for the ladies out there

i have a question for you gals out there-i am 2 yrs post op (RNY) & lost 245 lbs. I live in a rural area & decided to finally get a mammogram (the last one i had was 3 yrs ago) the radiologist said i had to have it repeated twice, the second time w/20 films, plus a sonogram. he said it was hard to read mammograms on gals like me who had had wt loss surgery. I wanted to say but that is not my problem, its yours. to make a long story short i wound up going 2 hrs to a major medical center with a teaching hospital where i was told that there was nothing wrong w/me. has any of you gals had this problem too?

I have not but I've heard of this before...

I have never heard this before! I haven't had a mammogram in years and I am way overdue. None of the medical professionals I have met have ever even mentioned it.

On another note, congratulations on your fantastic weight loss!

At my first and very recent mammo the tech said I could get called back for a second reading because they need a baseline image. Not sure if after your wls they may have needed a second image to compare.

I had the opposite; pre WLS I would have to have follow ups every mammo; now it's only due to changes that they observe in between films. If you are at a new facility or they didn't have access to your old mammos, much more likely that they'd want to follow up, I think. It's frustrating to have to do them multiple times but better than ignore concerns and find out too late that there's an issue? Early detection is one of the key factors in positive outcomes from what I understand!

You're right, it is their problem but if it's something new for them, unfortunately you're their test case.

I do remember the first couple of mammograms after my DS. They did make a few comments about it being hard to read and had to repeat them a couple of times, but nothing like you describe. I was very large pre-op so when I lost my weight I looked like someone had hung tube socks from my chest - I referred to them as my grandma boobs. I've since had a breast lift so it's no longer an issue :)

Did they at least congratulate you on your spectacular weight loss??

I am scheduled for one next week so I guess I will find out. So dreading it!

Hi!

I'm a Mammographer - the person taking the mammogram (not the one reading it)

If you've previously had a mammogram that is considered your 'baseline'. Post WLS you lose a lot of weight.. The weight loss can change the density of your breasts and therefore when you come back for imaging after surgery your breasts look way different then they did before surgery.. so in addition to establishing a new baseline for you it is more difficult for the radiologist to compare your previous imaging to your current imaging. Every time you have a mammogram they compare the images from this time to last time - so I can understand why they had a difficult time with the reading process.. as it's comparing apples to oranges! I don't understand why they would need 20 + images - in my Career I have NEVER taken that many images.. and I have imaged many ladies who have had WLS.. hope this helps a bit!