Scheduled to meet with Surgeon before Biopsy?

My biopsy was done by a surgeon so I had to meet with him to go over the mammogram and decide what was going to be done.

We discussed the different biopsy methods and I decided on an excisional biopsy (a lumpectomy when done for biopsy purposes).

Autumn,

If an excisional biopsy is done, you will have some form of anesthesia to put you under. I had Versad.

You will be woozy for a while post-op and your will be in pain from the biopsy.

I doubt you could return to work that day and may want to take the next day off as well.

Your surgeon will tell you when it would be safe to return to work.

The standard procedure at my hospital is to have an ultrasound following a suspicious recall mammo, then meet with the radiologist and breast navigator; the latter then sets up an appointment with one of the breast surgeons at the hospital who orders the biopsy. So this sounds like your schedule, including the fact that all of this transpired between Thanksgiving and Christmas. After my recall mammo and ultrasound on 12/4, the navigator set me up for a visit with the surgeon on 12/7 for a clinical exam and history. I had the ultrasound-guided needle biopsy on 12/17; the surgeon gave me the bad news on 12/21 and on 12/28 we set up my lumpectomy for 1/7, his first day back in the OR after the holidays. So basically a month elapsed between the recall mammo/ultrasound and the surgery.

As for returning to work, depends on the type of biopsy you have. Most gals have spoken about excisional ones, which are more complicated. If you have an ultrasound-guided needle biopsy, you can do pretty much anything you want, since it's done under local anesthesia (like lidocaine) and is quite a non-issue--the mini ice-pack they gave me to stick in my bra worked just fine! tgtg

I'm glad you could get your biopsy moved up. The waiting IS awful and with the added delays due to holiday closures it can be even more miserable.

You should be fine returning to work after a core biopsy, although you'll probably do best if you avoid heavy lifting and such activities as jogging and vacuuming for the next day. Usually you'll be given an ice pack and instructions to use it 20 minutes on, 20 off for the next few hours. It DOES make a difference to do so. Also, avoid any blood thinners such as aspirin, NSAIDS and fish oil until after your biopsy in order help avoid bleeding/hematoma.

You may be pretty shaken up afterwards and, if you took ativan or similar, it might be a good idea for someone else to drive you.

Good luck. I hope we won't see you back here except to report that everything's o.k.!

Best wishes, Autumn.