ANA Discussion Forum
AN Community => AN Community => Topic started by: cindyj on October 06, 2008, 02:41:50 pm
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Hi girls (and guys with female significant others),
This being October and breast cancer awareness month, I would not feel right if I didn't take this opportunity to ask if you have had your mammogram done? If not, get it scheduled, please!!! Early detection IS a life saver for breast cancer.
I know many of you here have been touched by breast cancer and will share my wish to be sure that every female is getting checked regularly. I continue to hear tragic stories about women that did not have regular (or any) mammorgrams - with outcomes that could have been so different if only they had known earlier about the cancer.
Ok, I'm getting off my box - have a great week everyone!
Cindy
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I had mine today!
Capt Deb(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee60/Captdeb_photos/pirate2.gif)
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I'm going on Halloween.
I wonder what kind of costume I should wear to that?
Lori
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Something wiv a bustier methinks!
Capt Deb(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee60/Captdeb_photos/21754.jpg)
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Already done! But thanks for the reminder, hope it reminds others...
Marci
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cindy, speshal hugglez for you ;) :-*.. and for reminding us of this most important test that we should have done.
Had mine this past January... they are monitoring a few things but heck, me likes to grow lumpy-bumpies. Continue to monitor and found out that my back-up brain surgeon also has a specialty in breast cancer research and surgeries... so, I bring her my head MRI's and mamogram reports. Go figure... a "2-fer" the price of one! :)
A speshal shout out as well to my dear friend weezie. Those that were here with me during my CK process know that weezie got her breast cancer diagnosis simultaneouly and that we both went through our processes and post treatments together. I have walked the local breast cancer walk with her the past 2 years (yep, with my cane!) and continue to walk in her name.. as well as many others (you know who you are here that have shared that you have also endured...) that participate here. So, to weezie, the survivor.. and for all the other survivors here on this site... and beyond... I continue my efforts for breast cancer research in your names.
Huggles all!
Phyl
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I am a twenty-two year survivor and had mine already this year and it was an all clear!! Very happy about that.
Brenda
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OK...I hate to even ask this...but at what age should you start getting one if there is no history of breast cancer in your family?? I was all prepared to start at 35 and then the Dr. told me I could wait until I was 40. I guess I am still too young??
K
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OK...I hate to even ask this...but at what age should you start getting one if there is no history of breast cancer in your family?? I was all prepared to start at 35 and then the Dr. told me I could wait until I was 40. I guess I am still too young??
K
K, I may be wrong, but I heard approx 35-40 yrs of age... also depending if there is family history (great news for you that there is no family history). Your gyn can give you better guidelines and also check with your insurance company... they may have certain guidelines as well for their coverage (ie: 1 mammogram every 2 yrs under age 40, thereafter, 1x/yr, etc). I know my insurance company laid out similar guidelines to me.
Phyl
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K, I'm w/ Phyl...my doctor told me that insurance companies want you to wait til 40, but 35 was what she recommended and she gave me some good sound reasons...I started at 35 - I honestly don't remember if my insurance paid for them or not - my cancer was found when I was 42 - by mammogram!
Lori, you must wear Capt Deb's suggested attire to your apptmt! (How are you feeling, by the way? You've sounded great in all your posts, but are you doing ok?)
Cindy
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I believe the latest recommendations for those without a family history are: age 40-50 - once every 2 years. Above age 50 - every year.
Tammy
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Thanks ladies! I will check again when I go this spring for my yearly!
K
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I think I will wear that ensemble to my next squish-a-gram. I'm sure I'd get a few laughs!!
Ok, so funny story (I seem to have one for every occasion, don't i?). Last year when I went for my mammogram, there were posters and flyers all over the waiting room about the new "Mammo-pad" . "Ask for it!" they said... "No more painful mammograms"...It sounded wonderful...I half expected the tech to come out with two feather pillows. Well, has anyone experienced the "mammo-pad", which, I assume was invented by a man? It's a little piece of foam - like the kind you use to wrap your dishes in when you move.. they put it on top of the hard metal thing (apparently before they stick that part into the freezer) and this is supposed to cause the awful torture device to feel like a day in Paradise! :o Afterwards, the lady was like "isn't that mammo-pad just the best invention?". I just looked at her and said "yeah, right up there with bikini wax and control top pantyhose". I think I hurt her feelings. Needless to say, I was a bit disappointed in the whole mammo pad.
Ok, sorry, just had to share that. How often to you have a funny mammogram story?
Cindy - I'm feeling back to my old self again. The stitches and incision are at that itchy, annoying stage now, which is usually a good sign that things are healing. Thanks for asking! :)
Lori
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Ah yes, the mamm-o-pad! It was deeeeeee-lightful! No more cold metal plate thingy! Kinda like when your female gyno runs the spelunker under warm running water before spelunking around in your ladyland! The wonders of modern medicine and Walmart shelf paper!
Capt Deb(http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee60/Captdeb_photos/pirate2.gif)
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I appreciate the medical technology that has given us the mammogram but there has got to be a better way! Lori, love the story, alas I had no mammo-pad to cushion my torture. The technician said she used to tell women to hold their breath until she figured out that at that special moment no one can breathe even if they want to!
M
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I personally think there is a link between the start of having mammograms and the beginnings of sagging. I think that all that muscle structure is squished so bad it never recovers!
Tam
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Oh my, I certainly don't need that!!
:o
K
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I think it may also be the start of a lot of other things. Swearing. Drinking heavily. Throwing things at strangers.
I've never actually done any of those things.. just thought about it.. :D
Lori
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Cindy,
I had mine shortly after I discovered I had an AN. I skipped a couple of years (shame on me) and decided I had to take my head out of the ground and take care of the things that needed taking care of. I told my GP this was my wake up call and I meant it. Thanks for the reminder though for those who needed the nudge.
Wendy
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My husband asked me if a mammogram hurts as bad as the nurse at work say. I said let me get the vice-grips and drop your drawers! He didn't do it. The look on his face was priceless ;D
Anne Marie
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:D
(http://www.lolpictures.com/pictures/manogram.jpg)
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I do my whole gyno/mammo in November for my birthday... I figure I won't forget it if I just set
it up for each November... My mom was diagnosed last November and had surgery the week of
Christmas and finished radiation for them being in July... so far things look good
I've got a nice male doctor who keeps his spelunkers in a warming tray ...and he has cloth gowns ... :)
Last year when I got squeezed I was the first with the honor of getting squeezed by our hospitals new
digital mammogram machine ... they had an opening ceremony for the new improved radiology department
and invited me to come as "the first " to get squeezed... I didn't go... they said they may have people
get up and talk about their experience with new machine... not a subject I was gonna get up and talk
about ... the day I got squeezed they gave me a Ty Beanie Baby... pink with pink ribbon on it's chest...
I think it is named Cure Bear ...
TMI WARNING
First time I got it I left the little sticky nipple marker on one side... husband found it later :-[ ... darn thing
didn't even come off in shower
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And gentlemen, please remind the ladies in your life!
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And gentlemen, please remind the ladies in your life!
this made me think of something I read several years ago...
an article in a magazine suggested ways to do self exams and then ways to get your husband /partner /
significant other involved in making sure you did monthly self checks...
play doctor 8)... shower together and with them standing behind you and with chest soaped up have
them examine you ...teach them how and have fun with it was the last line of article... written by a
woman oncologist so must be worth mentioning :)
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My favorite mammogram cartoon EVER:
(http://i327.photobucket.com/albums/k480/malegant/IMG_0144.jpg)
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Marci, I can not stop laughing at that!
Thanks!
cindy
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Had mine a couple of weeks ago. All clear. Thank goodness! Thanks for reminding us though. Life gets busy and it's easy to put things like that off.
And I love Marci's cartoon. That's hilarious!!
Susan
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I had mine done last yr and this yr they said I can skip...then as I'm turning 50 next yr, the doc said we'll start the breast screening..no idea what that is...I thougth the mammograms were breast screening...Did have a scare a few yrs back when mammogram discovered a lump...turned out to be a sciss...which by the way the ENT says looks like I have a sciss in the middle of my tumor!!!
JO
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Cindy you are an amazing breast cancer survivor. Thanks for the reminder. The place where I get my mammograms has me fill out a postcard when I check in, and when my yearly comes around I get the postcard as a reminder. Otherwise, I might just forget which is not good since my mother has had breast cancer. As I get older and the body has started going south, the mammograms don't hurt as much. I usually take an advil before going in for my mammogram, and it seems to help with the pain. I guess it is important to mention self examination, also. Take care ladies.
Nancy
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Tomorrow is my wonderful mammogram appt also. The talk here was helpful when my dr recently told me to go ahead and make my appt. myself and I almost forgot. It is the usual uncomfortable feeling but so far have been lucky. Then am off to my ob-gyn to see if I still have uterine dysplasia.
Cheryl R
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We girls have all the fun!
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I have a funny mammogram story. Or at least it was funny at the time. Years ago I lived in Tillamook County, OR and went into the town of Tillamook to have my mammogram done. Tillamook county is a big dairy area, with the famous Tillamook Cheese Factory at the top of the tourist list. Anyway, I was getting this done, and I asked the technician if she got tired of doing this. She said, Oh it's not so bad, but some days I go home and think I've been milking cows all day long..." I started to laugh and I was in the process of this exam, and I couldn't move and laugh at the same time, and I had a heck of a time trying to not laugh.
We have the digital mammograms now, too, and they were easier to get through, except for my last one, because they called me back in for a 6 month check because I get those calcifications, and she darn near killed me! She's talking away, and I'm like, ouch, ouch, OUCH, stop, OUCH! She didn't stop, and we got through it, but, Good Golly Miss Molly, that did hurt. I hope they don't do that every time I go in now.
My mother died from breast cancer back in the early 1960's, when he was only 40, so I keep a close eye on it. But, the tech said that what young women get is entirely different from what most older women get. I guess. I don't know. I guess there are a lot of different types of breast cancer. None of which I want to experience, thank you very much.
Anyway, I joined this thread late, but thought I'd share my Tillamook story!
Sue in Vancouver, USA
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I am glad you posted your mammogram story as that is so funny. I just had mine this week so it is all fresh on the brain. I am from a rural area but not the dairy area of Iowa.
Thanks for the smile of the day (even if it is lopsided)
Cheryl R