Painful core biopsy

I'm sorry I do not have much information for you.  I do know that with my stereotactic core biopsy I had a hematoma for 3 months.  It was still painful and sore the morning that I was going in for surgery to have the mastectomy!

I hope others will add their thoughts and they may help you...

Hugs,

Ang

Amain, sorry to hear that your core biopsy was so painful. I also had a very painful experience followed by swelling and a hematoma. The hematoma even bled weeks later; suddenly all this dark-looking blood appeared in the shower! When I had my mastectomy later, the surgeon told me they found a significant hematoma left from the core biopsy.

You should follow up until you are confident that you have had the best possible treatment for your situation.  It doesn't matter if you have no prior family history; if they found DCIS in You, guess what, now you have family history! You should have some kind of answer from that biopsy, was it DCIS or not? I don't have time for doctors shrugging or giving ambiguous answers. You can have your biopsy samples transferred to another hospital.  Find another doctor that has definitive answers for you, it's worth the extra effort.

Hope this helps

sue

I thought the core biopsy was the worst part of the whole thing!

I hated being on that table. 

I didn't have a hematoma but it wasn't pleasant and took almost a month to heal. Are you keeping pressure on? 

Be sure your insurance will cover the MRI before you agree. They are expensive and not a solid standard of care so approval before the imagining would be prudent.

I think that it depends on the location of the biopsy.  My first biopsy was on the right breast on the lower center quad.  It was uncomfortable but not painful and no hematoma. 

My MRI came back with some unexpected results, per the doc "not indicating" cancer but she wanted me to have another diagnostic mammo on both breast and "if needed" another biopsy.  Turns out that they biopsied both breast.  The right breast lower left quad, again uncomfortable but not painful.  However on the left breast they biopsied near the nipple, and just the injection of the lydocaine almost pulled me up from the table, and to make matters worse, they biopsied 2 areas of the left breast and both near the nipple.  That has been almost 3 weeks and my left breast is still tender. 

The results were that they found an additional area of cancer in the right, changing the required surgery from a lump. to a mast.  The Dr. said that the found a benine tumor in the left and it needed to be biopsied.  When she said that I almosted fainted, I told her I did not think I could do that again, then she explained that she ment surgically and would do it the same day as the mast.  Which has not yet been scheduled.  I am hoping for immediate reconstruction, only to get the majority of the pain and disability over with at one time, and the PS and OS have to match up their schedule. 

Youch!  Me too.  When they told me that they were going to advance the needle I was thinking more in terms of a syringe than a pneumatic ram.  It startled me so badly I nearly jumped off the table.  Needless to say I sustained a pretty good size hemtoma and some very colorful bruising as a result.  I know a graphic description of the procedure would have been hard to take but I can't help feeling that had I been better informed my reaction might not have been so extreme.  I'm 9 days out from the core biopsy and I stopped sleeping with my bra on about 2 days ago ( I hardly ever wore one before this,  Ironic,huh.).  Anyway, a heads up might have been nice.  Forwarned is forarmed.  Right?

ljperez TX,

Yea, I guess you're right.  Knowledge is power but that core biopsy beats all, huh?  If I have to do it again I'll definitely make them wait until I'm REALLY freeling the Valium before I even disrobe.  Looking back, It does seem like "their schedule be #@!%*!" would have been the proper attitude to take.  I wonder if there's a practical  way to for us to be sedated even more.

As for scheduling, I share your frustration.  In an effort to waste as little time as possible I am returning to my primary doc for a referral for a 2nd opinion even before I've had my 1st surgical consult.

YES! I was furious after mine. I had recently had my first colonoscopy, which other than drinking the nasty stuff, was entirely pleasant, and I'm not a feminist rabble-rouser, but I swear it's because men don't have to have breast biopsies. It should be treated just like a colonoscopy, where you're put in a happy place. I have to have another biopsy, and I am going to beg my BC surgeon (a woman I haven't even met yet) to do it in a more humane way.

 An earlier poster is right, it is barbaric, and there's no excuse for it in this day and age. I was not prepared for how painful it would be, and what a toll it would take, and I felt patronized by the whole thing.  

Girls, I'm so sorry to everyone who had crappy core biopsy experience! It should NOT be that way.

I have to have another biopsy, and I am going to beg my BC surgeon (a woman I haven't even met yet) to do it in a more humane way.

An earlier poster is right, it is barbaric, and there's no excuse for it in this day and age. I was not prepared for how painful it would be, and what a toll it would take, and I felt patronized by the whole thing.

So this is a different surgeon than the one who did your first one? Hopefully this one will go MUCH better.

I had my first stereotactic core biopsy on Tuesday, and it went the way I think most core biopsies should go. (I had at least a dozen cores removed, probably more than 15, throughout an area that covered probably 1/3 of my breast... a 4cm mass area plus a larger area of calcifications). 

Maybe my experience wasn't typical, but from what my doctor said, there shouldn't be any major pain during the procedure! The only pain I felt was mildly when the anesthetic was being inserted. I grimaced throughout most of the procedure, only because I was afraid it was going to hurt, and the doctor kept asking if I was feeling pain, but I really didn't.

I think bedside manner is half of it. My doctor was very kind and considerate, and explained what he was about to do every step of the way, and let me know what I might feel and/or hear. He let me listen to my iPod (though I ended up having it on low most of the time because we were chatting). We were talking and even joking (NOT recommended -- I was afraid I was going to laugh with that thing in me!). The assistant was sweet and actually held my hand near the beginning of it (when I was still somewhat terrified it was going to hurt).

I had met with two other doctors previously and didn't like how they brushed off my questions and tried to bully me into doing things a certain way. To me, that was a clue that they may not be the most caring during a procedure like a biopsy. (Maybe they are, but I needed a doctor I was comfortable with and who was very patient in answering my questions.)

If any of you need to have another core biopsy and weren't happy with how your doctor performed yours, PLEASE consider finding a different doctor. I think of it this way... the way a doctor performs a core biopsy is indicative of how skillfully they will perform a lumpectomy/mastectomy.

Granted, a core biopsy (especially when you have a rather sizable area to be sampled) isn't exactly a day at the spa. But, as I told someone afterward, "It was more painful than a massage, less painful than a brow wax!" If yours was done harshly to the point that it felt barbaric, PLEASE avoid going back to that doctor if you possibly can! 

Mine was a painful experience too. Made me really really nauseated. They did numb me up pretty good, just like going to the dentist they said so if you require alot of numbing shots at the dentist they will double it up for the core biopsy. I also had some pain pills and took one before I went or I cant imagine how painful it would have been without it.   Its one of the most painful things Ive had. Ive had  2 c sections, hysterectomy, 2 breast surgeries and just had eye surgery last week. A radiologist performed mine, not my breast surgeon- oncologist.