Tough Titty for Me (An Update; Sort of)

So okay, after getting an unsolicited mammogram, it was recommended that I have further evaluation with a diagnostic mammogram and ultrasound. I went this morning, and here’s how it went.

Before launching into this, I must mention that yesterday while I was out, I received a phone call from my primary doctor. My mom mentioned that it was about an eye exam. I called back but could not reach the doctor. This fact will become more significant later in the story.

So, the diagnostic mammogram is taken, and I am ushered into the room for the ultrasound. The technician does her thing, and then says she must talk to the doctor who’s viewing this apparently somewhere else. So she leaves me to stare at the ceiling for awhile, then comes back and says she needs to try again because the doctor isn’t satisfied. My reaction: :frowning:

She does basically the same thing, with the ultrasound looking something like a moonscape on the monitor. After awhile, she excuses herself again, and soon comes back with another technician. My reaction: :confused:

The two technicians go through the motions again, and then one leaves. Now, they bring this full fledged doctor in. My reaction: :dubious:

The doctor does basically what the other two technicians have done, and except to snap a picture of what looks like a dark spot. After informing me I have extremely dense breasts (which I already knew) he says to me that he has to study everything and he estimates that there’s a fifty-fifty chance he’ll decide to recommend a biopsy. My reaction: :eek:

He further tells me that should I have a biopsy, he estimates that the chances are seventy percent nothing to worry about / thirty percent “uh-oh”.

When he leaves, the first technician takes the time to explain to me that 1) They found something on the mammogram that they can’t seem to find on the ultrasound which is why people were tromping in and out and having a crack at my ultrasound. 2) If the doctor decides to go for the biopsy, he’ll call my regular doctor and she’ll probably get in touch with me today, in fact, in the next couple of hours. So if my doctor doesn’t call, I should just go ahead and have a Happy New Year, and not worry.

So, I drive home, stopping at my version of a liquor store, my local Borders Bookshop. It’s closed, and doesn’t open for another hour, and I’ve already paid for parking. I decide, fuck it, I don’t need to throw away impulse money anyway, so I just go home.

And my mom tells me as I walk in that my regular doctor just called. My reaction: :eek::mad::eek::mad:

Of course, all my subsequent attempts to reach her are abject failures.

So now, I’m telling myself maybe she’s just calling about that eye exam she’s nagging me about from yesterday. If this were about the biopsy, she’d call me back, right? Right, I say, I’ll just keep telling myself this.

And tomorrow is Wednesday, so her office is closed.

My reaction to this entire stupid day: :smack::mad::eek:

I’m sorry you are stressing. First, breathe.

Second, its probably nothing.

Third, if its something, its still probably nothing.

Forth, if its something that is something, breast cancer caught in the early stages is VERY curable. Sucks, but its survivable.

May it truly be nothing.

It’s going to be ok.

The whole sonogram thing sounds really stressful, but it also sounds like they were being very careful and making sure you got the very best care they had to offer, so that’s good.

I’m keeping fingers crossed that it’s nothing, sending you happy calming vibes until you hear from your doctor.

I hope it’s nothing…and there is a good chance it’s nothing. Just piping in to mention that this year, my mother became a 10 year survivor of breast cancer.

Because you got the screenings done…an even if they decide to be aggressive with a biopsy… remember that catching it early, BEFORE it metastasize, is the difference between an annoyance and a big problem.

If it’s anything at all.

Good luck.

-D/a

Well, if its any consolation, I went through this same thing, (including frowning technicians and declarations of dense boobs) and after frowning, squinting, and conferencing they hustled me into biopsy straightaway from the ultrasound. Which let me tell you was not a nice feeling to have a crowd of doctors considering your breast lump with this sense of urgency. It turned out to be a benign lump with about the same chance of becoming cancerous as I have of being killed by a stray meteor. They called with results, so I think the “bad news by phone, good news by mail” rule doesn’t apply with this sort of thing.

So what I’m saying is, it’s all pretty stressful, but nothing that’s happened so far means definitely bad news.

I went through a similar experience with my first mammo. Went in for routine mammo. After which you wait in hallway, while they check the images are good. Come and say, we’d like to squeeze you in for an ultrasound, (nothing to worry about, we’d just like another view!), right now, just go on over.

Almost identically, the tech saw something, sent out for a Dr., who then left to get another Dr, until there were 3 Dr’s and a tech, and none saying a word to me. Again, dress then wait in hallway, please.

Now they come with a paper with an appointment for a biopsy, in 3 days, saying they knew my doctor would be ordering it.

I left the hospital totally freaked out, not sure what to make of any of it. I made an appt. for my Dr. for after the biopsy. She was very reassuring.

She told me that they like to see, and it is the case with most women, when they find something in one breast, how it compares to the other breast. In a certain number of women the tissue is not alike, from breast to breast, so more diagnostics are required. Especially if it’s your first, they have no base line to begin from. In the following years they will be able to refer back to this already explored variation in tissue.

My Dr said they were just proceeding with an abundance of caution, (mother and grandmother died of breast cancer!), as anyone would hope. She also told me that I should be prepared, as the years went by, for more biopsy’s and extra diagnostics.

Try not to freak out yet. If, in fact, it’s something worth freaking out about, there’s plenty of time for it when you know for sure. If you worry yourself silly now, you’re sort of paying the freight on something that you don’t have yet. Stay calm, put it out of your head until you know something for certain!

Good luck to you, and please, I beg of you, do keep us updated, because we’re all thinking of you!

Another chimer-inner to say I’ve been through something similar. It’s the dense boob issue – reading mammograms is really an art if you have dense boob tissue, which is common with women under 50 or so and women who’ve never been pregnant or done breastfeeding, and even a few who have.

If they want to do a biopsy it’s STILL probably nothing, super-especially if it’s a needle biopsy. They aren’t fun, but they’re not even surgery, and just uncomfortable rather than painful. Easier than getting a tooth filled. Which the doctors know, so they feel free to hand them out like candy, just in case.

Abundance of caution, abundance of caution, abundance of caution.

I cannot agree with that description. I would recommend that anyone inquire about pain control before the procedure begins.

Do not read the below if you are medically faint of heart.

Actually, my needle biopsy was the most painful medical experience I’ve ever had. I was literally screaming in pain, they actually had to get a different technician, because the first was freaked out by my pain level. It fucking HURT. Worse than when the anesthetic wore off in the middle of a root canal on my front tooth, which was so septic the root actually dripped out. I don’t know why it hurt so much (they said my pain level “wasn’t normal”) but I believe the lumps were unusually solid which caused some difficulty. Where normally they can insert the needle and draw up cells and it just takes a second, they had to sort of jam the needle in there over and over and over and hope they caught some, like packing crushed ice into a straw. It took almost an hour to complete 4 samples on each lump.
I have heard that others give local, but they wouldn’t at my hospital, they said it could ruin the sample and I’d just have to have it done again, and FUCK THAT.

Crap, Hello Again, I’m so sorry! I got local, which worked they way it’s supposed to, so the only pain was the pinch of the syringe full of anesthetic.

I am officially 8 days post-op from my second biopsy of a teeny tiny cluster of microcalcifications. I have received the call that the last biopsy results are essentially clear; they got everything that was shady and there’s nothing left in there to worry about. So, even if it’s something, see to it right away and you probably won’t have to worry. I’m not going to tell you that’s easy and just don’t worry about it. Of course you are going to worry about it.

Some ideas for how to calm yourself: Remember to breathe. Remember that you really don’t know anything yet. Take each event and bit of information and appointment one step at a time. Do some research; google everything you’re told. Ask as many questions as you can think of. (That part is tough; my mind went blank and I am definitely the inquisitive type.) Enlist support and hand-holding from your loved ones. Try to keep yourself busy focused on whatever is important to you.

And remember, the earlier you deal with this whatever-it-is, the sooner you can take care of it and have your peace of mind back. Keep breathing. It will be okay.

Background on my experience:

After my mammogram showed that the microcalcifications had “changed,” a needle biopsy was ordered. I was lying facedown on a mammogram table that had a big hole in it that I had to put my boob through. They mashed my boob a little, like a regular mammogram, and then gave me lidocaine. They took a bunch of films to aim the needle at the spot and then the needle went in. When they got to the really deep samples, that hurt a bit. I hollered a little, but I wouldn’t say “screaming in pain.” Local anesthetic effects everyone differently, but I think it doesn’t really help much with really deep tissue. But that part was quick. Then they shot a little tag into my boob to mark the spot they wanted to watch. I was chipped like a dog. :slight_smile: Throughout this process, they took probably a dozen films to verify placement of the needle and the dog-tag. That was what you call a “mammotone needle biopsy.” There are several different types of biopsies, depending on what you have and where.

Because they found “atypical cells,” I had to have the second biopsy, which was called a “wide excision biopsy.” This time, I was admitted to the hospital for outpatient surgery. Again, they took me to mammography and smashed my boob. Again. (Damn thing probably glows in the dark by now.) They located my dog-tags and shot me full of lidocaine again, but did not give it time to work. The doc took more films and then popped a wire into my boob that led straight to the dog-tag. Then off to the OR, where the doc put me out and cut (right around my aereola line) down to the dog-tag using the wire as a guide. Sewed me back up, sent me home, and called me in a couple days with results.

So, a note about how long it takes for these offices to get back to you. Remember that this same thing is probably happening to hundreds or thousands of women all around you in your city. The healthcare industry makes a lot of money with preventive care. While we benefit from that, keep in mind that these offices are very, very busy. Try not to read into the silence. To you, a couple days is an eternity. My surgeon told me that I would have a phone call by mid-day after the surgery. I finally got the call late in the afternoon two days after. I was a crying, hysterical mess and far too terrified to call their office to bulldog them for the information. I was by myself and didn’t want to be if it was bad news, so I waited it out, but I was a mess. Finally, I got the voicemail and the chick was all chirpy, “You’re just fine!!!” Ugh. My mother, a retired RN, kept saying, “If it was bad, they’d have told you right away. They have a path lab right there and the surgeon probably got a frozen section right away.” I felt the same way. When the mammography came back, they were on the phone to me before my primary had the results on her desk. They are on top of that shit. So if they give it a few days, I’d relax a little. But that is probably not a hard-and-fast rule and if you feel more comfortable calling the doctor’s office and demanding information (in a nice, polite way, of course), there’s nothing wrong with that. Some people feel better proactively pursuing.

Okay, I’ll shut up now. Hope all these experiences others are posting help you feel better. Oh, and I hope the thing in your boob is nothing.

Can you call your doctor’s on-call service, even if the office is closed? It would be nice, I imagine, to have info sooner than later.

As a pathologist, I should mention that we don’t usually get requests for frozen sections for immediate diagnosis of breast lesions, except in cases where there’s a good-sized obvious tumor and the surgeon wants to let the patient know right away and/or start planning for definitive treatment. Rarely to never do they go ahead with immediate lumpectomy or mastectomy even with a diagnosis of carcinoma on frozen section.

It is not a good idea to do frozen sections for initial diagnosis of possible tumor in small biopsies or lumpectomies (you don’t get optimal sections with this technique due to fat content of the tissue and you risk cutting right through a microscopic tumor focus and missing the diagnosis).

I try to get biopsy results (breast biopsies included) out within 24 hours of receiving the specimen*, but it’s not always possible if you need to look at extra sections or do special studies.

I realize it’s no fun waiting to hear (we went through this a couple years ago with Mrs. J.). To repeat what others have said to the OP, the odds are in your favor (most biopsies I get for iffy/indeterminate things seen on imaging turn out to be benign).

Best wishes.

*this doesn’t necessarily mean that the printed report is sitting right there on the referring M.D.'s desk within 24 hours and that they’ve had a chance to look at it.

Mild Hijack:

Jackmannii, I’ve been told in the past that pathologists and radiologists sort of prioritize reports based on what they see. If something looks bad, it gets analyzed properly and written up quickly. If it looks benign and the gut feeling is it’s nothing, the paperwork may take a little longer.

Is that actually true, or do you just go through all the samples in the order received?

Thanks,

-D/a

Thanks everyone. Still waiting for a call on those results.

Actually, the longer I’m waiting, the less anxious I’m getting. I think your posts have helped me out here. I’m very grateful.

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