Today I want to share my story around me getting contacted for a follow-up mammography. I still remember that day clearly when I got that letter with the information around my mammography. To read that the results was not satisfactory in order for the health care to determine whether there was a risk of a tumor or similar in my breasts was an unreal feeling. I had a hard time reconciling with myself to the idea that I would have contracted a cancer.

I am humble to life

At the same time I am humble to what life has to offer. To quote a famous movie “life is like a box of chocolate – you never know what you are going to get”. And with all the splitting of cells that take place in the body every day, it is not unreasonable that some have gone wrong and are about to develop into something bad. I do not know a lot about cancer but from my understanding it is something that develops over a long period of time. Like somewhere over at least five to 20 years. Here is where the importance and power of a healthy lifestyle comes in.

The power of a healthy lifestyle

If you have a lifestyle that promotes the four pillars of health and live by them. You increase your chances to not fall ill to diseases such as cancer. We need to understand that we have our own health very much in our own hands. And even though we might have inherited some preferences to develop cancer. A lot can be prevented by not letting those genes express themselves (epigenetics). This is done by living a life that supports our basic needs as humans. This will instead express genes that is beneficial for our health!

Time to plan

The appointment for the follow-up mammography was set about three weeks ahead. This of course gave a lot of room for pondering about this. To not know whether I had something dangerous growing inside my body or not, is a very stressful situation.

So I decided to create a plan for myself. This is a great tool that I have used many times before. It empowers me! One thing that I truly do not like is making oneself into a victim. That does no one any good, yourself to begin with!

Autophagy – healing inside and out

From my studies around health I have learned that autophagy is a natural process that occurs in the body. It clears out and replaces damaged cell parts with new ones. The body activates autophagy when we sleep, fast or when we train for example. The easiest way to think about autophagy is like a dimmer switch on a light. You will get deeper and deeper into the healing properties of autophagy by applying certain things to your lifestyle.

Paying attention to the menstrual cycle

At this point in time I was in the luteal phase. Progesterone is what is produced in this phase of the menstrual cycle, and it is very sensitive to stress. I am very mindful with my progesterone which also has protective properties against cancer and balances the estrogen. And fasting is an hormetic stressor. So I decided to initiate my plan once I was back in the follicle phase again. To read more about what I did go hit.. To read more about how I tweak my lifestyle based on my cycle go hit..

Time for follow-up mammography

I drove the 30 minutes to the hospital, entered the building and made my way to the mammography section. I had to sit and wait a few minutes for my turn. While waiting I tried to take a few deep breaths and get my heart rate down. After a while, my name was called, and I was guided to the X-ray room. The machine they used was a different one that I was used to. I was quite impressed with how this one was constructed. By the way I just need to pause here and say that  I am truly impressed with how much awesome technology we have access to in today’s health care. This make me very thankful as I think about how many diseases, we are able to treat today 🙏

No information

I did not get any information from the letter sent to me which breast that they were concerned about. But now I was told that it was my left breast that they wanted to take a closer look at. So they took a lot of fast paced pictures from three different angles of my breast. Other angles then during my first visit to the mammography.

Ultrasound

After this I was asked to go to another room where they prepared for doing an ultrasound. In the information letter sent home it was stated that x-ray and ultrasound would be performed along with possibly some more examinations. I undressed once again and laid down on a bed. The nurse told me  that the doctor was currently scanning my X-ray pictures and would soon come in and do the ultrasound.

Anita

The doctor’s name was Anita and after a few minutes she came into the room. I had to move further to the right of the bed and got a type of pillow that she “palletized” my left side with so that she could more easily access the ultrasound of my left breast. I had my left arm behind my head. I tried to concentrate on deep breathing here as well. Before Anita started, she told me that she had looked at the X-rays and she saw nothing strange or deviant. But she also wanted to do an ultrasound for safety’s sake.

Better to be safe then sorry

I think that was absolutely right, better to be safe than to risk something. I exhaled a little at this point when I heard that the X-ray pictures did not show anything strange. But still many thoughts went through my head as I laid there on the bed. Anita stopped with the ultrasound scanner at a few places and then I got a bit apprehensive of course. I think that she did a very thorough examination and finally she said that she did not find anything in my breast that should not be there. After these words I could finally exhale fully and relax!

What probably had happened

Anita explained what she believed had happened and why they suspected something was not right with my breast. You see, they always compare with previous pictures that have been taken past years, which I think is great. However, it is difficult to take a picture of a breast that is exactly the same each time. What has probably happened is that the breast fibers have not properly spread when taking the picture. Some have been on top of each other and thus made the picture unclear and difficult to determine if there is any abnormal growth in the breast or not.

From my part

From my part, I can only speculate if there was actually a slight growth in the breast that my body took care of in terms of fasting, calorie restriction, HIIT training and strength training via autophagy. Or if there was mishap when taking the picture. Regardless, I’m happy and thankful and I’m breathing out after a few weeks of uncertainty. But now I know that nothing was found. I will be called again as usual in two years for a mammography per normal standards.