After the annoying ordeal with the front desk worker regarding health insurance and coverage yesterday, I was at least relieved that all the lab technicians who worked with me for my mammogram and breast ultrasound were very polite, friendly, and professional. While I’d had the experience of breast ultrasound twice before (my first one being in 2013, annoyingly), I’d never had a mammogram before. A mammogram usually takes anywhere from 10-30 minutes and is essentially a low-dose x-ray procedure where a technologist uses this massive machine that is ceiling high to compress each breast between two plates to capture clear, detailed images, from both top and side angles of your breast. It wasn’t anything like what I was expecting; I thought I was going to be put into a CAT scan type machine (not sure where this idea came from, but this is how I envisioned it!). You stand the entire time. The technician angles your body, chest, and breasts into the right positions, then asks you to hold your breath for about five seconds for each angle so they can get the right snapshots. Oh, and the other fun (not really) part: they apply these small patterned band-aids on your nipples, each with a tiny little metal bead where the tip of your nipple is!

The technician during the mammogram was very empathetic and caring. She kept asking me throughout if I felt okay, if I was dizzy, or if I needed a moment. I felt fine; I just wasn’t used to having my breasts squeezed in every which way by a massive machine! The breast ultrasound procedure was what I expected it to be based on prior experiences: you lie down on a table while they squeeze jelly all over your breasts, then they run the ultrasound machine all over your breasts and under your arms to get every possible view inside.

At the end, they told me that it would take about three business days to upload my images to my portal; then, either they or my doctor would call me with any results that needed follow-up. If everything looked fine, I should expect to not get contacted. So, it sounded pretty straightforward and normal.

All I have to say is: I hope both breasts are doing just fine. They both got me through fourteen months of breastfeeding, so I think they did a pretty good job!