On the day of my first mammogram. I went into the X-ray room and was met by a friendly radiographer who instructed me on what to do and what I may experience during the process.

A breast mammogram is an X-ray of the breasts. It’s a way of looking into the breasts without invasive surgery.

I simply took off my clothes from the waist upwards and stood very close to the X-ray machine. One breast at a time was placed between two (2) flat plates on the machine for a few minutes.

The plates pressed my pair of breasts firmly between them for a few minutes one at a time. The motion reminds me of using a sandwich or a waffle maker.

Two X-ray images were taken of each breast. One from the side, the other from the top of the breast. I felt a little pressure which was slightly uncomfortable and that was it. The process took less than ten minutes in total.

The two images are then very closely scrutinised by film readers, image readers or radiologists. In my case, every test indicated there was definitely something on my right breast…

I was then booked in for a biopsy. A biopsy is an examination of tissues removed from a living body to discover the presence, cause or extent of a disease. 

In my case, a biopsy was performed twice on my right breast and a sample of the cloudy stuff that invaded my right breast was extracted for a closer look for identification purposes and stage.

The process of the biopsy was relatively painless, an injection was administered to numb the area then literally a few minutes later, the specialist’s instruments were inserted into the breast and a sample was taken.

The scariest part of the entire biopsy process was I could hear the sssnniip of the instrument cutting some of the tissue inside the breast but there was absolutely no pain. However, once the numbness wore off after a few hours there was some discomfort and I was given the option of painkillers.