I’ve written about having to get mammograms before on here. I’ve been doing them for several years now and it has become routine. There is a bit of debate with my doctor if I do really need to do them each year, but if they are questioning it I’m fine with doing them. Fortunately, they are free so I don’t have to worry about paying for them. And I know that there is a higher risk of getting a false positive with doing them when I might need them, but that’s a better option than not catching something.
But I’m also not expecting to get bad results from them. If my mom’s cancer is genetic (which is still a possibility), the type of breast cancer she had is not caught on mammograms. It also would likely be post-menopausal so I am not in the phase of life that it’s a higher possibility. But I know that my insurance doesn’t really see that information and just that I have a mother who had breast cancer.
I wasn’t sure if anything would be different this time since it would be my first mammogram since I was considered high risk for breast cancer. But I was prepared for some changes and went into the appointment curious to see what would happen.
As usual, I had to wait a bit for my turn, but it wasn’t too bad of a wait. And then I was faced with the infamous mammogram machine.
The only differences I noticed this time at my appointment were some of the questions they asked before they started. They wanted to have some more information on my mom’s cancer and when she was diagnosed. All easy things for me to answer since I have had to share that information a few times lately. They also wanted to clarify all the cancer screenings I have done before and wanted to know if I’d be doing an MRI this year too. Even though I have been approved for annual MRIs, I don’t plan on doing them that often unless something changes and my doctor or the geneticist recommends that.
After the questions, it was time to get this done. I don’t think anyone really likes getting mammograms, but they aren’t the worst either. I think some of the pain I experience is more the anticipation of pain and not actual pain. It’s not painless, but I would describe it as more uncomfortable than anything. I experience a bit more pain than other people I know because I bruise easily, but that’s just a me problem.
And while I haven’t had a bad technician do my mammograms before, I have to say the woman who did my mammogram this time was extra awesome. She understood how uncomfortable this is and really tried to make it easier for me. When something didn’t feel right or the machine was pinching me, we worked together to try to place everything in a different way so it wouldn’t hurt. And once we got everything right, she ran to press the button so it would release quickly. I really appreciated her wanting to make this easier on me and taking the time and extra steps that she did.
There have been times where the images weren’t clear enough and they had to do them again, but this time all 4 images came out perfect the first time they took them. So it was easy and quick and I was out of there in no time.
I was told all the standard things like how it can take a few weeks to get the results back, but I’m not worried about it at all. These screenings are just preventative and what I do as an extra precaution and not because I’m worried they will find something. And if they did contact me saying there was something suspicious, I know that there are lots of things that can look odd that have nothing to do with breast cancer. So I’m not too concerned about how long the results will take or what they will say.
I know the first time I had a mammogram, it was so much more stressful waiting on the results and making sure I was fine. I had a similar feeling when I did the MRI the first time. But now, at least mammograms are feeling normal and routine and I don’t worry about them. Just like I don’t worry about what my cholesterol or other annual blood tests say. I’m glad that these are becoming less stressful since they will be something I have to do for a long time. I don’t know if I will be getting another mammogram next year, but at least it’s good to know that if I do have to do it in another year that they seem to be getting easier.
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Getting Another Mammogram (or This Is Getting Easier)
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MRI Time (or Another Type Of Cancer Screening)
Orange Goes Pink (or The Week In Workouts)
Hoping For Some Normal (or Fingers Crossed That This Was This Easy)
