the wire placement before the surgery

maryvanessa1:  My breast was numbed while they inserted the wire - did not feel a thing.  I did not watch the ultrasound monitor while they were doing it (did not want to freak myself out) and did not look at the wires while I waited for the surgery.  Did not have any pain when they injected the radioactive dye for the SNB either.  I was under "twilight" anesthesia while the surgeon did the SNB and the lumpectomy.  Did "wake-up" during the procedure but felt no pain and now do not even remember what was going on - just remember that I was aware that they were doing "stuff".  Don't even remember now that the surgeon came and talked to me afterwards.

Hi Maryvanessa1,

 I am scheduled for June 2.  I am learning so much on these pages.  I never even considered that they would not use a local when inserting the wire.  Now I am going to ask!

Hi all-

On the day of my lumpectomy, I had to have two wire localizations performed-one for the DCIS under mammogram, then one for the small IDC under MRI.  My team was great.  The DCIS wire was done with a local, took about 45 minutes in all.  The MRI was a different story.  I have a really bad neck (degenerative discs) and cannot lie comfortably on my stomach with my arms overhead without substantial pain.  I learned this the hard way when I had my diagnostic MRI without pain med and almost passed out from the pain.  It took about 45 minutes.  Therefore I asked my surgeon for a darvocette for the MRI wire insert; it was still tough but tolerable.  The MRI wire insert took about 1 hour, and my tumor was really close to my chest wall, but...they got it with clean margins thanks to the MRI.

IMHO the more you are able to hold still for these procedures the better.  I can't imagine why a radiologist wouldn't allow numbing to get the patient as comfortable as possible.  Seems counterproductive.  After the two wire inserts on that day, the SNB injections didn't seem too bad...but I had the darvocette in me at the time, so maybe that was why it didn't hurt so much.

Whew...just writing about it brings back some wild memories! It's worth it to get all the tumor/area clean however.

Wire Localization Gone Awry: I had a lumpectomy last Monday May 8 and wonder if anyone has had this experience: the wire did NOT stay where it was placed and the my BS had to try three times to get the titanium marker out that was placed after the stereotactic needle biopsy. I spoke to the radiologist afterwards who placed the wire and she does not know why this happened. She said it used to happen a lot before they put a hook on the end of the wire. I felt her tug it to be sure it was in place, she took a mammo of it before taping it and she saw that it was placed correctly, and I went down to surgery. The BS said she had to call the radiologist during surgery. The BS said in 20 years this had only happened to her once before. What was supposed to be a tiny incision on a very small woman and breast ended up being a much larger area with a long incision. Disappointing!

For me wire placement was a piece of cake. Numbed locally for sentinel node and wire placement and was over before I knew it. I was more nervous about this than anything and was pleasantly surprised how easy this part was. The wire was tape to chest covered with gauze and then headed another 30 minutes to hospital. Because of insurance wire placement done one place and surgery done at hospital two hours later. Only thing that was awkward and a little uncomfortable was mammogram to check wire placement otherwise was ok getting in car to go to hospital and waiting for surgery. Good luck!