Over 350,000 women didn't have mammograms 2021-22 due to pain & discomfort .... NEW technology!
This was in the Newspaper yesterday ...... A HUGE number of women are opting out of mammograms due to pain (even tho not mentioned in the article - it is a very real problem) & discomfort of the current mammogram machines. I had my yearly scans 2 weeks ago & the lady said she wouldn't go 'too hard' on the squeezing ....but I still yelped on one side!! If you live in Brisbane & have access to Princess Alexandra Hospital - book your mammogram there & please let us know how much 'easier' it is?? We've always said that if testicular cancer was diagnosed with the same machine .... this new technology would have been invented decades ago ....Scanxiety - does it ever REALLY go away?
Does Scanxiety ever really disappear? I think not. It is 4 years in Nov since my ILC tumours were found, by accident, by my GP - as the rural BreastScreen Bus screens totally missed it ..... TWICE. Rural breastscreen buses do not have 3D mammograms - only 2D ones - and they are unlikely to pick up Invasive Lobular Cancer (that does not present as a 'lump' ....) and any cancer is almost impossible to 'see' in those with Dense Breast Tissue. If you don't know what breast tissue type you have, get your Surgeon/Oncologist to tell you - as Breast Screen NSW refuses to do so. If you are able to pull up a pic of your Mammograms .... you'll actually SEE if you have dense breast tissue, as much of the breast will showing as 'white' (rather than fairly clear) and as cancer also shows up as 'white' ..... the dense breast tissue hides the cancer. What followed was 2 years of anxiety as I had a recall on my first anniversary scans, which luckily, were benign .... but being rural, things all take longer to happen. Altho I had my surgery within days of seeing the surgeon (10 days after my diagnosis on Jan 5th was confirmed) it had taken 2 months to get to the diagnosis, with my biopsy being done between Xmas & New Year. The following year, the biopsy was on Xmas Eve .... so 2 x Christmases/New Years - totally stuffed!! For this reason, I brought my scan dates a month early to October - so that if anything needed doing (ie biopsy) I wouldn't be in the Xmas Rush! SO .... I head north today for my annual Mammogram and Ultrasound (luckily, having the resident specialist breast Cancer Radiographer doing both!) I'll take hubby with me & will probably even take him into the clinic room with me (if allowed) to keep an eye on him as he has mod-severe dementia. Otherwise, I'd need to arrange someone to sit with him, if I left him at home. Up til this morning, I hadn't really 'thought' of the scanxiety .... but then it raised it's ugly head again! grrrr. I am not expecting any adverse results - but with this beast, you just never know! I see my Rad Onc next week, also up north - my 2nd last visit to her - next year being Year 5 since detection. Wish me luck!!
Gap for 3D mammograms and ultrasounds
I live on the Gold Coast and was diagnosed with breast cancer 2016, following surgery and radiotherapy all ok (I think) for follow up now with mammograms and ultrasounds for 5 years (I think), I have dense breasts so 3D mammograms or MRI preferably are best. My surgeon refers me to Womens Imaging SCR, Southport and it is $220 out of pocket, I have found the same thing (3D) at Gold Coast Private Hospital, Queensland X-ray no gap at all for pension or HCC. The costs certainly build up with a breast cancer diagnosis. MRI $500 no rebate, what is this?? why no rebate. People shown to have dense breasts should have MRI rebated. My daughter aged 40 was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer in the form of Paget's disease of the nipple, she had a normal mammogram, normal ultrasound to investigate flaking of the nipple 9 months later punch biopsy showed Paget's. Paget's disease of the breast almost always has an underlying tumour somewhere in the breast which she had and was only picked up on an MRI, both her cancer and my cancer (which are apparently unrelated) showed up on MRI but because we don't fit the Medicare criteria for a rebate we were $500 each out of pocket. Check out the criteria for rebatable MRI on the Medicare website, strange to say the least. Anyway good news is I found a no gap 3D mammogram and ultrasound. After watching the ABC last night I thought I would share this good news!!!
