On September 25th of this year, I had my annual mammogram. I had it done at the same place, for years like usual, and thought nothing of it. About a week or so later, I received a letter saying that they had seen some asymmetry in my right breast. I visited the gynecologist and got a referral for further testing which would be a mammogram with contrast and possibly an ultrasound.
On November second, I went in for a mammogram with IV contrast and an ultrasound of my breasts bilaterally. I went to the usual place for the mammogram, and they placed an IV prior to the procedure. I changed into a short front-opening gown, similar to the ones you get when you have a breast exam at the doctor’s. This was my first time receiving contrast, and boy, was that an experience! They placed the IV in the antecubital area of my right arm and administered the contrast. It actually went in cool, as anyone receiving anything IV would tell you it goes in cool. It’s actually room temperature, but we are hot beings, and anything lower than our body temperature feels cool or even cold when it enters our bodies. They have four minutes to take the necessary pictures before the contrast enters my kidneys and gets filtered out. About 30 seconds after administering the cool contrast, my whole body was washed over with a warm or, in some areas, a hot sensation. It was wild. They had warned me it might feel like I needed to pee badly, but I did not. They manipulated my breasts in various ways to take the pictures along the way. Then they showed the radiologist, Doctor B. He decided I needed an ultrasound. So off to the very quiet and dimly lit ultrasound area. It was so peaceful and quiet. I lay on the table, and the technician had me uncover one side and raise my arm above my head. She spread ultrasound gel all over the lateral part of my breast and focused on the middle, side of the breast, and the armpit. This was repeated on the opposite side.
After she was done, she went to show the radiologist the scans. Next thing I knew, the radiologist was in the room with us. He explained that they saw nothing on the ultrasound, but AI helped him find a 1 cm spot on my right breast. He explained what the next steps were. There would have to be a biopsy. He also gave an overview of what might happen in the future, such as possibly being referred to a breast surgeon and having this issue cut out.
So back to my gynecologist I went to get my referral for a biopsy. I got my referel on a Friday afternoon and called on Monday morning and after wading through outpatient registration they told me they did their own scheduling in mammography. So I called them and the scheduler was on another phone call so could she call me back. She called me back about 20 minutes later and said “I don’t mean to rush you but we had a cancelation for tomorrow at 8:30”. I was apprehensive about the whole thing but said “I’ll take it.” and I was scheduled. I should add that usually biopsies are done via ultrasound but since they couldn’t see it on ultrasound it would have to be done via mammogram. At the time I could only imagine how that would go, lol. My boob smushed into a mammogram machine and a long needle poking in the side of the breast. Joy.
The next day I got up early. I showered and washed my hair and put on no deodorant. You can’t wear aluminum-based deodorant for a mammogram because it shows up radio-opaque. My husband drove me to the hospital and waited in the mammo-suite waiting room with another husband who’s girl was getting the same thing done from what I could tell. Her instructions given in the waiting room were very similar if not identical to my instructions and what i could expect going forward.
There were about five women and the doctor in the room with me. D, who did my mammograms most of the time over the years and she always so lovely and kind was there as was the lead mammo tech, V . While waiting for the machine to be set up it was explained to my by the radiologist, Dr B. that we had one of five machines in the state that can do mammogram biopsies. The whole machine is set up with a little screen which I could see and they took pictures and the the radiologist went over to the monitor behind the lead glass on placed the cursor on the spot that was to be biopsied and went to work numbing the area with lidocaine with epi.1 he made a small incision and placed the long hollow tube into that incision and it and he added more lidocaine with epi. After some drilling sounds like it was rotor rutering through my breast tissue with no pain. they applied the the device that would take 10 slices for the biopsy and placed them in the little round tissue container that would go to pathology to be read. The lead mammography tech, V was kind and held my hand while he did the whole thing and when I said I wanted to see she got another one of the round tissue containers to show me what it looked like.
After the biopsy was taken they placed a titanium clip marker 2 in my breast at the site of the biopsied area so it could be referenced by a surgeon so they would know what to look for if any removals need to be done. Dr B said that would be with me for the rest of my life. I am now the proud owner of a titanium marker in my right breast. LOL.
They applied pressure for two minutes to minimize bleeding. Modesty was gone at this point. Then they applied surgi-glue (similar to Crazy Glue for the skin.) Then they placed steri-strips in an “x” pattern. And I was off. My hubby bought me my favorite vanilla chai latte from the coffee shop. He also bought me a cute stuffed bunny from the gift shop, which I came out of my procedure to find him with .
They advised I wear a bra to be that night because the girls like to flop around at night and it might cause pain. So we went to the store to get a soft supportive no underwire bra. I wore it to bed that night. I was off work for three days at the advice of the doctor. No lifting pushing pulling etc and that includes patients which I inevitably have to pull up at work.
I woke up in the morning with HIVES of unknown origin. Any one who is friends with me on FB may have seen my post about going to urgent care the next day after trying benadryl to break, what I thought to be an allergic reaction to something. The steri strips, the surgical glue the stuffed bunny? So i got a big dose of steroids in the ass and then I had five days of prednisone to take. They broke after a couple of days thank god! They were so itchy. Could have been delayed stress reaction to the procedure or allergy to something. Crazy.
I am now just about healed from the biopsy looks like a little tiny strawberry shortcake doll bit me.
More to come on this topic. Stay tuned.
- Lidocaine with Epi not only numbs you but also consticts the blood vessels to minimize bleeding. ↩︎
- titanium clip marker ↩︎
