GREENSBORO, N.C. — Health experts are warning women to not skip their regular mammograms in the midst of the pandemic.
Jona Hezar said her mammogram was initially delayed by a month, but she was able to get hers done back in June.
"I wasn't a drinker or a smoker, got good exercise so never had a bad mammogram," Hezar said.
She thought she'd get the all-clear like in years past, but that wasn't the case.
"I got that callback and it said we have seen something in your mammogram we need to investigate further," Hezar said.
Doctors found a lump in her left breast and sent it off for a biopsy.
"In the meantime, I knew I had cancer because they called me and said yes you do have cancer but we are not sure what kind it is," Hezar said. "That two weeks seemed like a lifetime."
She was eventually diagnosed with Adenoid cystic carcinoma, a rare but curable form of breast cancer.
"It was so early so small that it was confined it has not metastasized but that's all due to the fact of a mammogram. It saved my life." Hezar said.
Erin Webb, a radiology technologist at Cone Helth MedCenter in Kernersville, said since the pandemic, her office has made some changes to mammogram protocol. It starts with the phone call to set up an appointment.
Everyone is pre-screened for COVID symptoms, then screened again upon arrival.
"We've taken all of our magazines. Anything you could read, anything is out of the waiting room because we don't want anybody to have to touch something and put it back down and then contaminate it," Webb said.
The office is set up for social distancing with 6 feet markers on the ground, and plexiglass between the receptionist and patient. Appointments are also spaced out more to give time for proper cleaning
Knowing how a mammogram spared her, Hezar said is now pushing for all women to continue their regular screenings.
"It's is worth your while and your health and your life," Hezar said.