Thanks everyone. {{{Hugs}}} to you all. Reading these posts has made me feel better.
I’m going tomorrow to my primary doctor to get the paperwork I need. Then I’ll make the appointment for that “diagnostic” exam. I think the word “diagnostic” was bothering me the most.
There’s really no good way for doctors to say, “Uh-oh. We’ll need another look at that.” So, I’m just going to see what happens. I have to make borscht for a Christmas party, and unhappy thoughts might make it go sour, and we can’t have that.
Well, I’m bringing sour cream to go with it, but the point is…never mind.
Glad to help. Just returning the good karma I got when my online peeps got me through MY freakout.
It’s funny, I was worried that I would be nervous on surgery day. But after they wheeled me into the OR, the nurses wrapped me in warm towels and started the happy juice (I was just heavily sedated, like for a colonoscopy), and then chatted with me, and I never felt so warm and secure and taken care of. It’s weird, I know. In fact, last time I was at the dentist and needed a happy place to go to, that’s where I went.
Afterward I “woke up” and they wheeled me back to the prep room, brought me muffins and juice and my hubby, and I was out of there an hour later. I felt pretty good but was still hungry from the surgery fast, so we got some soup & sandwich. Then went home and conked out, snuggled up to our pups. I think I took one painkiller (Tylenol XS). I have to say it was the most pleasant medical experience I ever had. I hope yours is the same. Please keep us posted along with the OP!
Diagnostic with regards to a mammogram means they are looking at a particular area as indicated by the screening mammogram, which looks at all areas. I’ve heard them called ‘spot’ mammograms as well.
You’ll have several different views taken of the area in which they are interested. (I had up to ten “pictures” done at one time.) You might be asked to lean in different ways than you are used to with a screening mammo. (For instance, I had to reach my arm in a different way and grasp a doodad I hadn’t noticed was there. Another time I had to hold my arm up over my head. This may be due to the size and, er, pendulousness of my breasts, though. :D) The techs may also use differently shaped press plates to get a specific angle. It is no more uncomfortable than a screening mammogram, though.
The ultrasound is nothing. The gel is usually nice and warm and there is no pressing, just gliding over the surface. I ended up waiting a lot longer to get that done, though, probably because it was being done by an actual radiologist.
Same thing happened to me, and finally what they had seen were some calcification.
One of my friends cheered me up in the waiting period between tests. She said: “Breasts are full of stupid shit, that’s why we call them boobs.”
