Janet Vs. Medical Industrial Complex, a Stressful Tale with a Less-Stressful Ending

Now that the whole thing is over, I want to talk about my recent encounter with the medical industrial complex.  Just to be clear:  I am fine, and I know that I am fine, but it has been a month.

Due to the pandemic, moving, and a small amount of general procrastination, it had been a while since I got a mammogram.  A month ago, I finally went in.  I’m pretty sure nobody loves mammograms, but it was not horrible and it was over quickly.  I thought:  well, that’s that for another year.

 

I was wrong.

 

I got a message from my doctor that there was a suspicious spot in my right breast.  She said that radiology would contact me shortly to schedule a follow-up mammogram and some ultrasound, but that I could also call radiology myself.

 

I called and left about twenty voicemails for the only person who could schedule the appointment.  I know that she was the only person who could do the scheduling because I tried calling multiple other numbers over the course of the next week.  Meanwhile, I got another message from my doctor saying that she’d seen my results and that it was important for me to schedule the follow-up.  She said in her message that I may have already completed the follow-up appointment by then.  Yeah, right.

 

Finally, I reached the all-important appointment person, who gave me the first available appointment three weeks in the future.  Obviously, I took it, but three more weeks?

 

I waited.  I alternated between thinking that of course my breast was fine and clearly I was about to die of cancer.  Occasionally, I had more rational thoughts involving some middle ground, but mostly it was all death all the time.  Maybe other people are calmer than I am and less inclined to catastrophize, but then again, maybe not.

 

Yesterday I had the follow-up appointment.  I had another squishy experience with the mammogram.  The radiologist immediately looked at the results.  I was sent on to ultrasound and again, someone immediately looked at the results.  I asked the technician and I looked at the ultrasound, too.  Totally normal breast tissue.  I was out of there in under half an hour.

 

Here's why I am grumpy:  why couldn’t someone have looked at the first mammogram right away?  Why did I have to wait a month to have my anxiety relieved?  Yes, I know the reasons.  Understaffing, expense, systems, blah blah blah.  And I am a person with plenty of privilege, white, educated, insured, with time to call and leave twenty voicemail messages.

 

The good news is that I’m not dying. But man, I could have used that information a month ago.