What has been other people’s experience of surveillance (Post BC ) mammograms?
I had my first one at the hospital BC centre; the radiographer was efficient and quick and she also ‘spoke’ to me & was pleasant. For my 2nd mammo (they are every 18 months here) I was told to attend at the local mobile screening unit . Here the process was still quick and efficient but very impersonal and felt much more like being "proccessed’. There appeared to be no distinction made between the women having routine screening and those like myself who already had BC - and who were thus likely to be a bit more anxious about the whole business.
No reference at all was made to my history and I was given the same ‘standard’ instructions during the process and handed the same “standard” info leaflet as I left - as if I had never trodden this path before and knew nothing of what could follow if the result was dodgy.
I know the radiographers are busy people and presumably see dozens of women in the course of a day- but how many of those are BC re-calls- and would it be really difficult to make the process just a little more ‘human’?
Hi topsy
All I can say is mixed. At the local hospital they were lovely. Very understanding very careful and happy to get a preliminary opinion. Very quick with tissues and a hug after each all clear. The last one, the “Five year all clear”. Bitch from hell would be a good description. Cold, appeared to have little understanding of the significance of the test. She would not attempt to get a result that I was desperate for. On top of that she hurt me so badly by the time I got home I couldn’t lift my arm and was on painkillers for 3 days.
So mammograms a bit like the Revels chocolates most are fab but every now and again you end up with a coffee one.
Happy days.
Chinook
HI Topsy,
I think I might be developing an obsession about your thread topic! Sorry you had a bad time in the mobile unit. I posted some weeks ago when discovered I had to wait 4 weeks to get a results letter after first post BC mammo, which is the same whether you’ve had BC or not. Lots of people then said their service better than that for women post BC.
ANyway then I went for first mammo post BC and they could not have been lovelier - they have a special morning for post BC women and they ask you into the mammo room to change in there, so no sitting about in gowns looking lopsided (which i was dreading). Also very kind and careful…result then turned up only two weeks later.
I just don;t think its OK given the trauma we’ve all been through and would encourage you to comment to your PCT or hospital. best wishes to you, Nicola
I had my 1st mammogram post dx on monday. I thought i wass doing really really well…until i got into the room. I burst into tears and sobbed like a toddler, whilst trying to tell the nurse I was scared of taking my clothes off and her seeing my scars as well as scared of the results. She could not have been nicer. She hugged me and said that she herself had just come back to work after having breast cancer and she understood totally. It made ALL the difference having somebody who knew how i was feeling! I have to wait till next wednesday for my results but she did say that she couldnt see nothing obvious…fingers crossed!! If your really not happy with the service then i think a letter wouldnt go amiss. unless you have been in our shoes then i dont think people can totally understand where we are coming from.
all the best girls!!
deed
xx
I have my post-cancer mammograms done at a specialist cancer hospital (The Royal Marsden) and the radiographer knew I was post-treatment. She asked exactly where the scars were and was very kind. However - it still bl**dly well hurt! That’s just the nature of mammograms - no doubt if men had to have them they might event a less ‘cruel’ test! (lol)
AlexG
Hi me again.
I think we should complain more, and not just on here.If we don’t say and keep telling the " proffessionals" how will they learn.
Chinook.
Thanks for all your comments. I have actually written and said my piece to the head of the local screening service. I am awaiting a reply.
On the positive side I received a letter yesterday- only 7 days after my mammo, saying that I had the ‘all clear’ - so that was very prompt, as well as being good news.
However -once again, the letter was the standard screening one - absolutely no reference to my BC and in fact saying I would be seem again in 3 years time etc etc . When I rang and queried this, I was told I would actually be seen in 18 months - but at the breast care centre at the hospital as I was having “surveillance” mammograms.
As it is all under the same screening service, why can’t they be a bit more joined up…and able to acknowledge to the patient that some of us are in a different category from the general screening group?
I thought I’d better comment on a good experience.
The week after a routine appointment with my surgeon I received my mammo appointment in the mail on exactly the same Saturday as a year ago when I first went to the breast clinic at my nearest hospital.
I went armed with reading and sudoku to while away the hours of waiting, and emotions were high as the last time I’d been in the clinic was when they poked the wire in before the WLE!
I’d barely got the sudoku out when I was called in for the mammo. I threw my clothes on the chair and told the nurse to be prepared for a very loud scream and I told her I was dreading it!
I couldn’t believe it but there was no pain at all just a slight twinge which didn’t last.
A week later I received a short little letter which had been dictated on the Monday after my Friday appointment - so the next working day!
'I am pleased to inform you that the recent mammograms of both your breasts have shown no signs of any suspicious features, which is reassuring.
We will see you for review in the clinic as previously arranged ’ … (nearly 6 months on)
I was very happy with the whole episode.
I wish I was attending your hospital, surfie - that’s the way we should all be treated.
The ‘mammography suite’ where I go has only radiographers, no nurses - and boy are they a sour-faced gang of b****es!
The most incredible thing of all is that in the information leaflet they send out it actually says that the process ‘may be slightly uncomfortable - a bit like having your blood pressure taken’ Yea, right. If only!