I was sitting in my family doctor’s office for my yearly visit.
“Have you had a mammogram yet?” she asked.
Oh boy.
“Um, no, not yet,” I said sheepishly. I had been putting this off for quite some time, and I was dreading it.
“I’ll put the order in today and you’ll be able to schedule it soon. You’ll get an email.”
Later that day, I got the email. I anxiously clicked on the link and scheduled my mammogram. That part was easy. Now all I had to do was show up for the big day two months later. That was plenty of time to imagine how bad it would be and what I would do if my results were not good.
When I arrived, I expected to sit in a waiting room for a good forty-five minutes before being led to a room where my breasts would be brutally flattened between two cold, hard plates. I thought it would be scary, painful, and unpleasant. However, that was not what happened AT ALL.
I signed in and was immediately taken to the mammography room. The friendly technician greeted me a few minutes later and brought me into the dark exam room. She gave me a robe and a wipe to remove my deodorant (apparently deodorant can cause spots on the images that may look like calcifications and could cause you to have to get another mammogram).
Once I was ready, the tech took two images of each breast. The squeeze from the machine was slightly uncomfortable but not painful at all. She explained that it is not unusual for you to get a call back on your first mammogram, but there is usually nothing to worry about. I was in and out of the office in less than thirty minutes.
A week later I got an email about my results. I nervously opened it to find everything was normal. What a relief! I can’t believe I had been dreading this for so long!
If you’re over 40 and have been putting off your mammogram, go ahead and get it done. It’s not as scary as you think it is, and it could save your life.