Availability of screenings gives women fewer excuses to not be checked.
“We just want to encourage women to get in there and get your mammogram
done,” says Lindsey Kennelly, manager of Covenant’s
Arrington Comprehensive Breast Center. “It doesn't take very long and you’re in and out and
then you’re good for a year.”
The center was the first in the region to have tomosynthesis, the new 3D
mammography; along with the standard 2D screening. The new technology
allows the radiologist to see 4mm layers of a breast from skin level to
skin level.
“You can look at the mammogram like a Slinky,” Kennelly said.
“A regular 2D screening would be like looking at the Slinky as one
unit (a flat image). The 3D is like pulling the Slinky apart and seeing
each individual layer.” Kennelly said the new technology is especially
effective for women with dense breasts.
Covenant’s Arrington Comprehensive Breast Center is the only facility
in the region with a mobile mammography unit that tours the South Plains.
She said it’s out in the region four days a week, serving a 120-mile
radius of Lubbock.
“We have a lot of rural areas in West Texas, and providing that service
for those women is a big plus, because some ladies can’t drive 60
miles to get a mammogram; we would rather take that service to them,” she said.
Each mammography technologist is licensed and certified by the Texas Department
of Health and the American Registry of Radiological Technologists. Each
appointment takes around 20 minutes. To find out when the mobile unit
will be nearest you, or if you would like to make an appointment, you’re
encouraged to call ahead of time.
Kennelly said the American College of Radiology recommends you start screening
mammograms at age 40; or, if you have a family history of breast cancer,
to start 10 years prior to the age your mother was diagnosed.
“Your chances of survival increase with early detection, also your
prognosis is usually better, and then you have a wider array of treatments
when you catch it earlier,” she said. “We just know that women
come in every year and they say ‘thank you so much, you saved my
life, because your tenacity to keep taking those pictures to find the
area of concern or to see those calcifications actually saved my life,’” she said.
For an appointment or more information, call
(806) 725-7908.