"Eighty percent of these biopsies come back negative." - tech assistant to me after my biopsy
Two weeks of living with the torture of not knowing is
coming to an end—or so I thought…. Of
course, I’m so anxious, I left my cell phone home this morning before heading
to work. My cousins are waiting to hear
from me about my biopsy, but now I have no contact with the world—I’m very
smart- *sigh* My appointment for the
stereotactic biopsy is at 1:00pm today.
I’m suppose to come in a little earlier to check in, and so I report to
work that morning, and head to my appointment during lunchtime, taking the rest
of the day off.
I arrive at the same office building place where my
mammogram and ultra sound was done. I am
taken back directly to the room where the procedure is going to be done (no
changing room first this time). The tech
assistant is this absolutely wonderful woman, thank God! After my appointment, I described her to my
friends as that type of person you meet that makes you want to just go out and
buy a Hallmart card for! Lol! (I did
send her something after I got my results thanking her- she was that good).
This room appears smaller than the room where the mammogram
was done, but it could also have felt that way, because there was more equipment
in this room. In the middle of the room
is what appears to be an exam table, but there’s a hole in the middle of this
table. Under the table is a bunch of
equipment. To the corner of the room is
a computer and more equipment. Shely,
the assistant, makes me feel comfortable as I make jokes about the whole
thing. She places a pillow over the hole
in the table and tells me to sit there.
I do. She then begins to explain
to me in great detail what is about to happen.
She is awesome. She says at the
end of it, they leave a little piece of titanium in the area where they took
the biopsy, so that if I have cancer, they know where to go, or if I don’t have
cancer, they know in future mammograms, when they see that titanium that it had
already been biopsied and is not cancer.
She explains that this won’t affect an MRI, and I respond with hence the
use of titanium versus other metal. She
is impressed with my apparent smartness of knowing this—lol! She explains she is use to much older women
who are confused usually by this concept.
We talk about our personal lives and in addition to the surgery about to
take place. I am at ease with her, and
she is amazing with all her knowledge and compassion. Finally, I am told to undress from the waist
up and hang my clothing on a hanging thing where my purse hangs. She comes in and has me lay on the table face
down with my left boob going through the hole in the table. She gives me a pillow for my right arm and a
towel for my head. Shit! The towel
hurt. I wished the pillow was on my head
and towel on my arm by the end as I felt myself beginning to tremble from the
pain and discomfort. She also hands me a
stress ball if I want to squeeze it. She
had explained I need to keep still, because it is all computer generated and
the needle goes in and then shoots out further inside getting samples, so I
should not move. No pressure,
right? *sigh*
The table lifts a little and she is tugging and twisting on
my boob below trying to get it in place as she goes back and forth to the
computer checking it out. She finally
finds the calcifications. I think that’s
a mammogram machine below and it shows where the calcification is so that the “needle”
is aimed directly on it before it goes inside me as it is all computer
generated, precise. All the doctor
really does is make the incision after sticking me with anesthesia. After a while of tugging and squeezing and
finally getting in place, the doctor comes in.
He’s a different doctor from the first one who did the ultra sound, and
I BRIEFLY meet him (think about it, I’m lying face down with my head titled to the
right and my left boob pinched below the table topless - not exactly a nice to
meet you handshake moment). The
assistant suggests to the doctor that they use the “petite” and he agrees. Hell! I’m thinking, yes! Please nothing big cutting
me- lol! They work on me under the
table. I tell the doctor to use a lot of
anesthesia- lol! He injects me with the
local anesthesia. He tells me he’s going
to make the incision, and I say OK. Then
I hear, “You have tough skin.” WTH? Not exactly what I want to hear as he’s
making the incision, so I don’t respond.
I want to laugh, but I don’t want to move and they cut me wrong-
lol! Awkward. He runs the machine and I’m guessing samples
are collected. They leave me on the
table and have some of the samples handed out somewhere to verify that they got
enough calcifications before they stop.
Finally, it’s confirmed, and the doctor leaves. Just like that- he’s in and he’s out.
It’s really the tech that is everything. She stays with me and I get up. I’m freaked out a bit by all the blood that I
see below and as she tries to tape my incision- lots of blood. No stitches, just tape. She gives me direct strict instructions on
how to care for my incision, and tells me straight that if I get an infection
it’s my own fault, because everything is sterile and I need to keep it clean
and dry. I want to reply, gee! You don’t
have to be so subtle about it- lol!
After I am dressed, she informs me that I should have worn a sports
bra. I let her know that the unhelpful
receptionist kept telling me to “make sure you wear a bra the day of the
biopsy.” But she did not clarify what
kind of bra. I thought it was strange
she kept saying it as if women purposely go around braless. I thought about the sports bra but that would
entail me lifting my arm, which I couldn’t really do. She said the sports bra is more support and
it best, so I made sure to wear a sports bra that whole week. She said she heard the same thing from other
patients not being told about the sports bra.
After I’m bandaged and dressed, she asks if I want to see the samples
taken and needle used. I say yes, and I
think crap! I forgot my cell phone, otherwise I would have taken pictures! Lol!
Since I was not able to, here are some pictures I found online that are similar
to what was used on me.
The needle is NOT a needle; it’s more like a pipe. Crap!
It looks like the liposuction tube you see on those reality plastic
surgery TV shows. It’s pretty huge, and
she said that was the “petite”- I was relieved they didn’t use the regular-
sheesh! She showed me the sample, and showed
me what was fiber and what was fat and the calcifications were in the
bottom. It was very cool to see, I must
admit. But it hurt my boob more thinking
that much was just sucked out of it. Yikes! She hands me directions to take
care of my incision, and also a sheet that has five names typed with telephone
numbers. She said here’s a list of
breast surgeons. I was taken aback, and
asked her what would I need that for.
She responds in case I have cancer.
Ah, reality again sinks in. She
tries to reassure me that 80% of the biopsy’s they do come back negative, so I shouldn’t
worry too much. She said I should have
my results in 2 days, so Friday August 31st is the day I’ve been
waiting for- just end this uncertainty already as my mind is going mental. Before I leave, she walks me to the front and hugs me. She then remembers she had wanted to ask about my tattoos, and I told her the main one is lady justice, because I'm a lawyer. She responds surprised and says, "so much for stereotypes." lol! I head straight to my cousin Clare's house after, because I forgot my cell phone and told her I would check her earlier that week after the biopsy since she lived just down the street from the place. I went and saw her and the kids and told her I was fine and just wanted to go home. I explained I left my cell phone home all day, and just wanted to let her know I was OK, and I went home.
No comments:
Post a Comment