Radioactive Injection into Nipple NOT TERRIBLE

I'll chime in with my experience with the "nipple injections". I'm sorry to hear so many have had such bad experiences. Reading all of your stories helped me to prepare and made me experience much more bearable. I went on a fact finding mission of sorts, asking lots of questions of the mid level providers (NPs and PAs). They would not prescribe numbing cream and the nuclear techs would not use separate shots of xylocaine to numb prior to injection. They did say nuclear med would give numbing cream 10 min in advance.

I knew from reading on here as well as the pharmaceutical website that the cream's optimum numbing capability would take more than 10 min so I checked in early and nuclear med was fine with me putting the cream on in advance. I also had pain and anxiety meds for ongoing pain from fracturing my spine and 2 ribs several months ago and my surgeon's office cleared me to take those. Finally, for me I had 2 injections around my tumor site and two around the nipple.

I felt no pain, but only because my BC sisters had prepared me :-) I was very careful to check with medical professionals before doing any of this, especially since we are only 24 hrs pre surgery. Don't want to cause complications or delays there!

So prepare in advance, ask questions and double heck everything with your doctor's staff. Good luck to everyone!

Hi Arlene! I take an Ativan for the MRI- I find that it relaxes me enough to stop the reality of being sucked Into a round coffin! So I understand the anxiety. I found one Ativan before the nipple injection was great! It totally relaxed me and I didn't feel pain. I didn't care! I would talk to your BS and explain your anxiety and request something- they will know what and how much to give you. Don't accept them trying to tell you it's no big deal, it's your body and anxiety and just let them know that you tend to work yourself up and you feel that with meds nowadays there's no need to go through with procedures under duress! You'll be fine and have funat the party and celebrate!

Shari

I think the problem lies in the fact that there are such varying degrees of reaction and if you happen to be one of the unfortunate ones who does have a negative experience it's too late to ask for RX to reduce anxiety/pain. I asked the nurse about the numbing injections and she said it would then be like having twice as many injections and said that after the Ativan if I felt anything she would stop and give me the lidocaine injections. I just looked away (so did my hubby!) and was fine. Thank you Ativan

Arlene, if you think a xanax will help you, others have taken them, so do what it takes to help yourself. I had a SNB last month and my personal experience was that it wasn't that bad. My hospital does one injection at the edge of the areola. It is performed by a nuclear tech. I received mine 2 1/2 hrs prior to surgery and did not receive the blue dye during surgery. No numbing cream was offered, but the female tech was so nice and very gentle. I could feel the radioactive tracer as it entered and it was very uncomfortable. Not sure if anyone mentioned this earlier, but if your hospital wants you to come in the afternoon prior to your surgery for your radioactive tracer injection, you will receive a larger quantity of the isotope. Depending on the half life of the specific isotope your hospital uses, you have to receive the quantity that will ensure that there will be a sufficient amount at the time of surgery. For example, the tracer I received had a half life of 6 hours, so if I had gone in at 4:00 the previous afternoon, I would have received about 6x the volume that I received the next morning. If you are scheduled for the first surgery of the day, you will likely be scheduled to have the injection the day before.

Just to clarify about half lives of radioisotopes. With mine having a 6 hour half life, this means after 6 hours it is 1/2 strength, after 12 hours it is 1/4 strength and after 18 hours it is 1/8 strength, which is why they need to give you a greater volume if you receive it the day before.

I agree! It is barbaric. And I am going in the day before because they won't have a surgery time for me until that day. I don't want to have to go to the hospital thursday am for tracer and then have to sit around all day waiting for the surgery. ugh. Do you think the vicodin would matter?

Thank you, ironmagnolia...I am going to ask my PMD for some EMLA

I had this procedure done yesterday and it didnt hurt at all. The needle is very thin. I felt a tiny burn that lasted a few seconds. That was it. After that they sent me down to mamography to insert a wire. My mass was about a centimeter and they had left a marker when they biopsied it. The most uncomfortable part of it was the mammogram. Other than that, it was no big deal. I am a wimp by nature, hate needles and have a low tolerance for pain. Try not to feed into the negative. I made it through both procedures and then went on to have the "mass" removed.

Thanks for sharing jjsquire. It was good to see a recent log of how it is. Mine is on Monday, and was feeling quite anxious reading some of the 'horror stories'

i had two injections close together and the first certainly felt like a wasp sting for maybe 5 seconds the second one was maybe 1/3rd of the pain. I used emla but don't think it helped at all as I still felt the alcohol swab. Only stings when they inject. Better than I thought but did make me wince

hey Epic...My radioactive injection didn't hurt any worse than a flu shot, really. And only the shot hurt...i thought the radioactive isotope in there felt weird but it didn't hurt. And you won't feel the blue dye they give you during surgery. Be prepared for a bright blue breast and blue pee when you wake up though!

I was anxious too though. Maybe think about asking your surgeon for an anxiety med...my surgeon gave me a 6 pill Ativan prescription for moments just like that. It's not like you would take it all the time. And if you need to then it's time to talk with someone. There are excellent therapists out there (I have a super helpful one that I adore), and anxiety can be successfully treated. Cancer sucks and will make you anxious, but if you can take steps to ease that it's worth it for your own emotional comfort.

Incidentally, I barely slept for a month after diagnosis...Sat up most nights watching movies. It eventually got better. This is a horrible season but you will get through it. Think of it like a season...Seasons come and go like waves on the beach. Please keep us updated!

I had 4 injections a week ago, the afternoon before my surgery. My nurse navigator explained the procedure prior, and said it would feel like a tiny sting. Then I read other experiences on here and made me prepare for the worst. Right before the injections took place, the technician sat me down and explained the procedure. Since it was going next to the nipple, I needed to be aware that that is a very sensitive area. They could not put any creams beforehand and didn't want to inject anything prior because they didn't want to stick me 8 times. but there would be lidocaine on the needle. This whole dialogue didn't make me feel at ease. Before the radiologist came in to do the procedure, she put a stress ball in one hand and said she would hold my other hand. I was really anxious by this time! The radiologist came in and explained what he was going to do, and said it would be really quick and I would just feel a tiny sting. And he was right! I was stressed over something really minor. The first 3 were like a tiny pinch, and the last one was more painful than the others, but felt more like a deep needle poke during a blood draw. Good luck to those who are undergoing surgery soon!

Hello. I was recently diagnosed with BC, stage 1, and had a lumpectomy 3 weeks ago. Waiting for results of my oncotype, before further treatment. I am so glad to have found you folks! I have been reading up a storm, here. You all seem so supportive. I hadn't read about injections, prior to surgery. The surgeon explained it all but to be honest, I was pretty shell shocked in those first few weeks, and didn't hear most of it. I didn't get numbing cream, and my injections hurt. The first two were not that bad, but the third hurt, and then the dr. said, "Now, this one is going to hurt!". Oh. My. If I had a choice, I would definitely ask for cream. The irony is that they were unable to trace my sentinel lymph node, so I still had the dye injection after being put to under, and got to pee blue for the next 24 hours.

I hope Friday I have your exper