Mammogram time – don’t be afraid, get it done!

February 7, 2010

It’s that time of year again for me, a woman 40+. I am getting all my checkups including my yearly mammogram.

Now I have to admit for years I was afraid as hell because so many women had given me horror stories of it being painful and the pinching of the breast really hurting especially small breasted women because they squeeze in all tissue in the whole darned area. So I kept ignoring it until finally both my physician and my gyno told me I had to get it done

So last year was my very first year and it went so much better than expected. Now I am a very small breasted woman as well I am very petite as my regular readers may well know. I am one of those A cup size women who don’t need to wear a bra and well lets face it, I don’t Let them little girls run free and wild! Woo Hoo!

So I went in and was met with a very nice soft spoken woman about my age. She handed me my little cotton top and instructed me to leave the opening in the front. When I came out I was staring at this huge machine that I knew was just gonna hurt and pinch and be cold as heck. Quite frankly it scared the crap outta me.

Well the lady spoke with me and told me what we were doing and apologized for cold hands, actually they were only cool. Her touch was soft and gently almost apologetic in having to touch me so intimately, better than most gyno’s I’ve been to. Anyway, she told me to raise my arm and rest my chest on the platform and then guided my arm to where it needed to be then came the scooping of body tissue. She pretty well tried to stuff in my whole front chest area including my armpit but when she put down the top of the machine she did not press so hard that it hurt nor did it pinch. It wasn’t exactly comfortable, but I think that was more in the way I had to stand holding 1/4 of my body in the machine.

She repeated the steps on the other breast and voila I was done. I couldn’t believe it. I had been avoiding this test for years and now I was shocked it was done and well she was quite pleasant, I just didn’t mind it at all.

Now I still don’t want to go again but that’s more of “I don’t like people touching me naked except for my hubby when we are having fun” kind of thing. It’s just very personal and I am not a prude by any sense of the word but I just would prefer to avoid all these girly appointments.

Away, last year was a clean bill of health and I pray for another each and every year. So women do not be afraid just march in there and get it done and I hope you have as nice a lady as I did. I wonder if I can have them look up her name so I can request her again.