Yep, today I was topless. I bet I got your attention now! =0 Today I had my first mammogram. Not sure if I should celebrate or not. At least now it gives me something in common with other women. We can swap stories. I have two maternal aunts with BC so I had been thinking about it for a long time. I guess I spent the last 6 years worrying about my lower half and I finally got around to the top half.
I have heard horror stories for years about how much it hurts when they squeeze your bbs. Well today was the day to finally find out. I decided to be nice to myself and I took the whole day off from work. Why not? I thought who knows if the dr gets back up etc, I do not want to worry about getting back late.
I got there and discovered that this image place was just for mammograms. Everyone was very nice. I got my gown on which opened in the front. I went in and the nurse knew it was my first time. I felt like I was getting initiated. She walked me through everything. Then she said that for some women it was the most excruciating pain ever and others don't blink.....OK well thanks for that warning. She did not know my IF history. She has no idea how many times I had had my cervix messed with for procedures and that is a real nasty pain.
I was feeling shy. It was funny to me that I have had my lower bits exposed millions of times so I don't care, but the top half was different. She grabbed my boob and put it on the plate. Then she squeezed it in a vice.......YEP a vice. It did not really hurt like a pain, but it hurt like a giant pinch. Thankfully the pinch only lasted for a short time. She did four different poses. So she kept grabbing boobs and moving them around. It was not fun, but considering it might save my life it was not that bad at all. I have had way worse. When I got dressed I saw red marks all over my chest.
She showed me the photos. From what I can tell they looked fine, but who knows. The tech is not legally allowed to interpret the scans. She said I would get a call back for another scan or a letter stating it was fine in the mail.
I've had about four mammograms (and I'm only 33). The first one I had hurt pretty bad because the upper plastic piece got stuck on my skin and pulled....ouch! The others haven't been so bad. The worst part is having someone move your boobs around on that little plastic tray!HAHA!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad yours went OK and I hope it comes back all clear!
Prayers that all comes back clear!
ReplyDeleteI'm praying that all comes back clear! I'm glad you went, especially with your family history. I'm sure it was scary.
ReplyDeleteI have "not-so-much" in the chest department, so it was not amusing & kind of embarrasing when the tech had to adjust my bbs onto the plate (I had a mammo at about 19-20 for a fibrous mass in my upper bb, which turned out to be ok). Not fun, but it wasn't super painful (nothing like needle sticks or surgery!)
I am happy to report that all "appears to be normal" The report all said that I have dense breast tissue which can make it harder to see cancer on a scan. I go back next year. I'm glad that I finally got this done.
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