What to expect at your first Mammogram

I’ve been living on the edge and haven’t had a chance to write guys! I have respiratory issues ever winter and this time I was down for a whole month, can’t believe I kept my Instagram posts up. I didn’t mean to take such a long break, I have so much I want to share with you. I’ve also been dealing with having found a lump in my breast back in September. I just got the results back from my first mammogram and then an MRI I finally got done this week and all looks good. I’ll back up since I’m starting at the end of the story though! That’s usually how I read books by the way, drives my hubby crazy. 🙂

The suggested age for women to get a mammogram is 40 and although I’m not quite there, I had to get one because of suspicious lump I felt early last Fall. This is isn’t the sexiest blog post, but I wanted to share my recent experience with getting a mammogram, in case you can get any comfort when your time comes (hopefully just part of the yearly routine of annual).

First, I’ll start with some of the signs that something might be wrong with your breasts. Even though I pay attention every October during “PINK” Breast Cancer Awareness month, I wasn’t as well versed as I thought I was. These are some signs that I encourage you commit to memory.

1. The obvious lump

When I had my first doctor’s appointment after finding a lump, he said two things that comforted me. “It’s not a jagged, edgy, hard shape”, “It’s tender”. The cancerous lump usually feels like a small seed with distinct edges (frozen pea) vs lumpy breast tissue.

2. Dimpling

This one is tough to see. Since I’ve nursed two babies for 18 months each, I have skin texture that’s related to nursing but looks an awful lot like dimpling. If you can keep the picture of an orange peel in your mind, that’s what it looks like.

3. Breast discharge

I did not have this as a sign, but it’s something to look for. If you’re not nursing, your breast should not be discharging anything according to my doctor.

4. Tingling sensation

I did have this and it worried me. I felt and feel a prickly feeling.

5. Nipple Inversion

The most important thing here is getting familiar with how your breasts look and making a commitment to looking for changes monthly.

6. Rash or redness

7. Change in size or shape

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Scheduling a mammogram

So after my primary care doctor’s visit, we scheduled a mammogram for the following week. None of this process is fast, so you have to manage your own care otherwise if you do have cancer you’ll be waiting here for weeks as it changes from Stage to Stage. Very scary.

Things to take note of

Once I got to the appointment, you get to keep your pants (huge win, lol) on but take your top and bra off and wear a robe. I got a very nice chirpy technician that mentioned that after my mammagram the radiologist would assess and then see if I needed an additional ultrasound. She was confident I would not need this step. My mom (a breast cancer survivor) drilled in my head that I needed to get a throat shield and so when she didn’t offer me one, I requested one. This is really important. You are getting radiation right by your lymph nodes and thyroid. I was shocked she didn’t offer me one the minute I step foot in the room. I had to ask! Please ask. This imaging is serious stuff and you don’t want to damage healthy organs for the sake of checking for cancer.

The actual inspection

The technician then had me open my robe and place my right breast at a profile in the contraption. The machine is cold, hard, and you place your breast on a type of plate setting and looks like it’s gonna eat you. Since I’ve had kids, I have little pride left but it’s still super strange to have a stranger handling your poor “cold” breasts. She then tightened a type of sliding contraption around my right breast as I kind of had my face against the outside of the plastic covering. She fixed my angle, squeezed the machine tighter around my breast and asked if I was ok. Um, yes. My breasts are being turned into mashed potatoes but I’m ok. She stepped out and took the images, came back, unpeeled me like a cartoon from the outside of the contraption and repeated everything on the left side. THEN, you do the same thing but facing forward, one by one, one more time.

The whole thing probably lasted between 8-10 minutes. It was humbling and uncomfortable but NOT painful. So don’t be scared about that. The breast that has the lump was probably borderline painful but that’s just because there’s something in there.

After the mammogram

I then waited about 10 minutes for next steps and then they decided they did in fact want to give me a ultrasound after the mammogram results. That didn’t feel good because I thought I was in the clear! The ultrasound was much of the same but way more comfortable as I was on my back and not smushed. The conclusion after the ultrasound was that I needed an MRI after that. SIGH.

The breast MRI was significantly more lengthy, so I’ll leave that out for now since it’s not that common to get an MRI after a mammogram. It’s usual MRI stuff; no moving, no claustrophobia allowed, you get an IV for the contrast and definitely not my favorite thing to slide into a tunnel face down. So I got my MRI with contrasting done this week and it seems that I have no suspicious cancerous lumps but they aren’t really sure what it is, most likely a combination of hormonal changes and post nursing aftershocks . For now, it’s not a cyst and it’s not cancer. I just have to watch it they said, so I’m going back in March to make sure everything stays stable. To be honest I was a little frustrated with that explanation but I’m grateful to understand what I’m looking for a little better and of course deeply grateful for every day of health and life!

In Conclusion

The truth is we can lead perfect, healthy lives but illnesses affect anyone and everyone. I hope that if you take a couple of things away from this it’s:

1. Check yourself every month! Pinkie Promise!
2. When you go to your mammogram, ask for throat protection.
3. Ask a ton of questions and keep moving stuff along yourself. Call the insurance companies, make the appointments, follow up. No one is going to do it for you unfortunately. Look at how long my whole process has taken. I found lump this mid-Sept., we are mid-Jan. By the time you get through all the doctors and insurance red tape a lot can happen.

I thought these pictures were perfect since it’s my comfort outfit and since during this whole process I felt so out of my comfort zone. 🙂 Wising you all the health in the world. If you have anything to add I would LOVE to hear it. Click here to learn some more general wellness tips to be your healthiest self. XO, Z