I’m scheduled for a Stereotactic breast biopsy this Friday (Feb 20, 2015) and I made the mistake of researching it. On YouTubethere is a video that has totally creeped me out.
Basically you lie facedown with the boob in question sticking down through a hole in the table (I promise I’m not making this up) FOR AN HOUR while they squeeze the boob in question with the familiar and hated mammogram plates. Tissue samples are taken, with a needle, I guess–I didn’t get that far in the video before I ran screaming from the computer.
Will someone who has gone through this reassure me that it’s not that bad, the time flies, you won’t get twitchy or sneeze, etc. I’m not even worried about any pain-- it’s just the grotesque helplessness of the posture that is making my stomach queasy.
(You DON’T need to tell me that the test is important and worth it and having cancer and not knowing it is much worse-- I **do **know that.)
I don’t have a lump or anything, just microcalcifications, and my research says that this is the diagnostic procedure of choice in my case. Fine. Whatever.
Just help me with my mental/emotional distress, please.
Are there any male diagnostic tests that require the testicles to be squeezed between two plates of glass or dangled through a hole in a table? Just curious.
I had this done twice about a year and a half ago. It is tedious to have to lie face down and absolutely motionless for 20-30 minutes–which was as long as my biopsies each took–but the breast was so shot up with Novocaine that it didn’t hurt. My back did ache toward the end.
One piece of advice: You’ll probably be wearing a loose hospital-type gown that opens in the front. Use the cloth flap on whichever side to contain your other breast, the one that doesn’t go down into the hole. I spent the whole first biopsy worrying that it was going to drop in too and get in the way, but used the front flap on the gown the second time as a sort of hammock and felt a little more comfortable.
Another piece of advice. Find something like a poster on the wall or some piece of equipment to focus on while they’re working on you; it will help keep you from getting antsy and wanting to move when you absolutely shouldn’t. I can still remember the little logo on a box of tissues.
All the staff at the medical center I went to were very comforting and helpful through the whole thing and I hope yours will be as nice.
I turned out to have a mild case of DCIS and a lumpectomy with good margins about a month after the second biopsy. It was all very scary at the time, but things have been going well since. Again, I wish the same for you. (I mean the Going well part, not the DCIS/Lumpectomy part)
I’ve stood by my wife twice for this testing. The first time was terrifying. The second was… easier, in part because we learned the first time she’s prone to small calcifications. (That’s what both turned out to be.)
This will probably be of little help until you’re through it, but: it is what it is. You can’t change it and neither your attitude nor any amount of worrying (or partying) will change the result. I think it’s a key life skill to be able to separate things you can change from things you can’t, and when confronted with the latter, learn to compartment them tightly away from your feelings and emotions. Remain calm. Remain positive. Focus on things that please you. You will gain more from that, regardless of the outcome, than from worrying and concentrating on “what is.”
Hope that’s not a waste of words. Good luck, in any case.
ETA: Mrs. B. has expressed her wish that there were tests that require testicles to be smashed flat, so you’re hardly alone in the viewpoint.
I’ve had it twice, one for each breast. It really is no big deal. Nothing about the procedure is painful. Your breast is numbed, then the biopsy is done. In my cases, I had the surgeon, a radiologist, and 2 techs in the room. We talked throughout the procedure (well, the surgeon didn’t, she was doing the biopsy). Start to finish it was about 30 minutes. If your biggest concern is that lying face down on a table is grotesque, you will do just fine. Deep breathe, take your mind out of body, do whatever you do in stressful situations.
Do not rely on YouTube videos for medical information (but you know that already!). Everyone will be very nice to you and should give you a gentle ice pack to hold over the area.
Thank you for these replies. They really do help. When the radiologist said “biopsy,” I pictured myself lying on my back on a table and someone coming at me with a needle, maybe spending 15 minutes or something. But when I started researching and saw this YouTube video–the hole in the table, the woman lying down like a Salem witch with her head in stocks in the Village Square-- EEK!
It was the hole in the table that got to me. I mean, who dreams UP this stuff??
I know they need the pictures at the time to pinpoint the location. I know lots of people have had it, they do it every day at the cancer center I’m going to, the area is numbed, “it is what it is,” etc., etc. Hearing that the actual procedure took some of y’all less than an hour is good news. I’m sure everyone will be very nice.
Before I went in, the doctor I first consulted called it a “needle biopsy,” so of course I imagined it would be similar to having a cyst aspirated with a syringe.
I didn’t go looking for information beforehand. I think it would have bothered me more too if I’d had time to dwell on it instead of just going straight into the room after talking to the med-tech staff.
The woman in your Mayo Clinic picture looks like she’s taking a nap. It won’t be as comfortable as that, but it was neither the worst nor the kinkiest procedure I went through before my lumpectomy.
Wear a sports bra (you can slip the straps off and push it down around your waist for during the procedure). Afterwards, hoick it back up and tuck the ice packs into it.
Who thought it up? Probably someone who was tired of chasing a breast lump on a boob that was flopping all over the place because the woman was lying on her back!
I just had one. Took a Xanax beforehand. The lidocaine hurt a little (my DCIS was way down in the breast) but didn’t feel anything during the biopsy. Ask someone to talk with you. I had a nurse or assistant who asked me questions about my job, my last vacation, etc., which kept me focused above the table, not below it.
Use that ice religiously afterward. Don’t wait for it to hurt.
If they find something troubling, they might want an MRI of both breasts. This is a face-down, 2-hole process, but without squeezing.
Best of luck! Don’t be a hero–take any tranq they offer you beforehand, or get one from your PCP.
I think if you have to lie on a table like that for more that 10-15 minutes or so, face down with your head turned to one side, you’re going to have a very stiff neck after that.
If you lie on a massage table face down, there will typically be a face cradle – a hole in the table or an appendage at the end of the table, that you can comfortably put your face into, without having to turn your head to one side.
You might inquire if the table will be equipped like that. Just be sure they don’t accidentally do a stereotactic biopsy of your nose.
ETA: BTW, there are also professional massage tables that have boob cups, so a female client can more comfortably lie face down while getting a back massage. And there are even tables with a big belly cup for pregnant massage clients!
Ah yes the old boob smashing nipple popper! I suggested my Dr should get his testicles tested for cancer with a mammogram, he did have the decency to turn deathly white and wince.
