Love your family & friends, care for your breasts

Well, most of us will follow our health care provider recommendations and will conduct our monthly self-breast exam and get that annual or biannual mammogram, while others of us will come up with possibly any of the following reasons for not going: 

• I hate getting my boobs squeezed - a man must have invented that darned machine
• It's so inconvenient
• I can't afford it right now
• What if they find something
• I don't have time
• You name it 

Those all may be valid for any one of you – they were for me. I want to encourage you to take the time for your own exam monthly, and for that annual exam with your primary physician or gynecologist. You could find something that is more life threatening than this tumor that I love to hate.

For those of you who have health insurance, your mammogram may now be covered without co-pay, deductible or co-insurance due to the preventive health coverage requirements in the Federal Health Care Reform bill. Waiting until you find a lump, a bump, an alien in your breast will be diagnostic and will mean that costs you more money.

For me, for your other friends, and your family, please get checked out very soon. My goal is to see a spike in the mammogram utilization rates as a result of what you see and read here. No, I do not have any known stock ownership in that technology or any health care provider who would benefit from higher utilization!

Check the poll out to the right of this page.