Mammo call back

On Wednesday, February 25, I was called by Group Health and asked to come back for another screening. The woman on the phone said that the radiologist wanted a higher magnification of my breast tissue. Knowing that man women are called for additional mammograms, I thought nothing of it and took an appointment for Monday, March 2 at 3:30. Michael agreed to go with me. We left our schools earlier than usual, met at shopping center on the way to downtown, parked his car, and drove together to the Specialty Center. Once again I was quickly brought back to the screening area. Christine was my tech and told me that she was going to use a higher magnification because the radiologist saw something that had never appeared on any previous mammogram. I asked her what it was and she responded “haven’t you ever seen one of your own mammograms?” When I told her that I hadn’t, she motioned me to follow her. We went out to the bank of film lights and she slipped two of my mammogram images under the clips at the top of the vertical lights on the wall. There were circles drawn on one of the x-rays. “See this little bit of white?” asked Christine. “Those clusters have the radiologist very suspicious. They look like micro-calcifications and they weren’t there for any of your previous exams.” “What are they?” I asked. Little did I know that I would learn exactly what they are and that micro-calcifications can cause some real big problems.