The breast MRI I had done on New Year's Eve showed a 3x3cm lump highly suspicious of cancer so yesterday I had an ultrasound guided breast biopsy done. The days between the test and the biopsy, as many of you know, have been pretty stressful. Yesterday when I checked in, my blood pressure was through the roof (154/104). Now I have had episodes before of high blood pressure but it was always when I was in pain or once when I was pretty stressed after a car accident and there was glass in my eyes and under my contacts. So this is pretty rare for me. Usually I am on the opposite spectrum - my blood pressure runs 100/60 and when I am really really tired it drops to 80/50. So since my blood pressure was that high yesterday, I have been taking it since to make sure this isn't going to be a normal thing. It hasn't been but it has taken 24 hours for it to come down. Today it is down to 130/80 which is ok - not my normal but ok. I think it is just showing how much stress I have been under. It is definitely something I will keep an eye on though.
Back to the biopsy......neither my husband nor I could feel this large breast lump. One that is 3x3cm should be felt but not mine (I always have to be different). So before they did the biopsy, the hospital first did a breast ultrasound. Most of you know what an ultrasound does but for those who don't: an ultrasound is a piece of equipment that has a monitor, a probe called a transducer, and a computer. Ultrasound imaging is based on the same principles as the sonar used by bats, ships and fishermen. When a sound wave strikes an object, it bounces back, or echoes. By measuring these echo waves it is possible to determine how far away the object is and its size, shape, and consistency (whether the object is solid, filled with fluid, or both). In this case, ultrasound is used to detect changes in appearance of organs, tissues, and vessels or detect abnormal masses, such as tumors. In an ultrasound examination, a transducer (probe) both sends the sound waves and records the echoing waves. When the probe is pressed against the skin, it directs small pulses of inaudible, high-frequency sound waves into the body. As the sound waves bounce off of internal organs, fluids and tissues, the sensitive microphone in the probe records tiny changes in the sound's pitch and direction. These waves are instantly measured and displayed by a computer, which in turn creates a real-time picture on the monitor. One or more frames of the moving pictures are typically captured as still images.
They actually found a lot of lumps but I do have fibrocystic breast disease so that is common. After 15 or so minutes they pinpointed the one that the MRI said was suspicious and marked it (X marked the spot with a skin marker). My breast was washed with betadine in layers, then the radiologist who specializes in breast biopsies came in and checked to make sure that the one marked was indeed the one he wanted biopsied. (I was lucky here in that the radiologist who read my MRI was the one who did the biopsy). Once the lump was marked, the radiologist injected a local anesthetic to numb it. The ultrasound tech then held the probe over the lump and the radiologist made a small cut in my breast and then inserted a large hollow needle. Using the ultrasound imaging, he guided it to the lump (hubs was there with me and we were able to watch the entire process on the ultrasound computer screen). It was kinda funny to see the tip of the needle advancing on the screen.
Once the radiologist got to the lump, he then inserted a core needle into the hollow part of the needle that was inside my breast. The core needle is an automatic spring loaded needle which has an inner needle connected to a trough and covered by a sheath and attached to the spring loaded mechanism. He activated the automatic mechanism and the needle moved forward and caught a 'core' of breast tissue. The outer sheath then moved forward to cut the tissue and keep it in the trough. He then took the inner needle out (leaving the large hollow needle in my breast), and put this core into a biopsy tube. He went on to take 7 other samples, going in different places within the lump to get a good sampling. After all samples had been collected, a small metal marker was placed in the lump which will help to identify the lump that samples were taken from. The large hollow needle was removed and pressure was applied to stop any bleeding and the opening in the skin is usually covered with a dressing. Since I am highly allergic to tape of any kind, a one inch stack of gauze was placed on the hole left by the biopsy and a nurse helped me put on my bra. It was kinda funny because the nurse asked me to bring a sports bra. When she asked me where it is, I asked her to find a manufacturer of sports bras that makes them for a H cup. They don't exist. My bras are over $200.00 the way it is. I get 3 a year. So my regular bra was put on, then two 6 inch ace wraps were used to bind me down and transform the H's into B's. Was definitely hard to breathe.
So I was awake during the entire procedure and I actually felt nothing until they switched from the nice warm gel in the first ultrasound to the sterile cold gel they had to use once the breast was prepped. I never felt the needle or anything. The only thing that bothered me was the binding - it pushed the wire in the bra into my skin. The nurse saw how much discomfort it was causing so she took everything back off and instead put the ace wraps on my breasts first then put on my bra. While the binding didn't change, it was at least more comfortable.
I was warned not to even lift my purse for 24-48 hours and especially don't use the right arm and to go to bed and relax. They didn't need to tell me twice. The night before the biopsy I didn't sleep at all. I was having hot flash after hot flash. So I think everything kinda caught up with me and I went to bed and slept for almost 6 hours, woke up and ate some grits, then went back to bed. I slept straight through till this morning. It was a little bit strange to sleep in my bra and the bindings and every time I tried to turn over in bed, they reminded me they were there. I have had very little pain - I would call it more discomfort and mainly from the binding.
Now it is just the waiting until the pathology report is in.
