I go in for an ultrasound. Same process, come in smelly, put clothes in locker, figure out which way to wear the gown and get an ultrasound. This time felt a little different. The tech seemed to be pushing harder than I remember from the year prior, just to make sure she’s able to see everything clearly and take screenshots as needed. There was one spot where, while she was pushing with the ‘wand’, I felt what I can only describe as a pop. She says, “have you ever felt that lump?” I tell her, in all honesty, “not until just now when you pushed on it”. Now, I may not be the best at properly giving myself at home checks, but I’m pretty sure my husband would feel a lump. Hey-o! The benefit of these ultrasounds is that they have a radiologist to look at the scans immediately and tell you their thoughts/findings. I’m dressed and in the office waiting for results. “You have very dense breasts”, they began. Thanks, so I’ve been told. They continue by telling me they’ve noticed calcifications in my right breast. I had never heard that description before, so of course I ask, “what does that mean?” They show me the images of my breast and the best way to describe it is to say it looks like stars in the sky. Little white specks on a black background. They compare my images to 2020 and those calcifications were not present. They also noted two masses, in the same breast, but they were small and an afterthought to the calcifications. The first action is to get biopsies in a couple areas of the calcifications, since that was something completely new from my last mammy and then we’ll look into the small masses. I’m still feeling like I’m just walking through my normal motions, since I’ve had to do biopsies before. No big deal. However, two days after my ultrasound I felt a lump. Like a LUMP. Coincidentally it was in the exact location that the ultrasound tech had pushed on and asked if I ever felt it before. I don’t know how to explain how or why it ‘popped’ out so quickly and became so noticeable, but I was obsessed with it. I asked my husband to feel it, maybe I was overly sensitive and just bruised from the ultrasound. He could feel it right away. I asked a neighbor to feel. Yep, that’s a lump. Weird. I called the hospital, they assured me I wasn’t feeling the calcifications, because those were so tiny, but that I should remember there were other cysts or masses we were monitoring and would be investigating after we checked out the calcifications. They didn’t seem concerned. I was probably just another over dramatic patient. I’ll stop feeling myself up and wait for biopsy.
