biopsy and worry and wait

This ultrasound machine and I have gotten rather familiar with each other.

It's finally biopsy time. I arrive at the wonderous imaging center yet again for what i'm hoping is the last time on this case. After a stern make sure you are here by 9:30 warning by the scheduler they call me back at 10:15. I change into their pink half gowns again. After a moment the ultrasound tech returns and I am so grateful that it is not the same one as last time. she runs me thru the procedure and it matches what I had read on the Susan G Komen site. She asks me to lie back and move the right side of the gown so she can find the mass before the doctor comes in. As she locates the mass she tells me all about the doctor who is going to be doing the procedure, how he his a nice gentle man who has been doing this for a long time. As it turns out he happens to be the medical director of the imaging center. In the prep of it all she verifies my latex allergy and makes sure that i can be in the same room as it. I tell her that's fine, it's an acquired allergy having been in the medical field for 9 years. we talk about shared experiences working in a hospital when the doctor comes in.

He is an older man wearing hearing aides accompanied by a blond woman who stands in a corner. The blond woman turns out to be a rep selling the new biopsy needle system who is in there in case there are any questions since i am the first person to get to use this device here. He swabs my breast with the brown betadine solution then lays the sterile drape. He reminds me to not touch the drape then says after that i already know all that being a nurse. He injects a lidocaine epinephrine bicarb solution into my breast and i don't feel it enter like they said I would. Out comes the scalpel and he makes a tiny incision for the needle to enter thru. He takes several samples, 7 in all, including one repeat where he believes he missed the mass all under the guidance of the ultrasound. Each sample is accompanied by a loud click of the tool. After all of this he inserts titanium markers into the mass, a way to remember what that mass looked like then in case there is ever a need to compare films and to make things easier for the surgeon should they need to be removed later. they apply steri-strips to the site and clean off the betadine and ultrasound gel. The whole process takes just minutes really tho it sure felt like a lifetime had passed.

After this I am ushered into the mammogram room where they take pictures to verify the markers placement.

and I am done. Ice pack on the site, steri-strips, and a bruise getting ready to happen and this part is over. Soon I'll know if it is the big C. They tell me it takes anywhere from 24 hours to 10 business days to have the results back. I figure nothing says love for Valentines like an answer.

So now begins the wait. I still don't wait well.