Breast Screening.ie Mammograms

Yesterday the girls and I went for the annual mammogram. The girls being a part of my anatomy whom I am always happy to assist in their well being. Whether that be in comfort or in the mammogram scheduled every two years.
I made my way down to the Breast Screen facility and after the preliminaries it was a short wait and then into the little change room and a short wait for my radiologist to beckon me into the room. As I stood and waited for her directions, after all this is her domain, she looked up and said to me, "Oh this is your fifth you must know exactly what takes place?" My reply back was " Oh not really I usually go home and forget about the whole episode."
With that the ice was broken and we both laughed, she saying that she also understands my point of view. However, I did say this time I might go home and write about my experience. With this knowledge she once again laughed ,not realizing I was serious.
The screening here in our state of Australia is a very good service indeed. We are sent reminders for when our check ups are due and all in all it is a slick service. I really can't emphasise enough how important this preventative maintenance for breast health is, along with the regular checking done by yourself and the regular check ups that we ladies all need from time to time with our GPs.
Our service is called BreastScreen and I am supplying a link here. You may wonder why I am posting about this today and if you are a male reading my post you might think it is not what you wish to read. However, you probably do share your life with some amazing women and it is a blessing to know that you care enough for them to encourage them to nurture their bodies and be alert to any changes. I am not going to go into the changes that she needs to watch for, I will give a link here for that.
Click here for a good site detailing how to examine the breasts. As an interesting aside men are not immune to this disease either.
Well back to the girls and I. It was a pretty easy task with mild discomfort and I asked the technician what type of breast is the most difficult to screen and her answer was, "a lady who works out and develops more pec muscle than breast flesh. Because the muscle protrudes and it is difficult to get the breast tissue onto the surface of the machine". Now this sounded reasonable to me and obviously I had no concerns in this direction at all, because I had never gone to such an extreme personally in developing my pec muscles.
The procedure is actually four images in total from two different angles. When it is finished you go back to your Private cubicle and wait to be told if the images are satisfactory for reading by the specialist. We are given the results here personally with in two weeks.
So all in all nothing to be alarmed about and I would like to prompt any woman who feels that she has over looked this procedure for any reason, to now make an appointment and go and do it. The earlier detection usually the better the outcome.
Just last week I fitted a special mastectomy bra to a wonderful client who last year at age 34 went through a terrible time after finding out she had Breast Cancer. I am very happy to say all is good and she is in a positive recovery. Life is beautiful and so are you. Don't neglect this procedure and to those who keep it up may all your images come back as normal and healthy.
Cheers Milli 2007