Pressing your luck

Mammograms?

I held the radiation tech’s feet to the fire on this one. She insisted that the radiation beam did not scatter; that it was a limited, direct hit on the targeted area only. Very, VERY little radiation involved..

Like, hardly any,” she burbled.

“So why do you retreat to a lead-lined room before aiming this beam?” I asked.

“Just in case it goes somewhere else” she explained. “I don’t wanna put myself at risk. Like if the machine was to leak, but then I wouldn’t know.

So we’re safe. We’re ALL safe.”

“So, how can you be sure of all this?”

“Look! You doin’ this today, or WHAT?”

It was the last time.

And my gynecologist, who was clueless to the vetted reports about breast tissue sensitivity being second only to infantile tissue in terms of repeated exposure to low-level ionizing radiation and proven cancer causation…well, she blinked rapidly when I questioned her about the probability of tumors arising decades after having had radiation trained on the exact same spot, year after year.

Her eyes glazed over.

She shrugged, then leaned into it. I got the party-line about how women my age were getting all these cancerous lumps. So just to be safe, it was important to have a mammogram (fill in the traveling blank_____) every year, now it is every other year, do the self-exam, nope, don’t do the self-exam, there were too many…