Wanna know why healthcare is so expensive?

Oh, and I'm going to talk about boobs. You've been warned.

I went for my annual mammogram last month. The tech told me that if there was any hint of an unclear picture, I'd get sent to the hospital for their superfancy, extra-special 3D mammogram. She talked about it like she was trying to sell me one. I envisioned trouble ahead. I have cysts, and have for a long time, and it's a new joint. They were going to be trouble, I just knew it.

Sure enough, the next week I got a call that there was a "density", and that I needed a super special 3D mammogram, plus an ultrasound. I drove to the hospital, got them both, and the dr said she saw a maybe kinda sorta suspicious shadow in one of my cysts. So she aspirated it. Good times. Meanwhile, that form I'd filled out for my old films never got anywhere, so I had to re-order them.

Lo and behold, this week I got a call that the super fancy 3D mammogram looked different from my old 2D mammogram last year in the backwoods of PA. So I needed to come in for yet another ultrasound. *sigh*

Today I went in. Again. And waited 2 hours, because they had some emergencies (there are mammogram emergencies?). The (different) doctor did my ultrasound and said he didn't find anything remarkable, but to be sure I could go for an MRI (!), or come back in 6 months and get a repeat mammogram with their super fancy 3D machine. Assuming *that* 3D mammogram looked like the one I just had, he'd leave me alone for a while.

So to date, a simple preventive mammogram has turned into 2, plus 2 ultrasounds, plus an aspiration, plus a recommendation for a possible MRI, or at least yet another mammogram. All for cysts that have rarely caused me problems

I'm all for preventive medicine, but this is getting to be a bit much.