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Biopsy.. the things they don't tell you.
I'm 35 and have a maternal history of breast cancer. So when my gyno found a lump six months ago she thought it best I go in for a mamogram (which until that time had never been recommended to me before by my previous gyno.) So I went into an imaging center and sure enough they found something.
They followed my mamogram by an ultra sound. Yup, I have a lump, they said. But because they had never imaged me before they didn't know if this was something normal for me or if it could possibly disapate and go away on it's own. So, it was recommended that I wait six months and go back for another image and ultra sound.
Six months later I still have this lump in my chest and it hasn't gotten smaller like they thought it might. Doc sends me to a surgeon who tells me on a scale of 1 to 5 I'm a 3 as far as having this thing out. But because of my family history he recommends that I get a biopsy to find out what this thing is. Apparentlly biopsys are 90% accurate.
So in I go today for my biopsy. What I had briefly been told was don't worry, it won't hurt too much. It's just a needle going in and out and it's all done. Well, apparently there is a little more to it than that.
First off, I was allowed to eat - no starving because it's not surgery. Also, I was allowed to drive myself. Good, cuz I haven't really told anyone about what's going on and for those I have told, most have blown it off and not taken it seriously because of my age.
Went in at seven this morning and the tech did another ultra sound. She located the mass and marked my breast with a black pen to guide the doctor who would come in later. After this, she washed off my breast with alcohol and swabbed the entire thing with iodine - which by the way smells like @ss!!!
The doctor came in after this and put one needle in me to start numbing the area and then after that a second that seemed to go deeper. This did hurt. But I will say I'm a ***. I've never broken a bone, never sprained anything and rarely if ever get shots. I will say it didn't hurt too too much, and mostly was probably a mental thing.
I had to wait ten minutes for the numbing stuff to kick in. Honestly I couldn't tell if it was working or not. Then the doctor came back. She took something up to make a cut in my breast. This did not hurt at all. Apparently the needle isn't a small one. After the insision was made she used the needle to take a sample from three different places in my lump - the top, the bottom and the middle. In my case she took four though.
Now this is the scary part. Although the needle does not hurt because you are all numbed up, the sound of it is horrible! The thing sounds like a heavy duty stapler. Every time the doctor went to take a sample I flinched and squished my eyes shut because I couldn't handle the sound of it.
Once this was over, I got tagged. Yes, tagged! I feel like one of those wild animals with a tracker. LOL. What she did was put in a small metal piece onto/into? the lump. This way when they go to image it again at my next appointment and there after they will know that this mass has been biopsy'ed already and they don't have to do it again. She told me it's non-magnetic (can you imagine? magnets sticking to your breast!) and it won't cause airline alarms to go off.
Then she was all done. The tech washed the stuff off my breast, she put on sticky things to keep the cut closed (no stitches), gauze and then this sticky cold pack thing. They made me stay another ten minutes to eat a cookie and drink juice to be sure I was alright to drive myself home. In all, the whole thing took two hours from walking in the door. I was out just before nine.
I'm not allowed to wash the area for two days to make sure it's ok, scabs on it's own. I'm supposed to wait until the first sticky things that were put on me fall off by themselves. They are supposed to have the results to me in 48 hours. I'm supposed to be "queen of the day" because the tech told me no cooking, no lifting, no reaching, and no working for 24 hours.
Right now I'm feeling OK. The site is a little sore, but not worse than if I had cut myself a bit deeper than a paper cut - kinda like a took a chunk of skin out. I ripped off the cold pack because it got warm. I ripped off the gauze because the rubbery tape they used to keep it on smelled gross to me. It's a bit bloody, but nothing really bad.
When you find a lump in your chest by yourself, it's usually the size of a quarter. If a mamogram finds it, it's about the size of a nickle. If an ultra sound finds it, it is about the size of a dime. So if you think you even have a chance of getting breast cancer - or even if you don't think you have a chance... I'd recommend getting imaged.
The end.
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Re: Biopsy.. the things they don't tell you.
(effin nest ate my post!)
First of all, I'm sorry that this happened and that people you shared it with didn't take your fears seriously. 35 isn't young for BC(21 maybe though it has happened) so their dismissal wasn't cool.
Second, I hate when they lie about the pain. Do they think that we are 8 years old and gonna yelp and flail and run out of the room!?!??! Don't they know we would rather prep ourselves than be surprised by a jolt of unexpected pain, and that we would think, due to their lies, that something went wrong if it DID hurt. Ugh.
I had a bone marrow biopsy and the conversation about pain went literally like this:
Me: "Does it hurt for long? How bad is it?" (Since, A) I'm not stupid, and
all my other doctors were like "Ohhhhh, I'm sorry you have to go through that, those are brutal."
Nurse: "No, no it doesn't hurt. You may feel some pressure when he pushes the needle through"
(Cut to less than 5 minutes later when the doctor sweeps in the room with the fat needle and puts it through the front of my hip...)
Nurse: "Okay, now this is going to hurt, hold my hand and be very still!"
Doctor: "Pushing through now........you'll feel a lot of pressure, sorry......okay drawing up now- you'll FEEL A SHARP BLOW DOWN YOUR LEGS NOW.........hanging in there?......Okay, sorry, still pulling...now getting bone sample, sorry....."
WTF? The best part though is that they didn't know that after hearing the horror stories about doctors leaning on needles to shove them through the hip bone BAM I asked my husband and he gave me 2 percosets to take 45 minutes before the procedure. SO I DIDN'T FEEL A THING. Of course I felt like I 'got them' and sung out "I didn't feel a thing! I took 2 percosets!" AFTER they pulled the needle out. HA
But really, why lie?
I also wanted to add that your experience could have been worse. I'm jealous...My stereotactic biopsy consisted of my lying face down on a metal gurney with a hole in it to put the 'affected' boob through so that the MRI (EDIT: THE MAMMOGRAM MACHINE, GUESS i WAS TIRED TYPING THIS!) could get a pix of the area, then the automatic needle is lined up to the spot and set to jab out super fast and jab, jab, jab with a loud noise to get samples. Only the area kept getting pushed out of the way so I was on the gurney for almost an hour. The doctor was embarrassed, especially because my DH knows them all, and finally said I could go and we'd have to do a surgical biopsy but I trooped it out and they finally got a sample. (I wanted to start IVF and NOT do surgery.) Is this the type you had done?
Anyway, the whole setup made me think, "Oh a man so designed this (with the hole in the gurney like some wicked Whack-A-mole game), chicks would do it better!"
Hope all comes out okay!
OMG, I double about the 'why do they lie to you about the pain'?!? That's why when the woman today said after I get through the numbing shots I wouldn't feel a thing I really didn't believe her. Thankfully she was right.
I did one of those DNA swabs so that I'm registered to be a marrow donar should anyone need it. I've never been picked, but boy was I pissed whtn I found out how painful the proceedure is to have the marrow actually taken. The man who did the swab told me not to worry, it's not really all that big of a deal. Then after watching a show about a donar situation (fiction) I did the research and found out indeed how painful it really is. Ugh... not to be a horrible person or anything, but I do think I would have gave second thoughts to registering initially had I been told the truth. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad I registered. If someone comes up needing my marrow I will go ahead and donate it... but it just made me feel like I had been tricked and lied to.
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I really hope everything come out clear. lumps should always be taken seriously.
GL i hope they come back with good news
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Oh, b15chik....I forgot about the cervical biopsy! Good god I thought I'd fly off the table.
"Oh there are no nerve endings or feelings on the cervix"
Bullshot. I should have asked then WHAT did they just clip with the tweezers from hell?
I thought the same thing when I had mine last year!
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