Mammograms- just squish 'em!

I made my annual mammogram appointment this morning.
While that seems to be a somewhat personal thing to share on a family farm blog, part of that is family, and I'm important to my family, my farm and my blog! It always amazes me when I hear of peers who I think have their act together, but skip this annual ritual. Why? Are they waiting for the promised government health care support? If so, I'm worried prayer for more than just healthy boobs is in order.
Or, are they doing an imitation of the mythical Ostrich?

Now, I'm not an ostrich Veterinarian, but I have dealt with these huge birds a few times, and while they move really fast, and stare at you like they want to poke your eyes out, I have never seen one bury it's head. So, after some investigation, it turns out that they do not "bury their head in the sand" atall atall. That notion probably began with Pliny the Elder, who, judging by the name was old, even when Rome was more than "where The Pope lives" or  "lots of cool ruins to pose near for your Instagram".
These enormous, intimidating birds usually escape prey by running at a sustained 30 mph. But, if they are nesting, running away is counterproductive to the continuation of the species. So, instead, they proactively drop their heads to the ground where they are nesting if a predator is near. Which means they resemble a big black blob, like a boulder on the landscape, instead of a tasty egg dinner-hider.
So, while we might like to ignore the presence of danger to our bodies and boobs, Ostriches don't share our predilection, just the blame (damn you, Pliny!)

So, turning to the current Romans ( Italians, now), a current paper out of Bologna, Italy in the Annals of Human Biology estimates that there are 3.72 x 10superscript13 cells in the human body. This would be 37,200,000,000,000 cells.
Now, cells come in an amazing variety of types, many of which confound me when I see them under a microscope and try to identify them as they are causing a lump/ bump/mass on a dog/cat body. Because dogs and cats get cancer too! And if you are a person, with approximately 37,200,000,000,000 cells, odds are one or two of them could get a notion to go rogue. They then start recruiting other cells to their cause. It's not democratic, (the large lymphocytes don't send delegates to meet in the spleen and have a vote) and it isn't evil ( no premeditated skinhead attack) it just is the way it goes. And no wonder. If we pull our metaphoric social mythological Ostrich head OUT of the sand and look right into the beady eyes of our lives;
we present these cells with a LOT of work. Pick the way we poison them. The organs that are tasked with cleaning toxins from the body are the slaves in the sweatshop of our bodies. We present them with "food" that for thousands of years in our human development didn't exist in it's current form. We assail them with all sorts of challenges from tanning beds to butylated hydroxytoluene (found in jet fuel, embalming fluid and Fruit Loops). Did you ever wonder why petroleum makes our cars go and our lips soft?
Can we expect our bodies to deal with these challenges day after day and control the rogues?
Well, we shouldn't. There are literally hundreds of ingredients in our consumed products that are known toxins. And are permitted in those products because each product has less ppm(parts per million) than it takes to cause recognizable disease. Our liver, skin, kidney etc. can handle that small an amount without causing currently measurable distress. But, consider what happens when you use 10 products in the same day that contain the same toxin. You are now exposing yourself to 10 times more toxin, and that happens constantly. If I count how many "products" I use just to get out of my bathroom in the morning; HORROR!
I'm not a "high risk" for breast cancer. To be sure, if we're thinking about breast health alone, I only have about 1,116,000,000,000 breast cells to worry about. My mom, grandmoms and great grandmoms seemingly have been breast cancer free. But those women also did not seem to possess the "selective" digestive tract I claim so there are already 7,440,000,000,000 cells there that don't agree. I hear the sentiment "with all the food allergies, and diseases we're seeing today, even amongst children, something has changed in the last few generations." And I ask, "What hasn't?" Not all is bad. We no longer use DDT, Alar, arsenic to make our lips red or lead to make our coins....but that is because we didn't go the way of the mythical Ostrich on those particular ones.  Was there an arsenic lobby plaguing FDR's Congress to allow the continued use of arsenate of lead as an insecticide instead of the newly discovered DDT that would soon replace arsenic as the go-to for protecting us against wormy produce????
So, going for the annual boob squish. If  it turns out rogue cells in my boobs have gathered and multiplied-  I get to deal with it, and battle my inner mythical Ostrich.
It's a chance to get a choice for a chance.