Shown: posts 1 to 2 of 2. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by cecilia on April 22, 2006, at 22:38:07
Anyone had mammograms with and without the new pads you can get to put on the paddles supposedly to decrease the pain? If so, if there significantly less pain with the pads? I talked to someone at my HMO the other day and she said they were planning to have them available in a couple of months. She tried to talk me out of postponing my mammogram until then though, saying they really don't help with the pain much, that they were really more useful for preventing skin breakdown in little old ladies with fragile skin. (My HMO is pretty cheap and I have the felling that when they do get them they'll probably ration them out pretty sparingly.) I don't know, I have a feeling that she's probably right that they won't help with the pain that much, it's the compression that causes the excruciating pain. (And no matter what they say, I still can't believe that intense pressure couldn't cause a latent cancer to spread. I said that to the person I talked to at my HMO, and she said no. no, she had been to lots of conferences and they always said that wasn't an issue. And I thought to myself, yeah, but who sponsers these conferences, 9 times out of 10, probably the manufacturers of the mammogram machines.) Cecilia
Posted by Lonely on April 22, 2006, at 23:47:40
In reply to Mammograms, posted by cecilia on April 22, 2006, at 22:38:07
I haven't heard of this but would also dearly like to find a less painful way of checking this area of the body. I've stopped having mammograms for 3 years because of pain for a week afterward. That kind of compression, as you pointed out, cannot possibly be a good thing. Healthcare is very slow to change unless it's to make greater profits. I had an echocardiogram 2 days ago and found that extremely painful to a small area of my left breast. Goodness, that didn't happen the first time and was not supposed to hurt. Perhaps one has to become extremely assertive and demand that the pressure be stopped ... dunno.
This is the end of the thread.
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