No post clip mammo?

slk12

After being told by the radiologist and nurses that referred me to have the biopsy, they mentioned I would need a post clip mammogram. Actually, the nurse for the biopsy said it as well. However, when checking out, the lady at the desk said that the surgeon said that I didn’t need to. Is this common? Would it be better if I double check to see if I should go have one

AlwaysMeC

Did you have a core biopsy? They usually take the mammo to make sure the clips are in the right place. Maybe the surgeon felt confident that they were. At my center, a radiologist does the biopsy. If you had a surgeon do it, he/she might do things a little differently? It wouldn't hurt to ask.

slk12

Yes, it was a core biopsy. I confirmed several times with the lady at the checkout and she asked the surgeon, so I suppose it was because she felt confident about the placement. She said I had some bruising from the mammo/ultrasound the day before, maybe she was taking it easy on me! ;

gamzu710

Not to worry you now after the fact but my radiologist did not do a mammogram to check the clip placement after my core needle biopsy and it ended up that she had missed the lump. Instead she sampled right next to it. It was an obvious, palpable nodule easily visible on U/S so I'm not sure how it was missed but it was. And if she'd done the post-procedure mammogram and seen where the clip was, she might have realized at the time. Fortunately the results did come back as ADH which warrants excision biopsy and my surgeon caught the cancer at that point but it should have been diagnosed weeks earlier and I shudder to think what would have happened if we'd left it.

There is a reason they're supposed to do these.

LivinLife

I've had 3 biopsies and had 3 clips placed with mammograms after to check on placement... Wondering why they didn't follow what I assume is protocol. I'd probably be following up with someone on that..... The post mammo is to make sure it's where it should be - there's reasons for that.... I should add each time they did the follow-up mammo the clip was where it should be though still....

slk12

Anxiety does funny things to our minds. The thoughts I’ve had while trying to determine why the surgeon didn’t think I needed one have been extreme! I’ll call on Monday about it and see if I should go in and have the mammo.

slk12

I suppose it’s worth mentioning, I was told that my breast tissue is dense, plus it was just before I started my period and a week after my Covid vaccine. The mammo didn’t even pick up the lump. So maybe that’s why?