MEGA HAPPY DANCE (with a few random hugs for strangers thrown in)

Yippee...

I have just come back from my mammogram and it is clear!!!!  So I do not need my MRI scan tomorrow. They are going to do one in 6 months time.  Now in the world of breast cancer the next five years are high risk for me but I don't care.  Today's good news has put me on top of the world..all the new bumps and lumps and ridges are just where they 'rearranged' my tissue to hide any obvious gap from the lumpectomy's..  Which if you think about it is a bit crafty rofl.  Boob-arranging.  I pray it will not become too popular a hobby.

Julie, I would email you directly but I think you raise a valid point...what is it like having a
 mammogram?
Well, I have had four now ( and am 41 years old)...two were harmless cysts and one was the evil Lumpi and of course today's...very soon after surgery and probably the first to be classed as painful.

 
You stand next to a tall machine and one breast is placed on a metal plate on the machine...I have tiny boobs so it is more of a 'stand next to' jobbie rofl.  Then, very slowly and gradually another plate is placed over the boob.  The boob becomes sandwiched between the two plates. There is a bit of pressure and it can feel a little uncomfortable but I will let you into a trick of the trade.

The xray is done quicker if you lean into the machine as close as you can, relax and keep very still...then it is over in seconds.  There are two positions for each boob...top and bottom and then the sides.

It tends to be a little more uncomfortable for ladies with small boobs as you really have to work to make sure it is all on the plate...but that is it....it is uncomfortable. If you relax into the machine it is less uncomfortable as of course when  you are tense you create muscle tension and this makes it harder to take the xray and so it prolongs it.

Also..tip (nearly wrote tit rofl...a type of bird for those of  you who are still innocent or unused to UK slang)..is to take some pain killers 40 minutes or so before your mammogram.  I think sometimes this just reassures you psychologically because I never remember (except for today and that is because the radiotherapists reminded me lol) but if you think it won't hurt, you relax and so it is not so uncomfortable.

To be honest though, I have only felt what I would call minor pain today and that is because I should have had the scan at 6  months..not 4.5 after surgery so I am still healing.  The rapid move onto chemo did not allow my body to heal properly after two major surgeries within 14 days of each other and so is only now fixing those nerves and so on. As a result I was a little tender and still am...but hey!  It has not shown a third so that is great!


And I have nearly oh so nearly finished my cross stitch project which means...... A NEW START!!!!  Ah, my cup runneth over rofl xxxx

Have a great weekend everyone (mine has started early)  and yes, I have been hugging people: I hugged my surgeon, nearly suffocated my cancer care nurse and well...if anyone else wants a hug I AM HERE!!!!