When Was Your First Mammo After Finishing Rads?

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corky60
corky60 Member Posts: 726
edited June 2014 in Radiation Therapy - Before, During, and After


When I had the biopsy at the breast center they said that they would follow me every six months after lumpectomy for awhile. I was supposed to get a mammogram this month but my MO said not to, that the breast is still undergoing changes from the rads that ended over three months ago. She said to wait at least six months after finishing rads and that we would discuss it at the next visit. This postpones the mammo for the healthy breast too. The breast center didn't seem pleased about this and made a notation in my record.


When was your first mammo after finishing rads? Six months? A year?

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  • Nettie1964
    Nettie1964 Member Posts: 759
    edited October 2013


    Well my MO is only doing mammo on the unaffected breast for the first mammo after rads which will be in November! Then I'll see him in March and I feel by then he will order the mammo for the affected breast!

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  • slv58
    slv58 Member Posts: 1,216
    edited October 2013


    I finished rads the end of aug. and have my first mammogram a year from my last which was June 7 day of LX. So a year from June for C breast and it will be 1.6 years for non C breast. I really didn't like the idea of my healthy breast waiting 6 months more for mammogram but my MO feels this is fine.

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  • cakes
    cakes Member Posts: 157
    edited October 2013


    Interesting the different information and times spans we are all given as to when the mammo after tx should be. My onc wants me to have my diagnostic mammo 3 mo after radiation which is approx 7 mo after dx. It will only be on the breast that had the lump and only if I feel I won't be in pain. If I am still having discomfort, the mammo will be in 6 mo. ???

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  • SelenaWolf
    SelenaWolf Member Posts: 1,724
    edited October 2013

    Six months.  My RO told me that it takes that long for the radiation to clear from your breast.  If you have it earlier, the film will light up like a Christmas tree.  My last radiation treatment was March 2012, my first mammograve was September 2012; and it was VERY uncomfortable.  My mammo this past September, not so much.

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  • encyclias
    encyclias Member Posts: 302
    edited October 2013


    My RO told me I had to wait six months before the next mammo since my rads ended in late July; I think the appointment, made by my BS, is in January. I did manage to get a PET scan last Monday, almost exactly a year after my first just before chemo. Thankfully, it was clear of cancer now.


    Carol

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  • Annette47
    Annette47 Member Posts: 957
    edited October 2013


    Mine was 6 months after surgery, which ended up being about 3 months after rads. They had to do numerous additional views and recommended coming back in 6 months (which was the plan anyway), I'm guessing because it was hard to read from all the scarring, etc.


    Edited to add - that ended up being 7 months after the one that found the cancer, and they only did the one side. When I go back for my 6 month one in December, it will be 6 months for the cancer side, but 14 months for the other side.

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  • CTMOM1234
    CTMOM1234 Member Posts: 633
    edited October 2013


    Six months after rads ended. Rad onc. was adament that one shouldn't go sooner -- she'd seen too many women have mammos that lit up with "suspicious" things post rads and that led to biopsies and more scar tissue and more irregularities and of course more stress. But she also had me undergo a mammo. right before rads started as a baseline (post lumpectomy) so I really was being watched well. BS knew much less than she did, definitely worth getting mammo prescrip. from rad.onc.


    Getting a clean bill from that post rads mammogram is very relieving. Wishing you the same.

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  • MizMarie
    MizMarie Member Posts: 332
    edited October 2013


    Just had my second post-tx mammo this week. My first one was a year ago, right at the 6-month mark after rads, and it hurt like heck! This time was much more tolerable. Of course now, I get diagnostic mammograms, so I had to wait afterwards for the radiologist to look at the pics, and when the tech came back for me, I was bracing myself for "the doctor wants to see you", but I got an all-clear... Whew!

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  • 2tails
    2tails Member Posts: 86
    edited October 2013


    My unaffected breast is on schedule...just had the yearly in October, and I am in the 6 month waiting room again for that breast now. The affected breast will not be imaged again until 1 year from radiation completion which will be October next year.

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  • NoTime4This
    NoTime4This Member Posts: 21
    edited November 2013

    I'm really glad I found this thread. I had to stop chemo early, and the chemo oncologist wants me to go directly into radiation. My surgeon wants me to get a mammogram and CT and said do it in January (six months after lumpectomy), and she specifically said do it before radiation. At the time, we expected  chemo to last through January. This is November. If I begin radiation this month as the chemo oncologist wants, I will only have 2-3 weeks after radiation before the mammogram is due! I have a consult with the (radiologist?) November 20th, so I hope he can advise me on the best course. It has been six weeks since my last chemo and will be eight weeks out by the time I go for the radiation consult. From other threads I've read, that seems like a long time between chemo and radiation. Any thoughts? 

    Also, my chemo port is still in on the unaffected side and seems to me like it would be in the way of a mammogram :(

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  • Beachnut
    Beachnut Member Posts: 17
    edited December 2013


    Since I am dealing with "radiation fibrosis" in my breast I had surgery on, I had a partial mammogram about 15 months since stopping my radiation treatments. I mean, they didn't squish my breast - just took a picture of it, since it was full of scar tissue. The right breast was given a normal mammo.

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  • april485
    april485 Member Posts: 3,257
    edited December 2013


    Finished rads end of April and had my scheduled mammo in beginning of August (4 months after ending rads) as that was 8 months since the previous one in January that discovered my BC.

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  • checkers
    checkers Member Posts: 95
    edited January 2014

    I don't start rads until next week but had a mammo scheduled by my MO in March (6 months post op lumpectomy). My RO said she would contact my SO and MO to reschedule my mammo when she felt I was healed enough from rads to tolerate it.

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  • corky60
    corky60 Member Posts: 726
    edited January 2014

    Finally had the first post-surgery mammo.  It was six months after radiation ended.  It hurt but was tolerable.  The schedule is every six months for two years.  The lump I feared was a lymph node is a seroma.  It pays to investigate.

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  • PoohBear-61
    PoohBear-61 Member Posts: 263
    edited January 2014

    Had a mammo 3 months after rads due to a lump found in other breast . .....turned out to be a cyst.

    Am scheduled for an MRI every year and a mammo every year . so basically I will be seen every 6 months rotating between mammo and MRI .

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  • Kicks
    Kicks Member Posts: 4,131
    edited January 2014

    My first mammo was 1 yr after DX.  I had a UMX. 

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