Mammo is awkward and a little uncomfortable, but not scary IMO. Last technician I had was great, showed me the images and explained everything to me. Found out I have dense breasts. I hope that doesn't mean I need to have them more frequently, but knowing my family history, it probably does.

My mammograms were also fast and relatively painless. The machine pressing against my sternum was the most uncomfortable part. I need to schedule my annual soon.

Safe travels everyone!

Man the relentless rain is stressing me out even though our basement is not prone to flooding and I don't have a plan to ride bikes until Sunday when it will be long gone. I think it's the sound of it on my office window. Like it will never stop.

Found out I have dense breasts.

This is what makes me nervous. Mine feel very fibrous to me, and I have no idea what that means.

Found out I have dense breasts.

This is what makes me nervous. Mine feel very fibrous to me, and I have no idea what that means.

Take this with a grain of salt, but -- my OB/GYN says that breast tissue tends to be dense until your 50s. (The denseness can lead to false positive results, so her stance on mammograms is: if you're in your 40s and don't have a family history of breast cancer and don't have anything suspicious on manual examination, then IF you want to wait until you're 50 for your first mammogram, that's fine; but if you're in your 40s with no risk factors and do still want a mammogram, that's fine, too. At this point -- I'll be 43 in 2 months -- I might just split the difference and wait until I'm 45.)

Mine have been occasionally concerning for doctors doing manual exams, but at the mammo, I think she just took a couple of additional pictures to make sure she preempted any requests for more info, and I didn't get called back in.

Taking ibuprofen beforehand really helped lessen the pain of the ms mammogram for me. When you get one in your cycle also makes a difference with the pain. I've heard both small and large breasted women say they didn't find a mammogram to be that painful but I certainly do! I'm generally not much of a wimp about pain but mammograms have made me bust out in pain tears. But the meds really helped. I've considered taking anti anxiety meds too and would for sure if the anxiety was stopping me from getting the test.

I am bribing myself to work by withholding new TV (last night's Agents of SHIELD, two eps of Person of Interest, and two eps of Glee) until I finish this project. It shouldn't take that long, and yet, here I am, faffing around on the internet.

I have no idea what that means.

Also not a doctor. Only thing I'd add to what Steph said is that denser breasts can make the image harder to read because the tissue shows up as white fibers that can be mistaken for and/or hide tumors. Like this.

edited to add image may be NSFW

The good news is, as of May 1, we'll have health insurance again, so I can actually talk to my doctor about getting a mammogram scheduled.

I wish I had something to bribe myself to work with today. A nap seems most likely.