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Breast cancer cases: brenda’s history BREAST CANCER CASES: BRENDA’S HISTORY
Brenda is 51, married, with two children aged 14 and 19, and works as a nursing sister in an operating theatre at a large hospital.
A year ago she attended her first routine breast screening, and a week later received a letter asking her to return for a repeat mammogram. Brenda had had no breast problems, and was unable to feel a lump, but although the letter stated that the request did not mean that she had cancer, this was, of course, her overriding fear. She went immediately to talk to a surgeon at the hospital where she works, and he examined her breasts, finding no abnormality. Despite his reassurance, she found the next few days traumatic, and was unable to eat or sleep properly.
Brenda rang the breast screening clinic to cancel her appointment as she was sure there was nothing wrong, but was persuaded, rather unsympathetically in her opinion, not to do so.
At her second appointment, several mammograms were taken of both her breasts. She found the process uncomfortable, and felt that little was done to reassure or cheer her. After waiting a short time at the clinic while the X-rays were developed, she saw a doctor who explained that what had been detected on the original mammograms were tiny areas of calcification in her breasts which, on further examination, did not appear to be a cause for concern. The doctor thought they had probably been there for some time, and were likely to be quite a 'normal' aberration.
Brenda was very upset to discover that she had spent a week worrying about something that, as an experienced nurse herself, she would have been able to understand if it had been explained in the letter. She felt that the doctor was unsympathetic, and that the entire experience had been an unnecessarily distressing one.
Brenda was asked to return a year later for further mammograms and the doctor she saw immediately after these had been developed was very helpful and understanding. She explained to Brenda that the areas of calcification had not altered at all in the previous 12 months, and that she had nothing to worry about, but should return for further mammograms every 2 years.
Brenda's relief at finding there was nothing wrong was tempered by her frustration about the difficult and anxious time she had had to spend. Although she appreciates that breast screening can play an important part in the early detection of breast disease, she does feel that there must be a better way of recalling women for further investigation.
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What your doctor should know; women tell their stories