Waiting is getting on my nerves

Thanks for the support. :-) I didn't hear anything today--and I really thought I would. I guess no news is good news, but I think I'm going to start twitching if I don't hear tomorrow either. Well, no. If I don't hear by noon tomorrow, I'm going to make a call or two to find out what's going on.

Sue

So I called and they got back to me with the pathology report. The verdict is a radial scar (a small complex sclerosing lesion) plus atypical lobular hyperplasia (in addition to the atypical ductal hyperplasia that we already knew about). Because all of this means there's still an increased risk of some LCIS hiding in the area, and because they like to be conservative, I'm going to have to have another needle localization biopsy so they can take the area out and take a closer look. The clinic nurse will be getting back to me to schedule that. The good news is that today's results are benign. Yay!!! The bad news is that I get to have more surgery and wait some more.

Sue

Still waiting. I saw the BS yesterday for about 5 minutes. I asked for a copy of the pathology report, which the doctor had one of his minions get for me after he'd left the exam room. I was given the patient's version of the report which has essentially no information on it other than the names of the findings. I've been given real path reports in the past, so I know they're actually much more detailed. So that was irritating. I also asked about the cosmetic impact. The doctor told me that he'd be taking about half of a tennis ball's worth of tissue, but couldn't tell me the location of the resulting dent without looking at the "pictures" which he hadn't done. This is concerning because I already had a similarly sized biopsy on that breast. I wear a size A bra, so that much tissue creates a very noticeable deficit. I also asked about risk and was told not to worry as only about 15% of these biopsies come back positive. In my mind, 15% is fairly significant--not to mention that my research here and elsewhere online leads me to believe that the doctor minimized the risk by nearly half given that the core biopsy showed atypia. The 15% rate is for patients who don't have atypia I think. My final concern was the anesthesia issue. My previous biopsy was very unpleasant as they only used a local anesthetic and it wore off partway through the procedure. I don't want a repeat of that experience, but I'll be taking that up with the anesthesiologist in a couple of days. I'm also supposed to see a MO about going back on Tamoxifen again. I took it for 5 years after my first biopsy, but that was over 15 years ago, and as I understand it, they now know that the effectiveness wears off over time.

The actual procedure is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 6th--followed by the 5-7 business day wait. Because Veteran's day is smack in the middle of the following week, I can't expect results until sometime between the 16th and 18th of the week after that. All of this started on Sep. 11th when I got the callback from the screening MRI. It will be more than two months, and the waiting is making me crazy. I wish this would just be over.

Thanks, Sierra. I'm waiting again. I had the incisional biopsy done this past Friday. We're expecting the path report to be available a week from tomorrow. All went well with the surgery. I have another 2-inch scar to add to my collection. It's too soon to tell what the final cosmetic result will be. The only negative thing so far is that I had general anesthesia and reacted to the muscle relaxer they used. Apparently, sometimes it makes your muscles ache for a couple of days after the procedure. It's called Sux myalgia. I felt like I'd run a marathon--just super stiff and sore all over--but now I'm back to normal. I feel pretty relaxed about the outcome, but I'd still like to *know* sooner rather than later.