Nuclear dye injection

Nutella

locate, not local !

Momushka

Nutella - thanks for the explanation.  Now that I've read up on this I think I'm not even having SNB.  My surgeon only mentioned checking the lymph - nothing about sentinel.  Time will tell tho.  If I see those nuclear nipple needles coming at me  I'll just close my eyes and breathe deeply.

Solarbeam

I don't get it.  I had this done and the doctors and nurses told me it would hurt, but didn't give me any numbing cream or anything.  My husband was with me when I had the dye injection done and I found the worst part of it for me was the look on his face as he watched the needle going in.  To me, it was just a needle and it didn't hurt much at all.  Then again, I had a lumpectomy with the removal of 10 nodes, and a subcutaneous mastectomy only 3 weeks later, when the drain tube came out each time, and with no pain at all.  My husband and doctors say I just don't seem to feel pain the way most other people do, but I don't think I'm that far from being human.  So to all those out there who are about to get this done - yes it's a needle, but it's only a needle.

Solarbeam

I don't get it.  I had this done and the doctors and nurses told me it would hurt, but didn't give me any numbing cream or anything.  My husband was with me when I had the dye injection done and I found the worst part of it for me was the look on his face as he watched the needle going in.  To me, it was just a needle and it didn't hurt much at all.  Then again, I had a lumpectomy with the removal of 10 nodes, and a subcutaneous mastectomy only 3 weeks later, when the drain tube can out each time, and with no pain at all.  My husband and doctors say I just don't seem to feel pain the way most other people do, but I don't think I'm that far from being human.  So to all those out there who are about to get this done - yes it's a needle, but it's only a needle.

Nutella

well said  Solarbeam- there's a lot of scaremongering on this thread !

sopris

Momushka, don't avoid treatment that will help you LIVE!  SNB isn't that bad.  I agree, I just went thru it, and it was much scarrier to think about than to do.  They need to know how far or even if the cancer has spread.  I made my doc promise NOT to take lymph nodes if he didn't have to.  And he didn't!  I am still  sore, but the result of the SNB is much LESS chemo than I would have gotten without the SNB.  Remember, we can tolerate anything for an hour or a day or a week.  But DEATH is forever!  We want to LIVE!!!  And all this treatment is to get us to the rest of our lives.  Don't loose sight of that.

Solarbeam

Exactly Sopris.  Anything we can do for more ammo agaisnt this is a good thing.  If all I needed were a bunch of needles, even daily, just to beat this thing, I'd do it in a second.  A needle is the least scariest thing about cancer.  Don't give up ladies!  We can do it!

My husband wondered what would have happened if we went straight to an airport after that injection.  That could have been interesting.

kamico3

To me the nuclear dye injection was pretty painful, maybe partly because I didn't expect it to be. If I had to do it again I would never consider NOT doing it because of the pain, however. The pain only lasts a few seconds and it is totally worth doing as it's part of the cancer diagnosis and treatment. I was very grateful to have the SNB and not to have to have more lymph nodes removed. It sounds like the pain that people experience is very variable, maybe a personal thing or maybe having to do with the technique of the person doing it, or maybe having to do with whether you get to use numbing cream or not. In the overall scheme of what we have to go through having cancer it is only a minor blip on the radar screen!

BarbRocks

I had the strangest thing happen to me... it didn't hurt!  My surgeon and radiologist both apologized to me before the procedure was done for how painful it was going to be.  I must be the luckiest girl in the world!  I am so sorry that my experience is not the norm. 

Artemis

I'm glad it went so well for you, BarbRocks!

delaine

Hello Everyone

I had SNB one week ago. I was told to buy Emla cream at drugstore. I used it and absolutely never felt a second of pain. The radiologist and a hospital worker both warned me it would hurt and the hosp. worker even squeezed my hand during the injections  but it was really nothing to worry about. I would ask about the Emla cream before, in case your particular doctors do not want you to use it, but it did the trick for me.

kane744

Gee, I had the Emla cream and they told me to apply an ice pack on my way to the hospital.  Did that plus took an Ativan and by the time I got there was so numb I didn't feel a thing.  I was so worried beforehand too.  By the way, has anyone ever had a sentinol node biopsy that didn't work?  Mine didn't and I had to have a full axilary dissection.  My surgeon had discussed this "remote possibility" with me beforehand so it wasn't a complete shock when I came to, but still, it wasn't what I had hoped would happen.

plantdoc4

I recently went through the SNB with the isotope shot.  I was very scared about the shot pain but I handed my radiologist this article on adding lidocaine to the injection and they agreed to do it. I felt nothing and the radiologist asked to keep the article for future patients.  I suggest anyone concerned about the pain give this to their radiologist. It helped me !

http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/surgery/new_research/20090806.jsp

SoCalLisa

I had it done almost nine years ago and they gave me the lidocane shot without my even asking

yasminv1

Everyone has different tolerance to pain. I had the dye injected rbefore going into surgery and honestly it was uncomfortable but not excrutiating pain. They had not even started giving me pain medicine when they gave me the dye. I was so surprised that it was not as bad as I had heard.