Breast scan. No medical advice

triple_choc_chip

DUKE wrote: »

My breast cancer was grade 3 & very aggressive, I actually thought I would die at the time. But I had chemo, radio, Herceptin, & 5 years (of hell!!!) on Tamoxifen/Arimidex/Tamoxifen. I actually turned into a raving lunatic who wanted to kill people & I'd beat anyone in a row :eek: My Onco was the best, & he'd talk to you at great length, he said that years ago they had no treatment & died, so these days they tend to overdo things & give you the complete works. At that time I was too afraid not to have the treatment, & I'm not sure I'd have it again, but I think I'd still be afraid to say no. But you can say no to treatment, it's your body.
I get no other treatment as I'm allergic to everything these days. The treatment can cause more problems than the actual cancer.

Thanks so much for sharing Duke, I identify with every part of this except the tamoxifen as mine wasn't hormonal. Re. Overdoing things, it's brought back my memory of all the skin peeling off the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet, finger nails and toenails falling off, my face so numb my cheeks felt like plastic, no taste buds and even water tasting salty ugh! I'm not so sure I could do it again either but the desire to live is what carries us through isn't it. x

triple_choc_chip

donnac2558 wrote: »

Takes no time is not painful, I go never worry and just get on with life.

Lucky you, my last one left me in pain for 9 months. It's my sense of self- preservation that made me decide 'never again'. Something causing so much pain can't be right or good for the breast tissue - and besides it's the only one I've got now!

Pollycat

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Lucky you, my last one left me in pain for 9 months. It's my sense of self- preservation that made me decide 'never again'. Something causing so much pain can't be right or good for the breast tissue - and besides it's the only one I've got now!

I think - but am willing to be corrected by a link to research - that for most women a mammogram is uncomfortable rather than painful.
Sorry yours wasn't.
Mine have never been painful.

Torry_Quine

Pollycat wrote: »

I think - but am willing to be corrected by a link to research - that for most women a mammogram is uncomfortable rather than painful.
Sorry yours wasn't.
Mine have never been painful.

Mine neither. It sounds very wrong that it caused such long lasting pain.

triple_choc_chip

Pollycat wrote: »

I think - but am willing to be corrected by a link to research - that for most women a mammogram is uncomfortable rather than painful.
Sorry yours wasn't.
Mine have never been painful.

Thanks Pollycat, I'm sure you're right too or no-one would go a second time. The GP said I'd probably been given a haematoma(sp?) and as it dispersed the pain would diminish. It's obviously not a lucky body part for me, lol.

I just wanted to highlight why women will have a multitude of reasons for and against. We protect ourselves as best we can and we all have very personal reasons for our choices.

Pollycat

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Thanks Pollycat, I'm sure you're right too or no-one would go a second time. The GP said I'd probably been given a haematoma(sp?) and as it dispersed the pain would diminish. It's obviously not a lucky body part for me, lol.

I just wanted to highlight why women will have a multitude of reasons for and against. We protect ourselves as best we can and we all have very personal reasons for our choices.

I do agree.

But I wouldn't like to see any women persuaded not to have an initial mammogram for the only reason that it may be painful.

I can understand your situation and would quite possibly make the same decision.

But the truth is that for many women a mammogram is not painful, just uncomfortable - I personally would say less uncomfortable than a smear - and there is no lasting pain.

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Lucky you, my last one left me in pain for 9 months. It's my sense of self- preservation that made me decide 'never again'. Something causing so much pain can't be right or good for the breast tissue - and besides it's the only one I've got now!

I think rather than donnac2558 being 'lucky' that it wasn't painful, I'd turn it the other way round and say it was you who were unlucky.

ERICS_MUM

My first mammogram was painful but I went back for the next one and it was fine. I realised that the woman who did the first one had the machine set too high so it was pulling me and clamping too hard.

Since then I've always made sure I feel comfy with the position of the equipment before I let them go ahead with the scan. Never had pain or even discomfort since.

selement

RE: overtreating. They stage and grade breast tumours before giving chemo and radiotherapy. My understanding is that it is DCIS (ductal carcinoma in situ) (also sometimes called stage 0 breast cancer) which is the main one that can be overtreated, as this has type of malignancy hasn't invaded outside the milk ducts yet and may never do so, but sometimes it does so currently we treat it as though it has or will. If you have anything but DCIS you are unlikely to be overtreated.

DUKE

triple_choc_chip wrote: »

Thanks so much for sharing Duke, I identify with every part of this except the tamoxifen as mine wasn't hormonal. Re. Overdoing things, it's brought back my memory of all the skin peeling off the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet, finger nails and toenails falling off, my face so numb my cheeks felt like plastic, no taste buds and even water tasting salty ugh! I'm not so sure I could do it again either but the desire to live is what carries us through isn't it. x

Aaaaw thanks triple choc chip, that bought a tear to my eye. At our hospital we were allowed to podge the queue to get our bloods done just before chemo, it was great doing the walk of power as we called it. People used to go mad, but didn't dare say anything directly to us. I loved being bald too, I'd had too many bad hair days to care. Luckily I kept my nails, they just didn't grow. One girls tongue went black. But the beard was the shock of my life!!!! Onco gave me cream, but it gave me spots which I'd never had before, & it didn't work anyway. The steroids made me hyperactive for 3 days, then I'd go down, & no taste buds would follow. Crying uncontrollable tears, laughing so much louder ... We made it sista x

triple_choc_chip

DUKE wrote: »

Aaaaw thanks triple choc chip, that bought a tear to my eye. At our hospital we were allowed to podge the queue to get our bloods done just before chemo, it was great doing the walk of power as we called it. People used to go mad, but didn't dare say anything directly to us. I loved being bald too, I'd had too many bad hair days to care. Luckily I kept my nails, they just didn't grow. One girls tongue went black. But the beard was the shock of my life!!!! Onco gave me cream, but it gave me spots which I'd never had before, & it didn't work anyway. The steroids made me hyperactive for 3 days, then I'd go down, & no taste buds would follow. Crying uncontrollable tears, laughing so much louder ... We made it sista x

Yes we did :T
The bloods dept. were brill, never felt a thing. The one time I went to the GP supposedly to save time, both arms were bruised and they mixed my samples with someone else's so the hospital had to do it again anyway!
My toenails came off when the nurse was trying to get the elastic leg tubes on me before my op, I was worried she might faint because I was in the gynae ward (only place there was a bed) and it obviously didn't happen there very often.
We could start a reality thread but it might unduly worry people - like having a male cleaner wander in during my radiotherapy, seeing me in all my one breasted grotesquely naked body :eek: