Get a Mammogram now! It's fun!

I consider myself to have a great sense of humor (I will elaborate more later); but I think we as women do ourselves a great disservice when we kid about the horrors of mammography...
I have a fairly busy life, and must go to the doctor, radiology, etc.. often because of a chronic illness. That was the main reason that I put off having a mammogram - I was just tired of spending so much time in waiting rooms, commuting to appointments and being poked and prodded! But another reason I put off having an annual mammogram (I should have had my first one ten years ago), was that the funny little e-mails and remarks about mammograms made it sound downright barbaric! Especially being a "well-endowed" woman I did not want my breasts flattened out to the size of Rhode Island between two sheets of ice-cold plexi-glas! I also imagined someone who resembled the wicked witch of the east doing the test, and I wasn't quite sure that they didn't hire shady looking men with long leather coats to do the mammography either!!
Well, when I suddenly discovered a rather large, awful breast lump last week - a mammogram seemed like a walk in the park! How could I let the slight awkwardness and discomfort of a test keep me from doing everything I could to detect an early cancer! How uncomfortable and awkward is chemotherapy, radiation, surgery!? How many women are we scaring away from a simple mammogram that could save their life?
I went for my mammogram this morning - the technician was as sweet and cute as could be - she asked if this was my first mammogram - Did she see the abject terror in my eyes? Her voice was slow and kind - her touch firm but tender...she was supportive, empathetic and never once scolded me for my ten years of missed appointments...
She laughed genuinely at my nervous attempt at humor - I had to tell one of my favorite jokes (and she hadn't even heard it before). "What do older women have between their breasts that younger women don't?" Their belly buttons! She listened to my ramblings about all my thoughts since finding the lump - how hard it was to tell my husband because his mom died from breast cancer right after I met him, how I worried about missing out on my new grandson growing up (and how much I loved him and my boys (and their girls), and how I was petting the dog before I left for my appointment, and I thought how lucky I was that I didn't have 8 or 10 breasts that needed compression! Alas, poor dogs and cats do get breast cancer too - as well as men!
The mammogram was finished - and it wasn't that bad! And the best part? I thought I had to wait another week for the results - but my wonderful tech came back grinning ear to ear and said that the radiologist read the results as a cyst from a previous injury! Everything else looked clear, looked great, looked healthy! I can't wait to have my next mammogram- if you have been putting of having one done - do me a personal favor and schedule one now - you won't regret it!