Good afternoon ladies,
i am waiting for an appt to have my first mammogram after my treatment ans was wondering how everybody found this ?
i am still really tender and have some lymphodema in my boob and in armpit. Had surgery last march and finished rt last june 2017. Have a feelng its gonna be rather painful ??.
how have you all found it ?? Thinking of taking a cool pak with me to maybe freeze the boob before its done.
ant comments would be welcome
Hi mini mad
I found, because of my history, they were very gentle with me. They are able to do the machine manually, do can take it slow and careful. I didn’t find it painful at all. You can take pain killers before, just in case.
Best wishes
Sue xx
Hi - yes it is uncomfortable but if you let the radiographer know you are still tender they can adjust the plates manually rather than by machine so it’s a bit more gentle.They are aware it’s more tricky /painful .Take some painkillers an hour beforehand .Good luck - the first one is very nerve wracking and does bring stuff back .Best wishes Jill.
mini mad
I have seen comments on here were ladies have had no problems at all with the first one, I am waiting for mine to come through for March so in the same position, although mine is 18 months from diagnosis as that is the protocol at my hospital.
Quite a few ladies have suggested/recommended taking some paracetamol before the appointment as well, so that might be worth trying, I will certainly do that one just in case.
Helena xx
You must have read my mind Sue as we just posted pretty much the same response at exactly the same time !!!
Well that makes three of us as I was posting at exactly the same time too 
Blooming heck 3 of us replied within a minute !!
As Sue, Jill & Helena say, Mini mad.
Anyway, I had my second follow-up mammo today & it only seems 5 minutes ago I was trekking up to the hospital for my first one!
Hope it goes well for you.
ann x
Hi
Hoping someone on this thread can advise me …
I don’t think I’ll be having a mammogram after a year, as I’ve had a double mastectomy. So I’m not clear about how I’ll be checked in future years. I did ask my BCN a while back (but it was all a bit distant at that point) and she said to watch out for unexplained weight loss, and pain that wouldn’t go away. But there must be some sort of actual testing?
Thank you!
Hi girly888
Re future testing after a mastectomy … I emailed the nurses (Ask our nurses) and had a reply today. She referred me to a booklet which I’ve read through - and am not really much clearer as it seems there are no tests - you just have to watch out for changes. My chest is changing all the time - swollen or harder or tighter, so that seems a bit tricky. I have emailed back for more info. You could read the thread on Ask our nurses - questions about primary breast cancer - testing after mastectomy. Hope this helps. Will share anything else I find out. It seems a bit unsettling, for there to be no tests at all. x
My first mammogram following treatment wasn’t as painful as I’d expected. I did take pain killers beforehand which may have helped but the ladies were very gentle and manually adjusted the machine slowly, they were also very quick to take the images once it was in position. Hope this helps.