Time between tests

evolo58

Hi, by the way. I'm originally from the endometrial cancer board.

I was diagonsed with Stage 4B UPSC. Had two chest CT scans, eight rounds of chemo, and a bunch of CA-125's. In July, I was pronounced NED/Stable. There is one watch and wait area. I pray it will be so for decades to come. The radiologists focused quite a bit on the left side of my chest when doing their scans.

Because I was in the middle of an insurance change, I had to wait until October for my mammo. I did not have one since late 2016, but because of the repeated CT scans (I had three in eight months ... two were thorough chest CTs with contrast, and the first one was an extra abdominal one without contast, so that technically makes FOUR CT scans), was advised by my gyno-onco to hold off for several months. Once the insurance was sorted, I made my mammo appointment.

I have had breast lumps before years ago in another state. Thank God they were benign. Usually, they were U/S-ded right after the mammo. The radiologist would make some sort of reason ... the film was not clear, for instance. 

This mammo I had this year was at a nationally-recgonized hospital facility. I've had my mammos there for years. They always told me that it could take up to five business days to hear the results if there was a call-back. So when Day Six came around, I relaxed.

I shouldn't have. Around lunchtime, I got a call from someone who probably would show more emotion reading a shopping list: I needed more tests, including an U/S in a breast. No further explanation. The doctor who was supposed to get my test results never got them, so she's as much in the dark as I am, and almost as shocked.

The biggest surprise ... the person scheduled my followups twenty days later! The blank? It takes almost a month to get from screening mammo to diag mammo?

When my mother had bresat cancer, it took two weeks from the initial mammo to biopsy. (Stage 1A. NED nine years, by the way.) When I had my endometrial cancer, it took less than two weeks, and that is WITH a holiday weekend, to get from CT scan (done originally for kidney stones, but finding something else, unfortunately) to a biopsy, physical exam, diagnosis and treatment plan. 

Luciklly, my PCP intervened on my behalf, told the facility I had just finished chemo for endometrial cancer and was really concerned, and managed to move the appointment up to October 25th. But that rasies another question: Why couldn't they do that before? I cancelled that appointment and am using my current cancer care facility for the follow-ups, also on the 25th. 

Is it normal to wait so long between a screening mammo and a diagnostic mammo/US? I have NEVER heard of such a delay just in testing.