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Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, but there's no need to worry. By taking a few minutes each day for a week preceding the exam, and doing the following practice exercises, you will be totally prepared. And you can do this right in your own home!
Exercise 1:
Open your refrigerator door and insert one breast between the door and the main box. Have one of your strongest friends slam the door shut and lean on the door for good measure. Hold that position for five seconds (while you hold your breath). Repeat again, in case the first time wasn't effective enough.
Exercise 2:
Visit your garage at 3 am when the temperature of the cement floor is just perfect. Take off your clothes and lie comfortably on the floor with one breast wedged under the rear tire of the car. Ask a friend to slowly back the car up until your breast is sufficiently flattened and chilled. Turn over and repeat for the other breast.
Exercise 3:
Freeze two metal bookends overnight. Strip to the waist. Invite a stranger into the room. Press the bookends against one of your breasts. Smash the bookends together as hard as you can. Set an appointment with the stranger to meet next week and do it again!!
CONGRATULATIONS!
Now you have nothing at all to worry about when you go for your Mammogram!
And just a thought for all you women out there:
MENtal illness, MENstrual cramps, MENtal breakdown, MENopause. Ever notice how all of women's problems start with men? And when we have real problems, it's called a HISterectomy!
Having had said examintation...your description sets it of perfectly. Am so glad a bloke (yes a bloke) has invented a new type of screening whereby you just have to stand in front of a machine and the test is done without any discomfort.
A few seconds of discomfort - years on your life. Its worth it. I can jest, got nothing left now for a mammogram. All gone, under the surgeons knive. Last seen entering a furnace.
Dont know how men would react if a similiar test was carried out on their bits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I can tell you a testicular ultrasound ain't exactly a barrel o laughs. :lol:
My better half has always said that the mamogram was painful - She has just read your pre execises and can confirm fully the need for them.
In fact she has managed to keep my weight down by threatening me with a visit to the truck.
She says "many thanks" - She could not have decribed it better herself.
orkneylass
21-Jun-06, 17:43
Anyone out there that enjoys cervical smears?????...but it is all for a very good reason. See www.meandcancer.com
Many women are afraid of their first mammogram, but there's no need to .........!
I've not had the ""pleasure" - yet - but your description seems to match the experience of those of my friends who have - pretty gruesome [disgust] Is there anything which could have been put in place to make the experience more tolerable, Katarina ?
Can mccaughm elaborate on the "new invention" & maybe we could raise funds through the Org to buy one for Caithness? Perhaps the gauge of the machine could be adapted for the guys too in light of what MGB posted :eek:
On a positive note, I think the various health checks mentioned here, are well worth the few minutes of discomfort or pain experienced during the examination. So I wouldn't let it put me off attending.
Is it any worse than child-birth (please DON'T post your horror stories here) or the dentist ? I detest pain & I've had a Love-Hate relationship with the dentist for as long as I can remember. I LOVE when the gum-injection takes effect, LOVE when the treatment is over - HATE the feeling of terror before and during treatment & paying the bill afterwards!
For me, the question is always "Is the gain worth the pain". I can happily report that so far, this is the case.
I've had two - and they actually weren't that bad. I'd put up with a lot worse to put my mind at rest. Honestly I'd do it all over again rather than go to the dentest - boy do i hate dentists! It all stems from an unpleasant childhood experience.....
I've had two - and they actually weren't that bad. I'd put up with a lot worse to put my mind at rest. Honestly I'd do it all over again rather than go to the dentest - boy do i hate dentists! It all stems from an unpleasant childhood experience.....
Thanks for posting back Katarina. It's good to know your personal experience here was worth the end result. :)
As for dentists & your childhood experience - mine was the same ... my tormentor went by the (by) name of "Nompter" or some such name - a legend in his own lifetime. May he never rest in peace for what he put me through! [disgust]
Moira, the physicians in Canada are great champions of the mammogram and get us started with this particular torture in our mid-40s. My doc even has me in a research project, so every two years I get a phone call with the reminder to "show up". It is not quite as bad as Katarina's description, but almost. Comparing it to child birth is a bit difficult because with child birth the agony is soon forgotten, so honestly I don't remember if one is worse than the other.
Unpleasant as the process is, I wouldn't skip my appointment. And if our little discussion helps one or two gals to get up the courage to overcome the discomfort, then "yeah for us" for having this chat about a rather sensative subject in plain viewing of the many hundreds of people who check the org threads.
Excellent post Katarina. Iv'e never had a mammogram done yet and even though it its obviously painful i still won't miss it when my turn comes. I've had the routine smears, which although not painful are still not nice, and 2 kids.
I would say that the pain of childbirth must be the longest. Not only do you suffer during labour and birth but my little darlings are still a pain 18 and 21 years later.:lol:
Thanks for posting back Katarina. It's good to know your personal experience here was worth the end result. :)
As for dentists & your childhood experience - mine was the same ... my tormentor went by the (by) name of "Nompter" or some such name - a legend in his own lifetime. May he never rest in peace for what he put me through! [disgust]
Nonter, I think. Yes, they took me in aged about nine, never explained what was going to happen, clapped a gas mask on my face - I thought i was going to smother. when I started to struggle the nurse held me down. I thought I was a gonner for sure. It's left me with a fear of not being able to breathe. I had nightmares where iwas suffocating for months afterwards (I still get the occassional one)
What a different experience when I took my own children to the dentist.
give me a mammogram every time!
Anyone out there that enjoys cervical smears?????...but it is all for a very good reason. See www.meandcancer.com
Does anyone out there actually enjoy childbirth? Yet look at the end result. That's why we keep doing it.
I think we girls hang our dignity on the door with our first period and never ever pick it up again. Smear tests, ante natal appointment, gynecological procedures, childbirth - between us we must be specialists on ceiling decorating patterns over the years - from cracked and flaking plaster, artex, woodchip, blown vinyl and a lovely smooth plaster finish we must have seen it all.
Tell you what though mammograms and smear tests save lives, antenatal appointments, childbirth gives us our babies and gyneacological procedures make life easier for lots of women - thank goodness for the whole lot -
Ladies - like most of you I have had the mammogram, smear tests, ultrasounds, caesarian births, gyny procedures, dentists, fibreoptic camera down my nose etc but would have to agree that it is all worth it and instantly forgotten (except the fibreoptic camera which took a wee while) when they tell you that everything is fine and you can go home.
[quote=Moira]I've not had the ""pleasure" - yet - but your description seems to match the experience of those of my friends who have - pretty gruesome [disgust] Is there anything which could have been put in place to make the experience more tolerable, Katarina ?
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Can mccaughm elaborate on the "new invention" & maybe we could raise funds through the Org to buy one for Caithness? Perhaps the gauge of the machine could be adapted for the guys too in light of what MGB posted :eek:
Not sure if the machine is in production yet or not as it was an item on "This Morning" a good while ago. Looked like the images on a detailed night vision camera with good bits showing in blue and bad bits in red that type of thing. You just stand in front of it...no invasive or unpleasant procedures.
[quote=Moira]I've not had the ""pleasure" - yet - but your description seems to match the experience of those of my friends who have - pretty gruesome [disgust] Is there anything which could have been put in place to make the experience more tolerable, Katarina ?
Can mccaughm elaborate on the "new invention" & maybe we could raise funds through the Org to buy one for Caithness? Perhaps the gauge of the machine could be adapted for the guys too in light of what MGB posted :eek:
Not sure if the machine is in production yet or not, remember hearing that it was not particulary expensive. It was an item on "This Morning" a while ago.
dirdyweeker
22-Jun-06, 14:05
Nonter, I think. Yes, they took me in aged about nine, never explained what was going to happen, clapped a gas mask on my face - I thought i was going to smother. when I started to struggle the nurse held me down. I thought I was a gonner for sure. It's left me with a fear of not being able to breathe. I had nightmares where iwas suffocating for months afterwards (I still get the occassional one)
What a different experience when I took my own children to the dentist.
give me a mammogram every time!
Yes I have to agree ... this is the same dentist who gave me a horrid fear. I always remember the rubber "bit" put in between your teeth to bite on before he clapped the mask on. Biting the end of your pencil at school the next day was an all too horrid reminder. Mind you.....it was free!
Yes I have to agree ... this is the same dentist who gave me a horrid fear. I always remember the rubber "bit" put in between your teeth to bite on before he clapped the mask on. Biting the end of your pencil at school the next day was an all too horrid reminder. Mind you.....it was free!
Can you still taste the rubber, I can.
Can you still taste the rubber, I can.
Oh yes - the rubber! You've brought it all back! Every time I fill my hot water bottle I gag!
Nonter terrified the living daylights out of me as well and left me with a terrible fear of dentists. And yes I can remember the rubber too and the smell of the place. Makes me shudder. Things are so different nowadays the dentists are so good with the children and get them at any early age. Mr Nicol especially is brilliant, wish he had been around when I was small.
changilass
22-Jun-06, 23:10
It was a female dentist in Thurso (that you went to see after the van came to Castletown) that frightend me to death, she was drilling for a filling when I just about lept out of the seat in pain, to be told "don't be so soft, you can't feel anything, its been numbed" even now I have to have someone go to the dentist with me
Quote.........
Can mccaughm elaborate on the "new invention" & maybe we could raise funds through the Org to buy one for Caithness? Perhaps the gauge of the machine could be adapted for the guys too in light of what MGB posted)
.............this new scanner should be up and running in raigmore in august.
From Mammograms to Dental fears....only on "The Org".
Am I odd? Due to the fact that I have never ever had a fear of the dentist, I too have had teeth removed under anaesthetic at the dentist, fillings put in etc. The only thing that ever bothered me (bar dental bills) was the hoover thing they put in your mouth. I asked once if they had to use it, I was politely informed that I would drown if not. [disgust]
:Razz
Quote.........
Can mccaughm elaborate on the "new invention" & maybe we could raise funds through the Org to buy one for Caithness? Perhaps the gauge of the machine could be adapted for the guys too in light of what MGB posted)
.............this new scanner should be up and running in raigmore in august.
Hurray.....!
changilass
23-Jun-06, 10:07
Quote.........
.............this new scanner should be up and running in raigmore in august.
Do we have to travel to Raigmore for mamograms? Do they not do them in Wick?
Yes they do them in Wick. they come up in a caravan and park it beside the Medical centre. but if you need it done between visits, you have to go to inverness.
From Mammograms to Dental fears....only on "The Org".
Am I odd? Due to the fact that I have never ever had a fear of the dentist, I too have had teeth removed under anaesthetic at the dentist, fillings put in etc. The only thing that ever bothered me (bar dental bills) was the hoover thing they put in your mouth. I asked once if they had to use it, I was politely informed that I would drown if not. [disgust]
Because of your age, M, you will not have had to endure the horrors suffered by your parent's generation. It wasn't the extractions that bothered me - it was that rubber plunger (yes, just like the kind you use to clear sinks) stuck on my face so that I felt I was going to die, then the bongggg, bongggg, bonnng inside my head as I lost consciousness. To say nothing of the scary looking dentist who didn't even say a kind word to a bairn! I always had the injection in the gum after that. (I didn't much like that Either)
footie chick
23-Jun-06, 11:11
But if you have to travel to Raigmore for appointments you can claim back your travel costs something I didn't know until recently
Because of your age, M, you will not have had to endure the horrors suffered by your parent's generation. It wasn't the extractions that bothered me - it was that rubber plunger (yes, just like the kind you use to clear sinks) stuck on my face so that I felt I was going to die, then the bongggg, bongggg, bonnng inside my head as I lost consciousness. To say nothing of the scary looking dentist who didn't even say a kind word to a bairn! I always had the injection in the gum after that. (I didn't much like that Either)
Believe it or not I do remember the "plunger"....I must of been about 6 or 7 and they put the mask over your face...all I remember was afterwards it felt like I could not straighten my legs.
Because of your age, M, you will not have had to endure the horrors suffered by your parent's generation. It wasn't the extractions that bothered me - it was that rubber plunger (yes, just like the kind you use to clear sinks) stuck on my face so that I felt I was going to die, then the bongggg, bongggg, bonnng inside my head as I lost consciousness. To say nothing of the scary looking dentist who didn't even say a kind word to a bairn! I always had the injection in the gum after that. (I didn't much like that Either)
The bonggg, bonggg, bonggg and the circles going up in the air, then a sudden drop, that was the tooth coming out. Then it started again, until as many as possible came out it one go.
Remember a dental nurse, saying that she spend the time picking the teeth up off the floor, as the dentist threw them away, another nurse said that the lying down bed in the dentists was better than the sitting up one, as she didn't get kicked so much
I'm tasting the rubber again!!!!!!!!!!!
I used to hate the drill the school dentist used, he operated it with his feet - and the smell of burning still makes me feel sick even now:~(
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