Effingham, IL-(Effingham Radio)- Getting your first mammogram? Learn these strategies first.
Getting a mammogram may appear intimidating for individuals who have by no means gotten one earlier than. If it’s new to you, you could be going to an unfamiliar facility, and everybody appears to have their very own story about their expertise. Nonetheless, mammograms are key to an early breast most cancers analysis. These x-rays can detect breast most cancers even earlier than a lump may be felt.
“It takes so little time for a mammogram, and the peace of thoughts it can provide you is price it,” stated Ashley Davis, RN, CLC, nurse navigator at HSHS St. Anthony’s Ladies’s Wellness Heart. “Irrespective of how busy life can get, we urge all ladies to take the time for themselves to have their annual mammogram.”
Take advantage of your mammogram with the following pointers.
- Discuss together with your well being care supplier. In case you’ve seen any adjustments to your breasts, you should definitely talk about them together with your well being care supplier earlier than you’ve your mammogram.
- Take steps to arrange. To make sure your technologist will get good photos of your breasts, schedule your mammogram when your breasts are usually not tender or swollen to scale back discomfort. Attempt to keep away from the week earlier than your menstrual cycle if you happen to’re nonetheless menstruating, as that’s when breasts are generally tender. Additionally keep away from sporting deodorant or antiperspirant on the day of your examination, as deodorants can present up as white spots on a mammogram. It is usually good to keep away from lotions and physique spray arounds your breasts or armpits to permit for a transparent picture.
- Attempt to loosen up. A technologist will place every of your breasts for the x-rays. You and the technologist are the one ones within the room. Individuals typically really feel some discomfort throughout mammograms. That’s as a result of your breasts should get compressed on a machine plate for a high-quality x-ray. This compression will solely final just a few seconds on every breast. In case you begin to really feel discomfort, inform your technologist straight away.
- Observe up together with your well being care supplier for outcomes. Usually, your well being care supplier will contact you with the outcomes of your mammogram. If you don’t hear from them inside 10 enterprise days, don’t assume that your outcomes are regular. Name the ability the place you had your mammogram or your supplier to get your outcomes. A full report will likely be despatched to your supplier. Clinics additionally should mail sufferers their mammogram outcomes inside 30 days or as rapidly as attainable if the outcomes counsel most cancers.
Susan Koontz, radiologic technologist RT(R)(M)(CT) and mammography facilitator at St. Anthony’s Ladies’s Wellness Heart, has been caring for sufferers at St. Anthony’s for 35 years. She shared, “Mammograms have improved over time with curved paddles and smooth mammogram pads. It solely takes about quarter-hour, and it could save your life.”
Name 217-347-1601 to schedule your mammogram at any of HSHS St. Anthony’s handy mammography places – in Effingham on the Ladies’s Wellness Heart or inside the Effingham Obstetrics and Gynecology workplace, or in Mattoon at St. Anthony’s Diagnostic Heart. It’s also possible to be taught extra concerning the ladies’s well being providers supplied at HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital at stanthonyshospital.org.
To be taught extra about breast most cancers prevention, go to https://www.cancer.org/breastcancer.
Supply: American Most cancers Society
About Hospital Sisters Well being System
Hospital Sisters Well being System’s (HSHS) mission is to disclose and embody Christ’s therapeutic love for all individuals by way of our high-quality Franciscan well being care ministry. HSHS supplies state-of-the-art well being care to our sufferers and is devoted to serving all individuals, particularly probably the most weak, at every of our doctor practices and 15 native hospitals in two states – Illinois (Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, O’Fallon, Shelbyville and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan and two in Inexperienced Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries, and Hospital Sisters of St. Francis is the founding institute. For extra details about HSHS, go to www.hshs.org. For extra details about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, go to www.hospitalsisters.org.
