Kim and Friends- Minisode Mammograms

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That's Thrive Cosmetics,

C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S dot com slash shine26.

Hello, welcome to Kim and Friends,

where we laugh through the chaos,

cry whenever the hell we feel like it,

and always keep it real.

Because as women, the conversations we have

and the stories we share behind closed doors

need to be heard out in the wild.

I'm Kim, and I appreciate you taking the time to listen today.

I really hope something resonates with you.

Hey friends, it's me, Kim, coming to you with a public service announcement

surrounding your tautos.

Me and this lovely pile of laundry on my bed had,

I know the pile of laundry didn't,

but it's me and the pile of laundry here.

I had a follow-up diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound today,

and everything's normal as of now,

so nobody freak out, including myself,

but it got me to thinking about my whole journey with mammograms,

and that at every turn since I've been going

through this most recent round of screenings,

I've been talking to other women, my peers,

and women older than me, that have just squalched my fear,

because they're like, oh my God, yeah,

I dealt with that too when I was around your age.

Oh, yeah, this is totally common.

Oh, yeah, this happens all the time.

And I think I was under the misconception

that I was just going to go in and get annual mammograms,

and they weren't going to find anything.

And if they did find something, that was caused for concern.

So in the spirit of bringing our private conversations

out into the wild and sharing what happens to us

as women during all stages of our life,

I thought it might be a good time to just lay it all out there

for all of you, from my very first mammogram,

and what I am finding as I speak to other women,

like I said, my age and older, is very common to be expected

because I did share early on that having

or getting cancer or getting breast cancer

is an irrational fear that I have,

not that it's irrational to be fearful

of getting cancer, but that it lives in me

in kind of a larger way.

So there's a lot of like mental gymnastics

that goes on for me, especially in the past.

I guess it's been just about coming up on a year

in August that I've been having to be screened

more regularly.

So I am gonna put my glasses on

because I'm gonna be reading

and you can see the reflection of my laptop,

like hardcore in my glasses, which I don't like,

but it is what it is.

So I went to an OB in 2018.

I think I always saw this OB like once or twice.

And I was, I guess, how old was I in 2018?

That's an important question.

It was 37.

So he recommended that I get a baseline mammogram

at that point.

So I did it and it was just so apparently

whenever you are getting regular mammograms,

it's not so much about what they see in the initial image

but it's about comparing from year to year.

So he said, if we do the baseline now,

then when you start them yearly, when you're 40,

you'll already have a baseline

and that it won't be comparing from 40 on,

they'll have something to compare it to.

So I did it in 2018, got my baseline, everything looks normal

then, then when I was 40 in November of 2021,

that was my first, like I'm gonna have annual screenings now.

They compared it to the prior one that was available,

didn't find anything significant,

but they did know that I have heterogeneously dense breasts.

This is something that a lot of women hear.

Apparently, all of our breasts are dense.

I'm also not a doctor, but it also seems like maybe

something that they qualify to remove liability.

So, and let me just say right now,

I'm gonna insert some thoughts

that aren't necessarily opinions throughout this mini-sode.

It's sort of a, I don't know if I believe this or not,

but this is just what swims around in my head.

So if I say anything that might be triggering to you,

if you have dealt with breast cancer yourself

or with another woman in your family, please know,

these are just my thoughts.

I am not saying what's right for anyone else.

I'm not saying

what people should or shouldn't do,

but I think it's important that I meet transparent.

So I know I'm not a doctor, but it did occur to me

as I'm talking to other women,

and they're like, yeah, me too, me too, dense breast tissue.

Yeah, me too, me too, me too.

I'm like, oh, so maybe that's just something

that if they miss something, they can be like,

oh, well, yeah, I did say here

that she had dense breast tissue, specifically,

and that may obscure small masses.

Okay, so that was a march of 2024.

No, November 2021.

Then there's a big gap in my mammograms,

which I did not realize I had,

but I was going more regularly than this.

So another thing to know is like,

maybe put it in your calendar or get a really good,

GP, like I have now, that like just has the hospital

start calling me at regular intervals

so that I schedule it.

March 2024, going again.

So I don't know why that's November 21, 22, 23.

This is like, damn, you're two and a half years.

I went before I went and had another one.

Compared to the prior available,

same situation, just says dense breast tissue,

no significant changes, I should get another one in a year.

So then I went back in August of 2025.

So again, little over a year,

not mad at myself about that one.

I feel like I got in there quick enough.

This is just a screening mammogram

because there's a screening in a diagnostic.

So so far, this is my fourth screening diagnostic

in August of 2025.

This one determined that I was developing

some asymmetry in the lower region

and the posterior depth of the right breast.

So they recommended that I go in for a follow up mammogram

and then possible ultrasound.

And this was just a screening

that I got at one of those like travel around mammogram trucks.

So like I said, my wonderful GP, Dr. Jenny, she was on it.

She got those ordered, got it scheduled.

And in September of 2025, I went in

and they did a second mammogram.

And the woman who did my diagnostic mammogram

at the actual hospital, breast screening like women's health,

area said that the woman that had done

my initial screening mammogram had gone further back

and seen a portion of my breast

that had really been visible in the other screenings.

So that was good.

They did end up doing an ultrasound too.

So this confirmed asymmetry in the right breast

and it says it's probably a benign island

of heterogeneous fibroglangular tissue.

And then they recommended a six month follow up

for another diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound again.

And then this is all just like in my my chart

but my doctor is also like sending me messages

essentially saying the same thing in more layman's terms

and also like asking if I have any questions

or offering to schedule a consult or a phone call

or something if I need to talk to her about it anymore.

So here it says the findings,

right diagnostic mammogram confirms

that it's a labulated asymmetry in the inferior posterior

right breast,

best demonstrated in the MLO-Coned compression view.

It's similar to March 2024

and it might be slightly more prominent than 2021.

And it wasn't in the field of view in 2018.

But yeah, at that point it was determined to be probably benign

and see me again in six months.

And that takes us to today.

I went in again this morning, they did the mammogram,

they did the ultrasound,

it appears to look the same.

So we're getting, I haven't gotten like the full results yet

but from what the ultrasound tech told me after

talking with the radiologist.

Again, benign island of heterogeneous fibroglientular tissue.

And that's great news, so good, I'm happy.

I do go in in another six months

so August of 2026, which will be pretty much a year

since all this started.

And they want to do another diagnostic mammogram.

And then after that, as long as it looks like nothing has changed,

I'll go back to just like my yearly screenings.

This, I can name at least five women right now, I won't,

because it's not my business to share their personal health information,

but I can name at least five women that have been through DM near this exact same situation.

And at this point, there is zero indication

that there is any cancer at living inside my tautos.

So my misconception that I would just get these annual screenings

and that if there was ever like any point of concern,

that would just mean I had breast cancer was off the mark.

For me, personally, specifically because,

I mean, I don't think about it every day or anything,

but I carry around this larger than necessary fear of having breast cancer.

It is very important for me to get these mammograms.

There's a lot of talk about shifting women to,

you know, preventative and annual MRIs.

Instead of mammograms, there's some research that says that that's better.

My doctors talked to me a little bit about that,

but right now what my insurance covers is just a mammogram annually.

And then of course, if they order more,

then the insurance covers that as well.

I think I'd pay some, I don't know.

I'm not good at talking insurance.

Let me just talk a little bit about what my mind does in the few days leading up.

To these re-screenings in the morning when I'm driving there,

when I'm in the office until I get that,

yep, everything looks the same.

You're fine.

For now.

For now.

I want to cultivate and manifest and live in this like healing, positive,

assume everything is going to be okay energy.

And I give that a lot of weight.

I can find myself going down negative lines of thought

and very quickly recenter, recalibrate, switch directions

because I don't want to unnecessarily cultivate and manifest negative energy

because I think that's real.

And I think it has a negative impact in small and large ways and across the board.

When I am driving to these appointments,

when I'm getting the reminder text in the days leading up to it,

when I'm getting online and doing my, you know, check in.

The places my head takes me,

there is no amount of positive energy that can pivot me.

I am spiraling.

I am writing a whole future narrative about what would happen with my body,

what would happen to my kids, what would happen with my marriage.

And would I make it?

Would I lose my breasts, would I lose my hair?

How am I going to work?

Fucking, what if I fucking die?

And somebody think that's silly?

That's okay.

I mean, I don't do it on purpose.

I believe me.

If I could not do it, I wouldn't.

And it's, you know, speaks to what I was saying earlier.

Like, I just feel like I'm putting, I'm giving it fuel.

Like, and I don't want to like be a narcissist.

Like I, I know I'm a speck of dust, I'm a speck of dust,

and I know I don't like manifest the universe and control the tides

and it just in my mental energy.

But there is merit to like healing yourself

and keeping yourself healed with your thoughts.

And I will say one of the things that can help me pivot

and one of the things that is a comfort is when I think about

those five women that have been through this same thing

and I hear time after time, this is just a part of the process.

This is just a part of aging and that this is what it might look like

for anyone who listens to this that's not in their forties yet.

I want to take this opportunity to say it's probably fine.

And if it's not fine, you're probably doing exactly

what you're supposed to be doing to catch it in a timely manner.

And I want to be an open book for that reason

because I don't want, if even just like one person, here's this

and it causes them to feel a little more at ease or a little more comfortable

when they're on their way to their follow-up diagnostics or ultrasound

then I'm doing what this is supposed to be doing.

Now, there's also the whole other side part of like all of like

the exposure radiation and then what if I have to get a biopsy

and then the piercing of that area and what that can cause

and what should I be having MRIs, not mammograms

and is that even more radiation or less?

And I mean, that's a whole other can of worms,

a whole other brain spiral that's like, I don't know, it's like coaxles,

the brain spiral of the imaginary future that I'm trying to account for

and then also, should I keep putting myself in front of this radioactive device?

Anyway, that's my journey with mammograms so far.

In six months, I'll go for another diagnostic

and I'll be happy to share whatever those results are with all of you as well.

And if anybody else wants to come on the podcast and talk about their experience

with this part of the aging process of women,

maybe their own experience with breast cancer,

I think those would be some good conversations to have on here.

Definitely DM me on Instagram and that's what I'm going to leave you with today.

So far, the Tata's are all good.

I hope you'll have a wonderful day.

Thank you for listening.

From lashes for days with the viral liquid lash extensions mascara

to awakening your eyes with a lift and color from the brilliant eye brightener.

Thrive cosmetics is the go-to when you want to amplify your everyday look.

Plus, every product is 100% vegan, cruelty free, and made with clean skin loving ingredients that work with your skin.

For every product purchased, Thrive cosmetics donates to help communities thrive.

So every time you use your favorite Thrive cosmetics product, you're helping communities you care about too.

Amplify your everyday.

Go to thrivecosmetics.com slash shine26 for an exclusive offer of 20% off your first order.

That's Thrive Cosmetics, C-A-U-S-E-M-E-T-I-C-S.com slash shine26.

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