First mammo after all this started

CoastalXPat

So on Tuesday I'm going to get my first mammo since my Dx about a year ago. I'm in adjuvant-land. This hasn't been an easy ride at all, and while I'm optimistic that it'll be clean I'm still nervous and a bit frightened.

I'm sure a lot of you have been through this. How have you dealt this experience? What do you think is the best approach?

I know it gets easier with time, but this feels like a big mile-marker.

angelia50

had my first one in December, after having uni mast in July. I was nervous. Sorry, no magic info on not being nervous. I think I"ll be nervous every time I have to even go in for a check up or exam or anything.

CoastalXPat

Angelia, thanks for your honesty... I guess that's the reality of it. We wouldn't have gone through these treatments if there was no chance of it coming back.

angelia50

CoastalXPat, I hope there is a time when we don't have anything to fear. People that say they aren't nervous are way more brave than I am because I can't see me ever not being nervous. Heck, I was nervous to have a mammo BEFORE I heard the words, CANCER so for sure I now know yes, it can happen to me.

Rosiesride

I just had my " diagnostic" mammo last Monday since this all started a year ago...just a mammo without an ultrasound...I thought I was brave but then started to choke up when I was asking the little tech if I could get an ultrasound too, after all I had been through and the mammo never showed anything. Of course she couldn't give me an answer... a mammo never showed my cancer in the first place...self exam found it...probably MRI is the better test,but who knows! I will meet with my surgeon Thursday to discuss results,which were supposedly fine.

Sadly, I think we will always be apprehensive now when our exams come around...hopefully , as time goes on, we will be less worried with each exam...God Bless us all...Rosie

CoastalXPat

Angelia and Rosiesride, thanks for your thoughtful replies and also for the warm wishes.

Well I figured I'd check in to mention that the mammo came out clean, hooray! I know they aren't 100% but this is a good place to be in (a mammo detected it the first time). That said, it was a bit *!$%#^! uncomfortable doing that with a port on one side and whole-breast radiation effects on the other side. Youch.

Next one is a year from now according to new protocols, instead of 6 months. I missed that happening. I certainly didn't enjoy the experience but there was something more comforting about knowing I was getting checked, especially since a self-exam is meaningless on the radiated side, everything is so bumpy from the scar tissue.

WinningSoFar

I'm not nervous about getting mammograms but maybe that's for the wrong reason. I really don't have much faith in them anyway--that's the reason. I'm going to have a breast MRI fairly soon, and THEN I'll be more nervous. I've always wondered why I even have mammos when I also have a MRI.

CoastalXPat

Figured I'd post again because my annual is tomorrow. Still very nervous about it but trying to block thinking about it. If I pass, I think this one will be a milestone being HER2+.

I'm so grateful that it's been so far, so good, but I do hope there's a time when this becomes less stressful. Thinking towards that 10-year milestone...