the mammo that always hurts like blazes.

I thought fine, I've had a few ultrasounds in my life and they didn't hurt (during my pregnancies; and one at menopause to see how my ovaries were doing -- very cute, one was budding off an egg just then).

Boy was I wrong. The technique was worse than the mammogram, and I never want to do it again. The pain may well be related to the fibrocystic tissue, but it's disconcerting to have not only the technician but my own GYN fail to understand that.

You're right about MRIs -- they could end up being an out of pocket expense like my ultrasound. I've only had one, a prelude to shoulder surgery, and since I have claustrophobia I asked for drugs, which helped a lot while I had my head in that tunnel. At least it did not hurt.

Gaaaah.

Hekate

I thought MRI's were expensive?

I know we all like to think that they are looking out for us, but hey, we are just numbers and statistics, ey? The accounting department at the Hospital has the power and say so because, well, it is mostly a matter of money, not loving kindness and concern for the health and sufferings of Humanity-at-large.

Or did I get this wrong somewhere? Should I be listening to the propaganda as if it was all not just about a stockholder getting a profit or a well-paid health care professional keeping a job or getting a raise? Or should I really be thinking this is about concern and care?

I mean, my Wife is a CNA who makes less than someone who works at Wal-Mart, but cleans shit and piss and vomit all day and her body is being literally broken by lifting and moving "growing" Americans, (thanks to all that fat-producing crap in artificial, processed, corporate food-stuffs). She is proffesional and vital, but trust me, first-hand, you don't want to go where she works and it is not the worst place to end-up, (you could end-up in a State nursing home). Yet, the place is run like any Micky D's in a way that you would expect from your modern corpoately owned, manipulated, and passively bowed to culture. If you end up there, both you and your caretakers will have found HELL. I hear it every night ... in detail. Hell! Why? Mostly because the bottom dollar of the investors and board members is the ONLY thing the care is about.

Remember me if and when you get there. I am not Virgil, but I do know the shape and color and dimensions of the boat you might take across the Stygian river to misery and suffering. Oh, but forget that, you might have a great life going on right now and hell on earth as a Senior is not in your planning book.

Money is what matters most in today's health care. Yes, professionals should make more money for the time and investment they made in getting to where they are, but the whole deal is turning out to be a parasite/host relationship, once again. Read the Hippocratic Oath. At the end, it says, "Above all, do no harm!" Well, think of what it's like to have to sell everything, and then deal with the endless onslaughts of bill collectors harassing you, as a part of your recovery from a major illness that leaves you incapacitated. It is the END or your pleasant road and the odds are against you. That is when you will see how much humanity, care, and compassion is involved in today's health care system, i.e., if you are currently in one fo the insulation layers where you are protected or forbidden to see it.

A larger part of Americans see old age and retirement as an endless downfall, not as Golden Years. And yet, it would be nice if a larger part of that segment could find comfort, good care, and not end up as profit margins for the wealthy. That is our fate, if we should live so long. So-and-so forbid!

for their generosity. Yet another way for the medical profession to scalp patients.