April 26, 2011 - Biopsy

The biopsy cracked me up because the best way I can describe it is that you are "worked on", almost like a car in a car shop!  You lay flat on a table and your breasts hang through an opening on the table...then you are raised up by a hydraulic thingy (think of your car being jacked up!) so that the doctor can work underneath you.  Fascinating.  They poke you with a numbing agent in the affected area and then get to work; taking samples of the tissue in question with a very small needle.  During the process they also insert a very small "marker" into the affected breast.  It looks like a fleck of gold, actually.  They tell me that this marker will show them instantly where the cancer is, in the event that surgery needs to be performed.  It's over lickety split, in about 15 minutes.  They lower me from the table and then take some additional glamor shots with the mammogram machine, then give me a bandaid and an ice pack.  The breast was definitely sore that day and the day following, but quickly healed.  They told me the results would be back the following day by 2pm.  EGADS...the waiting!