I'm a breast cancer survivor, I finished active treatment in early 2019 and went for my annual breast MRI five days ago. I just got a call from a scheduler to tell me the radiologist has asked me to come back in to do another MRI, and offered me an appointment tomorrow. No further information was given (unfortunately, zero information isn't great for a cancer survivor). I've had a recall for a mammogram before but never an MRI.
Over the years I've had a few things light up on MRI and had to go back for MRI-guided biopsies, which thankfully have all been variations on scar tissue. This MRI was in a new (to me) building and the whole experience was kind of a mess. Like a lot of people who've had chemo, my veins aren't great, and because of my lymph node clearance, I can't get IVs in my left arm. The phlebotomist ignored me when I tried to tell him which of my veins are most reliable and tried and failed to start the IV several times before calling in a nurse. Then the techs seemed to have a hard time adjusting me in the machine and kept asking me if it felt like what I was used to? After the first few minutes they stopped the scan and came into the room saying, on second thought, they should probably have put markers on a couple of previous biopsy sites, then we restarted. I usually have my MRIs at another location on the same campus, and my feeling is that the other location mostly does breast MRIs and this new location is more general. I've built up an annoying superstition about getting my MRIs elsewhere, as any time I've gone somewhere else, I had to get biopsies. When they scheduled me in the new building I was like, don’t be silly, it’ll be fine. Well maybe it wasn't 😄