Remember Your Health

Written By: Tom Neal RN, MBA, MHA, CEO/CNO, Highlands-Cashiers Hospital | Issue: December 2024

Our Western North Carolina communities felt the full force of Mother Nature’s fury when Hurricane Helene arrived.

No matter how prepared you think you may be, you are never prepared enough for what we witnessed and for what some are continuing to endure. Our neighbors and communities have experienced such destruction and loss that it is hard to process even weeks later.

I want to thank my extraordinary team here at Highlands-Cashiers Hospital, and HCA Healthcare and Mission Health for ensuring that we had everything we needed and for continuing to monitor our needs. I also want to say how blessed I am to live in this community and be part of the Highlands-Cashiers Hospital family.

I encourage all who are able to continue to care for yourselves. Don’t neglect your primary care appointments and important screenings such as mammograms.

One of the most powerful weapons in fighting breast cancer continues to be the mammogram.

New developments in imaging have given Highlands-Cashiers Hospital the capability to discover breast cancers more easily, including for the approximately 40 percent of women with dense breasts. Dense breast tissue contains more glandular and fibrous tissue than fatty tissue. Women with dense breast tissue are at higher risk for breast cancer and finding it can be more difficult.

With the advent of 3D mammograms, radiologists can examine more highly detailed, clearer images of the breast tissue, including dense breast tissue. As compared to 2D mammograms, 3D breast tomosynthesis provides the added benefit of a computer being able to convert digital breast images into slim slices that then give the mammogram its three-dimensional quality. This also addresses the challenge of overlapping tissue that can obscure abnormalities.

Speak with your primary care physician about when you should start getting mammograms and how frequent they should be. In general, you should begin screenings at age 40, and get your mammogram annually, but the definitive answer depends on your family history of breast cancer, your own health history, your age, and other factors.

Some women are advised to get a breast MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in conjunction with their mammogram. Your physician might recommend a breast MRI with a mammogram or in some cases, women with dense breast tissue are advised to get an automated whole breast ultrasound (ABUS) in addition to their mammogram.

Our board-certified radiologists are able to review images in great detail and identify abnormalities. Contrast enhanced mammograms, where contrast dye is used, can reveal new blood vessels that form when cancer is present and growing. These screenings, as well as biopsy procedures, are offered at Mission Health facilities other than Highlands-Cashiers Hospital as well.

We are proud to offer sophisticated breast cancer screening for women in our community, enabling them to access this critical care easily and locally. These tests are so vital because they can spot breast cancer in its earliest stages, when it’s most treatable and outcomes are most favorable.

I urge the women in our community to put their health first when it comes to scheduling their mammograms and being active partners in their own preventive care. If the storm or other factors have made it difficult or not possible to come in for a screening, consider scheduling one for the future so it’s on your calendar. We’re here for you.