Discomfort After Mammogram

[albaqwerty]

Went for one yesterday, just an 'invitation to take up as you've reached that age'

(gee, thanks!)

Anyhoo, since the right breast took 3 attempts to x-ray have since been in discomfort, not in the breast, just the chest area around it and the right shoulder.

I've just strained the muscles a bit, I think.

Has anyone else suffered similarly?

[boxtops]

No, I can't say I have. I hate the procedure - it often hurst - but if they've aligned the machine correctly, you shouldn't have to overlean into it, or have shoulder discomfort. My ribcage is high, too, so the front of the "table" always presses really hard into my ribs. I never come away with lasting pain.

[albaqwerty]

Boxy, I think you need to be a contortionist to help the proceedure along.
Staff were absolutely lovely.
My joints aren't the best, so I'm also thinking that the way she positions you to lean over onto the right side might have upset me a tad.
(It was the vertical squishing one if that makes sense.)

[gness]

I've not been too bad, Alba....but sometimes the position you have to stand in can make you strain to keep balanced even before they start hauling anything into the machine......easy to hurt a muscle then..... and they don't give you a lolly afterwards!

[jno]

a lolly... I remember when I was at uni, when you gave blood they'd give you a bright red strawberry milkshake afterwards.

But I digress... sorry, alba

[albaqwerty]

I think I'd rather be a man and go for a prostate than have another one.

(I also looked out a bra to wear en route rather than flop about :-D )

[albaqwerty]

jno, I like digressings and digressions :-D

Was the red milkshake to convince the students that it was replacing their blood?

[excelsior-1]

good afternoon alba

my thoughts are with you over your discomfort however, take it from me - a prostate exam is no picnic

[albaqwerty]

Excel, I think the only orifices that haven't been prodded, probed, lasered or attacked in any shape or form are my nostrils :-D

[shoota]

Flopping about is good - very 70's....

[albaqwerty]

oh, Shoota, in the 70's they flew at a different altitude :-)

Tilly was looking for you earlier.

[shoota]

Tilly wants to beat me up......

[woofgang]

I said to one of the techs once that men dont have to go through this and she told me that they do and its worse for them. Firstly the have less breast tissues so the posture is more painful and the squash more uncomfortable and secondly because its only done when they are fairly sure of the diagnosis of cancer.
my experience is its easier as you get older and your breast tissue gets thinner.

[Sqad]

I can't imagine any situation where a mammogram would be helpful in men.

[boxtops]

Men get breast cancer, sqad :-(

[Sqad]

boxy......I have heard.
But that wasn't my question.

[albaqwerty]

woof, I wondered the same about men and breast cancer and mentioned that to Mr Alba. Men don't really have enough surely to squish?
(on the whole, that is)

Sqadlet, if a man presents with symptoms to his GP, how on earth could the GP not refer him for a mammogram? (I've no idea what any symptoms are exactly, I know about the checking for lumps and a change in other areas of the breast)
Must be hell for a man.

[boxtops]

I have a relative who has just been (successfully) operated on for breast cancer. She went for a routine check, there were no lumps or bumps or no indication of anything wrong, just a mysterious mark on the scan which was thankfully spotted by the screening team. So glad you went, alba.

[Sqad]

Alba/boxy

If a man had a breast lump:
Mammogram might confirm a cancer.
Mammogram might not.

So he would need a biopsy whatever.

So...what would be the point of a mammogram?

[boxtops]

Fair enough, sqad.

[boxtops]

....BUT - see above - my relative didn't have a lump to aspirate, she had this mysterious thickening which turned out to be malignant.....