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livingdebI don't like my new mammogram place.
My old place was in an old Victorian house full of old overly fancy furniture, at least in the waiting room, and was walking distance from my job. It felt more like going to have tea than going to have a mammogram. My new place is a regular boring doctor office place.
The lady doing my mammogram did not laugh at any of my jokes. Her usual response was "What? Oh."
She did ask me some questions as if she were making conversation, but I got the impression that these were the same questions she trots out to all her patients and then she doesn't listen to the answers because she doesn't care.
She acts like some kind of an artist instead of a technician. I know she's got to line things up properly, but her numerous comments such as "hold your arm up," "turn your head more," face your feet this way," made me feel more like a fashion model than a patient, and not in a good way. (See Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" for an example of what I'm talking about. Of course he had it much worse. I didn't have to exude any particular emotions.)
You know how when people take your blood pressure, they pump up the blood pressure cuff until it is uncomfortable? And then sometimes they pump it up just a little bit more? And then some of them pump it up a little more after that until you start thinking, "Just how skinny do you think my arm is" and it hurts? But then fortunately they start slowly releasing the pressure right away.
Well, mammograms are like that only they squoosh you four times instead of once. (They squish each side horizontally and vertically.) They also make you stand perfectly still for many seconds while they're taking the picture, but then they reduce the pressure all at once. And then they go check the pictures and if there's any blurriness or any other problems in any of them, they re-do the bad ones.
My new mammogramist (is that a word?) definitely made me hurt on both vertical pictures and then she insisted on re-doing one of the vertical pictures and hurt me again.
There's no bruising or anything, and I'm sure she did a fine job. But that doesn't mean she's not some kind of sadistic artist wanna-be in a Frankensteinian lab. And it doesn't mean I have to like it.
My old place was in an old Victorian house full of old overly fancy furniture, at least in the waiting room, and was walking distance from my job. It felt more like going to have tea than going to have a mammogram. My new place is a regular boring doctor office place.
The lady doing my mammogram did not laugh at any of my jokes. Her usual response was "What? Oh."
She did ask me some questions as if she were making conversation, but I got the impression that these were the same questions she trots out to all her patients and then she doesn't listen to the answers because she doesn't care.
She acts like some kind of an artist instead of a technician. I know she's got to line things up properly, but her numerous comments such as "hold your arm up," "turn your head more," face your feet this way," made me feel more like a fashion model than a patient, and not in a good way. (See Bill Murray in "Lost in Translation" for an example of what I'm talking about. Of course he had it much worse. I didn't have to exude any particular emotions.)
You know how when people take your blood pressure, they pump up the blood pressure cuff until it is uncomfortable? And then sometimes they pump it up just a little bit more? And then some of them pump it up a little more after that until you start thinking, "Just how skinny do you think my arm is" and it hurts? But then fortunately they start slowly releasing the pressure right away.
Well, mammograms are like that only they squoosh you four times instead of once. (They squish each side horizontally and vertically.) They also make you stand perfectly still for many seconds while they're taking the picture, but then they reduce the pressure all at once. And then they go check the pictures and if there's any blurriness or any other problems in any of them, they re-do the bad ones.
My new mammogramist (is that a word?) definitely made me hurt on both vertical pictures and then she insisted on re-doing one of the vertical pictures and hurt me again.
There's no bruising or anything, and I'm sure she did a fine job. But that doesn't mean she's not some kind of sadistic artist wanna-be in a Frankensteinian lab. And it doesn't mean I have to like it.
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no subject
on 2009-10-04 02:28 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-10-04 02:30 am (UTC)no subject
on 2009-10-04 04:09 pm (UTC)Sorry to give you the bad news about blood pressure checking always being uncomfortable for a few seconds.
no subject
on 2009-10-04 06:41 am (UTC)Having never had a mammogram, I can't speak from personal experience, but I did want to say that the technique of the mammographer or any 'x-ray tech' for that matter, can really help the images be more diagnostic. So the 'artist', and all that posing she had you do, were definitely not for naught. I think you knew that, though... in any case, sorry it was uncomfortable for you and that the mammographer wasn't as nice as your last one...
no subject
on 2009-10-04 04:14 pm (UTC)Yep, I was focusing on all the things that don't really matter about a mammographer like site selection and conversational skills. Whine, whine, whine!
Art?
on 2009-10-04 09:20 pm (UTC)In my head, I imagine that the Evil Mammographers are sadists, and are thrilled to be paid for their fun. They always seem to be the ones that have to retake pictures. *wince* It couldn't be that the pain leads me to more clearly remember them repeating a side...
I have no idea what element of their craft makes it so much more painful in some cases than others. But it is. And since I don't have a regular technician, I am doomed to rolling the dice every year. *sigh*