Radiologist wants repeat mammo and ultrasound

[fvf147]

Hello all, I'm pretty worried today.  I'm 35 and my Mother died in 2005 from breast cancer.  I've had yearly mammograms since I was 30.  Just had the one for this year done last Friday and today they called saying the Radiologist said there looked like there was a change from last years mammo on the right side and he wanted me to come back in for a repeat mammo and an ultrasound.  

I had a call back once before, maybe after my very first one, can't really remember, and they zoomed in on one area, it turned out to be nothing.  But I guess I'm a little more scared because he wants the ultrasound too.  Anyone else experience this?

[fvf147]

I had my tests today and here's how it went:

So they did 3 scans of the right breast, then I waited FOREVER it felt like forever for the ultrasound. So during the ultrasound the girl tech was talking with another tech girl in the room. I could tell she was concentrating on 2 different spots on my upper breast. She said the word "it", which drove me crazy because that meant it was really something there and not just a shadow or thick breast tissue. And she said something about a lymph node.

So after that they put me back in that tiny dressing room again and told me to get dressed and that the radiologist would look everything over. It wasn't too long after that she came and literally said... "Ok, Dr so and so said everything looks benign, but he wants you to come back in 6 months just to check there's not further changes, you're free to go."

And I was like "Hold on a minute! What was it? What was found? I heard you talking during the ultrasound about 2 different places and something about a lymph node." And she said that yes it was two lymph nodes and they were both small and that the dr felt like they looked benign, but wants to check again in 6 months. I said something about 6 months being a long time and she said that I could talk that over with my dr if I wasn't comfortable waiting.

When I got home, of course I looked it up online and was surprised to see it actually happens a lot. And the running thought is: Lymph nodes that show up when they hadn't before means they're swollen for some reason: They can swell for no known reason and go right back down again in a month's time: They can swell due to infection: And they can swell because there is a cancer starting to grow.

I am not totally relieved. I would have liked to have gotten an all clear. It could have been worse news but in my mind it could have been better too. Ya know? I think the thing that concerns me the most is that there were two of them, maybe I'd worry less if it'd just been one. I don't know whether to wait the 6 months or not. The options would be to ultrasound and/or mammo again sooner like in 3 months, or a biopsy. But it's not so simple to biopsy a lymph node, you can really mess up the lymph system when nodes are removed. I don't know what to do. What do you all think?

Anyone else experience lymph nodes showing up in mammos?

[Shotzie1]

Hello,  I have been searching this site for someone who sounds like they are in the same boat as me, and you are it!  I went to the hospital with chest pains and the ct scan showed abnomalities.  When I went to my gp he sent me for a mammo, ultra sound and mri. (My mother had a radical on her left and partial on her right, but no one can tell me why).   The mammo showed 1 lymph node, the ultra sound showed 2 lymph nodes, both are on the side of my breast, heading up toward the armpit.  The radiologist does not seemed conserned.  I don't get the results of the mri until this Friday, when I have an appointment with my gp.  The waiting is what is killing me.  That and the general feeling of the people who work in the field say "no big deal" but to me it is.  The lymph nodes did not show last year in my mammo, so to me that says something has changed and it is a big deal.