At age 44 with no out of the ordinary risk for breast cancer, different agencies have different recommendation schedules for mammograms. I time my annual well check around my birthday, which is in late August, but this lump prompted an appointment a few weeks before my usual late summer appointment.
I’d had mammograms in the past and one prompted a recall on the right side, which meant I had to go back for additional imaging. So I knew what to expect when I went to the women’s imaging center at my local hospital.
The difference between the women’s imaging and the regular imaging from my perspective comes down to the waiting area, the robes, and the atmosphere. The women’s imaging has a waiting area behind glass doors, robes made from waffle-weave fabric, private changing rooms, better magazines, and an additional waiting area behind the
The tech asked if I was interested in 3D imaging. It would be an additional $3 surcharge. She explained that their hospital still had both the 2D and the 3D machines, but not all insurance companies cover the 3D imaging hence the $3 surcharge. Yes, sign me up for 3D. Even if I hadn’t felt something, I would have opted for the 3D imagine. I asked if some people still opt for the 2D given a choice, and she said some did. Whether it was patient preference or cost, $3 didn’t seem like it would be that much of a financial barrier for most patients. If it were a $300 difference, then that might be a different story.
I’d mentioned to the imaging tech that I’d had images of concern on my right side in the past. I figured it would be helpful for her to know my history. Even though the information would be in the system, it’s always good to be your own patient advocate, because I’m just one of many patients seen in the course of a day.
She took two images of my right breast. Think of the mammogram machine like a panini
press. One image was taken as if the
panini press was sitting on your kitchen counter and the breast was inserted
inside. The second image was taken as if
the corner of the panini press turned was turned at a 45 degree angle. (Yes, they remove your breast from the
mammography machine before adjusting the angle.)
She un-panini pressed my right breast from the 45 degree angle and moved on to the left breast. After she finished the kitchen counter image on the left side, she avoided eye contact and her rate of speech increased. She told me that the doctor would get back to me with the results.
Wait a minute. My left breast was only panini pressed one time. My right breast was panini pressed twice. That was her tell. Poker players sometimes have a tell – a fidget, a blink, a smile – when they get good or bad cards, which other players read. This tech saw something. The script that she’s probably said numerous times before to capture the images and to tell the patient what to expect next was thrown off, and my Spidey Sense detected a disturbance in the Force. Okay, so I’m mixing up my movies, but, whether she realized it or not, she told me that she saw something.
I don’t know what it was, and something threw her off. She’s not able to diagnosis what sees. That’s the radiologist’s job, but she sees a lot of breasts in their 2D and 3D imaged form. She saw something that caused her
So I asked, “Don’t you need two images of my left side? You did two for my right.” Besides, getting thorough imaging of both breasts, I needed to get my money’s worth of the $3 surcharge. Since I’d already agreed to the extra fee for imaging, I figured each image was $.75.
After repositioning both the machine and my left breast, she got the images and I left a little concerned.
