Having reached the grand age of 50, it is standard
procedure for my health fund to send women for a mammogram if they have not had
one before. Fortunately we don't have any cases of breast cancer in our family
(we've enough of everything else thank you very much!) so the other day was my
first experience, at what many women have told me is a horrendous barbaric
test. After hearing some ghastly stories I warily entered the Mammography
department and waited for my name to be called. It's amazing what one's
imagination can conjure up with a little imagery from some well meaning ladies,
and I began to wonder who had invented this torturous contraption that sounded
like it should belong in the "Chamber of Horrors" at Madame Tussauds
in London.
The technician opened the door and called my name, I hesitantly
stood acknowledging her but was quickly swept away from my husbands safe arms
into the imaging room. I was asking myself, what went through someone's mind to
invent this piece of brutal equipment, compressing one's breasts in-between two
plates? The technician gently helped me undress, and positioned me, telling me
"this may hurt a little". I stood there, my flesh helplessly trapped
in the machine. I was waiting for the excruciating pain everyone had told
me about, but it didn't happen. The technician took four pictures changing my position
for each one, and then told me the mammogram was over. Where was the pain I had
been told about? I was expecting something terrible, but it wasn't so bad and
quite tolerable.
Did I happen to have a
particularly good technician? Was it a new type of mammogram machine? Is my
pain threshold so high that this test registered low on my senses? I don't know
the answer, but was very glad it was not the terrible ordeal I had expected,
and hopefully the results will come back clear.
As October is "Gaucher Awareness Month", I have
written about the novel campaign of green shoe laces to bring greater awareness of this rare disease in The Huffington Post. Please show your support by
taking a moment to read my article.
I was pleased to read that you had a good experience with your mammogram, Elaine.
ReplyDeleteYes, I do believe that the technique of the technician (and her experience?) Plays a big role in how we experience the test. It may even reflect on the results. I have been getting mammograms for almost 25 years and I can still remember my first time with it. The technician pulled my breast so hard from so many directions that for days afterward I had pain in my neck! It has never been that way since, but the length of time the sharp breast pain lasts does depend on her efficiency and experience. It makes me wonder if it also influences the reading of the report.