EB - great!!! Thank goodness.
Let me please reiterate that most mammy-grams are screening ones. You go into the room, they pancake the breasts, take some photos, and let you go.
The radiologist looks at the pictures later.
The radiologist upon looking at the images will then make a decision. That can range from no abnormality seen to that the pictures are very worrisome for cancer.
There is a numerical rating, by the way.
Call backs generally do not happen with the medium or higher risk studies. Those women are referred to their doctors for follow up, and often get a biopsy. Thank goodness today many can be done with a needle that leaves no lasting cosmetic mark.
But there are mammy-grams that do not achieve the criteria that immediately requires a biopsy.
They may have resulted from less than optimal images, other technical problems, questionble abnormalities that may just be artifacts, and just findings the radiologist does not feel comfortable with. But to make sure those things are not nasty, the woman is called back.
Call backs should be scheduled as soon as possible, clearly breast cancer is of concern and no one should ever have to wait a long time for the follow up exam.
Sorry I went on so long but it is something I know about.
The mammogram is a screening process. And it is not fully diagnostic. But the technique still getting better.
But all women should get the recommended ones. Breast cancer stinks, but a small one can generally be cured.
Sorry for the blog but breast cancer, caught early, can usually be cured.
And most early breast cancers today do not, repeat do not, require a mastectomy or permanent cosmetic damage to the breast.
Please, get the mammogram.
Yay EB.