Centimeter by centimetre, the long, filigree index and middle fingers glide systematically in a zigzag course over the patient’s chest. They pause at each touch point, first circling gently on the surface, then with greater pressure to the deeper tissue. Driven by the noticeably strong arm muscles, the fingers make their way down to the patient’s chest. One, two, three, one, two, three – in rhythmic waltz time in search of a suspicious knot. On their “journey of discovery”, Pia Hemmerling’s hands need a guide that they can feel: black and red-white adhesive strips with tactile dots that divide the breasts into four tactile zones like a kind of coordinate system. Because the 31-year-old native of Rostock is blind.
Table of Contents
MTU as a new opportunity
“That’s why I had to give up my job in a Hamburg travel agency. Booking on the computer, contact with customers – none of that worked anymore,” Pia Hemmerling recalls. “But I didn’t want to sit around at home unemployed, without a job. I’m still far too young for that!” She found out about the job profile of a medical tactile examiner, or MTU for short, from television. The interest in health runs in her family: Mom and grandma are nurses. So she decided to register for MTU retraining. A qualification especially for blind and severely visually impaired women, which the social enterprise “discovering hands” carries out in cooperation with several professional development agencies. Pia Hemmerling is part of the first year of training, which was trained for almost twelve months.
Find the smallest knots
Find the smallest knots
She is one of more than 40 MTUs throughout Germany. Pia Hemmerling works for gynecologists in Rostock, Berlin and Potsdam. The Hamburg gynecologist Dr. Jürgen Kröger (see interview on page 68) was her first employer. With a sensitivity that is hard to imagine for sighted people. “I’ve already detected tissue changes that were no more than the size of a pinhead. But that only works with a small breast. With larger breasts or dense tissue, I can almost certainly feel lumps of four to six millimeters in size,” reports the petite woman, a little proud. The medical tactile examiner is always amazed at her sensitivity: “I never thought that my sense of touch was so great! Through my training, I rediscovered it.
And what if she feels a knot? MTU cannot and must not make any findings. If she discovers a tissue change, she calls the doctor. “I then feel my way along the orientation strips to the knot and place the doctor’s hand on mine. He detaches them and gropes. So far, he has always confirmed my suspicions,” says the young woman.
Who bears the costs
Who bears the costs
Pia Hemmling works every day in the service of early breast cancer detection. The costs for an examination by a medical-tactile examiner are borne by all health insurance companies. The Rostock resident would put herself into the “seeing” hands of her colleagues at any time. But feel yourself in MTU fashion? An absolute no-go for the brunette woman.
As soon as she leaves the practice rooms, she is just the private person Pia Hemmling: “The topic of breast cancer has absolutely no place in my home. I need this strict separation. This is the only way I can recover from the psychological stress that my job entails.” Because the responsibility to “overlook” a tactile finding is great and the burden of the patients’ fates, which she is told almost every day, is not exactly light.
And how does it balance the mental and physical stress? Pia Hemmerling: “I have my very special contrast program. I wait tables in a well-known dark restaurant every weekend. I can really let off steam there and clear my head again. There I am the seeing blind among the blind seeing. It’s a bit like my job as a medical examiner.”
A patient tells
A patient tells
“I don’t worry anymore”
Sigrid O. (68), pensioner from Sarstedt, drove 160 kilometers just to be scanned by Pia Hemmerling.
my motivation
I read about MTU in the monthly health supplement of my daily newspaper. I immediately felt addressed and got the Hamburg address online. I am a risk patient because I have several lumps in my breasts, my tissue is very dense and my sister had her breast removed three weeks ago because of cancer . I just wanted more security. By the way, I told my gynecologist about it. She has never heard of a blind breast scanner and asked me to bring her some papers. One more reason for me to go to Hamburg.
My expectations
I would like to have everything that is possible in terms of early detection carried out. I want to have the greatest possible security – in addition to my usual check-up program: I regularly go to my gynecologist twice a year for a breast check and every year for a mammogram. I also go to the screening every two years.
my fears
After what happened with my sister, I sometimes think, “Maybe you’ll be next.” You never know. In any case, my breast has never been palpated so intensively. And I’m afraid that MTU will discover something with their fine instincts. Well – and if that’s the case: Then that’s fate. I just can’t have any more early detection done.
my record
The examination was not quite as relaxing as I had imagined. It wasn’t nearly as painful as a mammogram, but it was still painful in some places. I will still go to MTU every year. And now I’m just glad she didn’t find a knot.
Interview
Interview
“The breast cancer check is optimally supplemented”
dr Jürgen Kröger is a resident gynecologist in Hamburg
Why did you hire a Medical Tactile Examiner?
Such an intensive palpation examination takes between 30 minutes and an hour, depending on the breast size and tissue density. I don’t have this time in the regular practice routine. In addition, blind people have a pronounced instinct. This makes them particularly good tactile examiners, who sometimes discover a lump earlier than the doctor.
For which women is this early detection particularly important?
Especially for women under the age of 50 who are not yet enrolled in the mammography screening program. For them, the breast palpation by the gynecologist is the only early detection examination provided for by law. And it is precisely their quality and diagnostic reliability that the tactile examiner increases.
Does an MTU replace a mammogram?
Under no circumstance! But the medical tactile examiner ideally complements the medical breast cancer check, including diagnostic equipment.
What happens when the MTU probes a node?
Then she shows me where her tactile findings are located using her special coordinate system that has been affixed to her. I’ll do a touch-up and do an ultrasound. If the finding is still suspicious, I send the patient for mammography.
You and MTU are a team – do you both decide that?
No, ultimately the doctor is always responsible. He decides on the subsequent diagnostic steps and defines the therapy concept.
How often should a woman go to the medical tactile examiner?
Women under the age of 50, who do not belong to the risk group, have their breasts checked by the doctor at a different time every two years. Women between 50 and 69 with mammography screening and doctor’s breast examination at different times.
Have you ever regretted hiring an MTU?
Never! The medical tactile examiner is trend-setting in the early detection of breast cancer and should be adopted nationwide.
