December 29th, 2009 Squeezed and Swiss Cheesed

The next step in figuring out exactly what we were dealing with regarding my breast lump, was to make a trip to the breast center affiliated with our clinic. The plan was to biopsy the lump to determine if it was cancer, or not.

The first step, in what was supposed to be about a two-hour appointment, was to meet with a nurse practitioner to have a clinical breast exam and discuss the biopsy procedure and my mammogram and ultrasound results in more depth. Everything was light and airy until my mammogram images were brought out and we started discussing how radiologist categorize mammograms in different categories based off what they think the image is showing. The categories range from 0 (meaning the picture was unclear and needs to be retaken) to a category 6 (meaning the area of concern being pictured has already been proven thru biopsy to be cancerous). I discovered that my image was ranked a Category 5, meaning there was a greater then 95% chance the lump is cancerous. I didn't like those odds... not at all.

The NP left the room and in walks the radiologist. She has even more bad news. She has spotted multiple issues of additional concern in the left breast from the Roseau mammogram and thinks it best to do an additional biopsy on one of these areas. Thankfully, my husband was along, and expressed concern that since the left breast looked so poor, shouldn't we check out the right? They had assumed the right breast had already been checked and cleared at our clinic, and with the information that is had not, they immediately decided a mammogram should be done of that side, as well. The NP walked back into the room, grabbed my hand and looked at me with some of the saddest eyes I'd ever seen and told me I would be in her prayers. She left the room, and I looked over at my husband and said, "This is really bad, isn't it?". He could only agree.

So I proceeded to the mammogram room where additional images were taken of my left breast and initial images were taken of my right breast. Unfortunately, they also found an issue of concern in my right breast, so that side needed additional mammograming, and was determined to be in need of biopsying as well.

The next step was biopsying. This is a procedure where the breast in numbed with local anesthetic and a small 1/4" incision is made for the biopsy needle to pull thin spaghetti like samples from my breast tissue. I had one ultrasound guided biopsy (on the known lump) and two stereotactic biopsies of the additional issues of concern, which couldn't be felt. During a stereotactic biopsy, essentially a mammogram is used to point the radiologist to the location which needs biopsying and the biopsy is taken under the guidance of a mammogram.

So about four hours after arriving at the clinic, I left with my chest nicely wrapped in bandages and ice, and admittedly, I was very discouraged. Now we had to wait for results, and being that it was New Years weekend coming up, the odds were we'd have to wait until the following Monday to hear official results. So we went home and cried a little and prayed a lot.