Referred for follow-up without any mammogram results

Thank you both for the reassuring comments, and yes, I feel fortunate to have been scheduled so quickly for follow-up. I have the diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound in a week, so I don't have long to wait.

One follow-up question is that for the screening mammogram, I was shocked when the technician just sort of slapped me in there, when during previous mammograms the technicians have always been meticulous about body positioning. She didn't even tell me to hold my breath and not move as has always been the case before, so when the 3D started on the first (left) side, I had no warning.

At the time I was thinking "oh my gosh - I'm still breathing and moving!"...and sure enough, it's the left side that the radiologist wants to explore further. I'd thought that the 3D mammograms avoided many problems related to bad images, but maybe not. I'm just going to hope for the next week that the issue is a bad image and nothing more.

Hi and so sorry you're going through this anxious period. Your situation sounds exactly like mine - I had a technician that seemed incredibly fast (and sloppy), I learned of the results through MyChart without an opportunity to talk to a doctor about what they meant, and I was referred for a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound.

What happened in my case is that when I had the diagnostic ultrasound, the technician took some new and different views of the area where the asymmetry had been observed. In a diagnostic ultrasound, my understanding is that a radiologist is on site to look at the images immediately and request additional views, etc. as needed. So I believe you will get some sort of finding right there, but there may be others more experienced on this forum that can weigh in.

After the diagnostic images were taken, the technician came back to tell me that the radiologist had declared me good to go. The "asymmetry" in my case was overlapping tissue, not an actual asymmetry. This also meant that I did not need to have the ultrasound; it sounds like that was booked in case the radiologist felt it was needed based on the new mammogram images.

My experience was anxiety-provoking but had a happy ending, and I'll know next year to schedule my mammogram at the hospital I used to visit, where they always did a great job. We moved recently, so this hospital is now way across town (which is why I went to a new mammogram center in January), but I'm happy to drive to be seen at a place I trust. I hope your asymmetry turns out to be nothing, and in the meantime I wish you some peaceful and calm moments!