VALLEY CITY, N.D. — October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and local providers say it's the busiest time of year for hospitals, breast cancer facilities or imaging centers.
So, if it's been tough to get a mammogram, Sanford is helping break that barrier with its mobile unit. Mammograms can sometimes seem like a woman's worst enemy, but for Lisa Baasch, 60, it's become her best friend. "When I did come from one of my yearly exams, a couple of questionable masses were found, and so I was referred on to Fargo, had a biopsy, everything was fine and now when I come for my yearly (exams)," Baasch said.
"We are just watching to make sure everything is stable." That's why she's using Sanford's mobile unit. "You don't have to find a day to take off, you don't have to find child care, you don't have to find a ride, just make your mobile unit appointment and it's done in a matter of minutes," Baasch said.
The mobile unit can go to 20 sites in rural Minnesota and North Dakota; it's also wheelchair accessible. "When you come on, they direct you where to go," Baasch said. "If you're nervous, they explain everything.
You might feel uncomfortable at the beginning, but they explain each process." On any given day, 27 women could be getting 3D screening in the unit, each completed in 15 minutes. "It's the same setup as what they have in all clinics and hospitals," Jeanne Kussatz, a radiology technologist and mammographer, said.
"Every site has a couple of dressing rooms. We're always right.