I won a breast MRI biopsy!

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leaf
leaf Member Posts: 8,188
edited March 2019 in LCIS (Lobular Carcinoma In Situ)

About 7 years after ending my 5 year tamoxifen course, and a routine (now) annual breast MRI, I won a breast MRI biopsy for a

"BI-RADS Category 4: Suspicious. There is a 0.8 cm mass in the central to 6: 00 position of the right breast 4 cm from the nipple. This lesion demonstrates plateau kinetics....for which MRI guided biopsy is recommended. "

This is my first breast biopsy since 2007. Curiously, this is the opposite breast from all my other breast issues. I am curious why they call it a 'mass' since I can't feel any lumps, and nobody has given me a breast exam except me in the last year. A little surprising since more contralateral breast cancers in LCIS women are lobular, and this is described as a mass, which would be more characteristic of IDC ( or DCIS?) . Well, I'm glad its not a BIRADS 5. I sure hope this doesn't take 3 months to diagnose like my LCIS.

I'm definitely calmer than I was in 2005 when I was diagnosed with classic LCIS.

I sure don't like how Dr. Halls says "The tissue sampling or biopsy itself does not hurt, most are performed with local anesthesia so the biopsy shouldn't be at all painful."http://breast-cancer.ca/2d-biopsy/

I had a pain score of 9/10 (for bracketing, immediate pre-excision), and on my next breast biopsy, I pulled out of the clamped mammo machine due to fear and cried the whole way through it. I know this is NOT common; when I did a survey here, the average pain score (in 2006) was 5/10. I will be SURE to lather up with lidocaine jelly; if I can't get anything else, it will be Orajel.

Knowledge is power. I'll post how this turns out.

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  • Moderators
    Moderators Member Posts: 25,912
    edited August 2017

    HI Leaf,

    We're sorry to hear you're going through this scare. Please keep us posted on how everything goes!

    Thinking of you,

    --The Mods

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited August 2017

    I'm sorry. I know how anxious you must be. Will they be able to get you in soon to get the biopsy over with

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited August 2017

    I don't know. It has to get an insurance OK first. I had my breast MRI last Fri am, the radiologist's report was written at about 3:30pm, and my provider's order was written before the end of the day, when they notified me, by logging into the secure site. I thought that was really fast. (Its sort of strange because my regular OB is on maternity leave, so she has a fill-in MD or NP who I haven't seen before writing the orders. I have my regular yearly appt with her (the fill-in MD) on Aug 23. So its rather strange to have all this stuff written by someone or multiple people (MD/NP) I haven't met.

    Thank you for your kind wishes. I will keep people posted.

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited August 2017

    Anne, one of the things I've learned from being here is that a diagnosis of cancer (or whatever) does not preclude future benign crappy BS findings. Maybe the antihormonal damped down the proliferative changes before. I hope that is the case for you. No experience of an MRI biopsy, so I'm no help there.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited August 2017

    Thank you for your kind wishes and thoughts, Melissa. I, too, am glad tamoxifen held it back for some 10+ years. (Anne is awb, and I'm glad she's not going through this.) While I have my employer's health insurance, I don't like going through this with all the national health insurance uncertainty currently. Glad I have decent health insurance right now.

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited August 2017

    Sorry about mixing you up with AWB! My insurance is so bad right now I might as well not have any, and I am paying a fortune for it

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited August 2017

    leaf - Crossing my fingers and toes that it is benign. I hope you're doing ok. Ugh. Thanks for keeping us updated.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited August 2017

    Thanks so much, Melissa and Lucy! No worries, Melissa about the mixup. I hope none of you has to use their health insurance, and feel so awful for the entire current health insurance situation. I think health insurance is a very complex situation that needs a lot of thought and planning, and affects all of us. Its so sad that so many people want benefits, but don't want to pay for it. The whole idea of insurance is to even out the financial risk, and if you group the sicker (higher risk) people together without the balance of the healthier, the sicker people will have to pay more, either through higher premiums or reduced benefits. I will keep you posted.

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  • cyclegal
    cyclegal Member Posts: 59
    edited August 2017

    I don't know you, leaf, but I have appreciated the great information you have posted on the LCIS boards. I'm sending positive thoughts your way that this is just a blip. Best wishes :

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  • beach2beach
    beach2beach Member Posts: 996
    edited August 2017

    I hope it turns out to be nothing Leaf.

    As a note, I had a neg mammo/ and sono showed some tiny masses. Ones on one breast were benign. One on other was 7mm. Radiologist thought it was just my tissue, since she could smush it down with the sono handle. Very dense breasts. Winds up I had a biopsy and it was ILC. I had a mastectomy(my choice since I've had so many neg biopsies and I was tiny boobed that taking out tissue would leave me at an A- in a bra :) ) Pathology after showed LCIS , ILC with some tiny DCIS. Go figure since they say ILC runs flat and usually not papable and not seen until bigger. Maybe the tiny bit of DCIS made it lumpy. Who knows. Radiologist did say had I still been getting MRI's(my ins denied me after 3yrs of getting them for dense breasts and my sis having had bc at 48), they may have caught it even earlier.

    You provide so much valuable information and insight, thank you, and I wish you the best on this outcome.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited August 2017

    Thanks so much, cyclegal and beach2beach. Apparently it will take 2-3 weeks to get an answer about insurance approval, then, if approved, waiting for the appointment and sample processing and reading. So it hopefully will not take 3 months.

    Thanks for sharing your experience, beach2beach. I've heard that 'breast cancer doesn't read the books we write about it'; in other words, breast cancer doesn't always follow the generalizations we make about it.

    Thanks again, all of you, for your support. I'll post the results.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited September 2017

    Woohoo! Good news! Just more ALH bordering on LCIS, radial scar, etc. No invasive or in situ. (I already have known LCIS and ALH in the other breast.)

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  • MTwoman
    MTwoman Member Posts: 2,704
    edited September 2017

    That is great news Leaf! Am so glad you didn't get any bad surprises!!

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited September 2017

    Thanks so much MTwoman! Thank you for helping the newbies learn about their situations. It sounds like you have a lot of good sense (which unfortunately isn't common.)

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  • MTwoman
    MTwoman Member Posts: 2,704
    edited September 2017

    Hug

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited September 2017

    So glad for you Leaf

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited September 2017

    Yay - great news!

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited September 2017

    Thank you so much! But, its not over until its over. My GYN wants to send the report to my breast surgeon, which means I MIGHT need a surgical excision.

    I'm trying to get her to send it to a DIFFERENT breast surgeon, because my original breast surgeon was great technically, but clinically was awful. (My BS said 'if you want bilateral mastectomies I will fall down in my chair - this was BEFORE she said Hello, or if I had any family history. Then, post-breast excision, after I described my horrendous wire insertion (by a different doc), this BS said 'If you have an awful time again, tell the CEO.' I just wanted her to say 'I'm sorry this happened to you.' (Takes 2 seconds.) This wire insertion was a 9/10 pain score procedure (it wasn't a 10/10 because I'm sure it would have been worse if they tore off my arm), they said I couldn't move, if I cried I would have moved, I ended up cringing EVERY time a doctor walked into the exam room, and pulled out of my next mammo-guided breast biopsy, etc.

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  • cyclegal
    cyclegal Member Posts: 59
    edited September 2017

    Great news, leaf!!!! So happy for you :)

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited September 2017

    Thank you, cyclegal. My appt with my preferred surgeon is Nov 20 (this is just the office appt, not an appt for an excision), so I will update in the future, when this thread is probably buried. Thank you all for your best wishes!

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2018

    Got surgical excisional biopsy yesterday.

    MUCH better experience than in 2006. I'm SOOOO glad they have upgraded the wire insertion protocol, and the difference in pain between my 2006 wire insertion (Pain score >9/10) and my 2018 wire insertion (Pain score a few pinches that were up to a 7, but overall about a 2 or 3/10) is like night and day. I think the main differences were

    a) I got a sympathetic radiologist

    b) I got plenty of lidocaine injectable beforehand and

    c) They use digital mammograms now so they don't have to leave the room to develop the mammogram images (silver on plastic sheets like photo negatives). My needle insertion took less than half the time of my first one in 2006.

    The radiologist who did the procedure yesterday said the old-school people didn't believe in lidocaine: they believed it was 'just a needle insertion'.

    Interestingly, they used glue to stick the skin back together, with no bandages! Last time, I had a Valkyrie - like (as in Wagner's Ring opera) bra with stitches and all.

    Now, waiting for the results of the biopsy.

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  • MelissaDallas
    MelissaDallas Member Posts: 7,268
    edited January 2018

    Leaf, I'm so glad for you that it was better this time. They used glue to close me instead of stiches too. Much more comfortable than stitches, though you have to be a little more careful fo a few days not to do anything to pull on it. Sure beat the skin blisters I got from steristrips

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited January 2018

    Wishing you only benign results, leaf. Glad this time was easier.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2018

    Thanks so much. I'll post the results when I get them.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2018

    Yes! My biopsy turned out all shades of atypical lobular neoplasia, to LCIS, but no invasive

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  • Beesie
    Beesie Member Posts: 12,240
    edited January 2018

    👍🏻 👏🏻 🍾 !!! 😀

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  • farmerlucy
    farmerlucy Member Posts: 3,985
    edited January 2018

    I don’t know how you do it. Arrrggh that screening would drive me crazy. Would they have expected Tamoxifen to clear that?

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  • cathybee1
    cathybee1 Member Posts: 21
    edited January 2018

    That's great news! And so glad it was easier on you.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2018

    Thanks for the congrats, though, obviously I had no choice in my diagnosis.

    Farmerlucy said

    Would they have expected Tamoxifen to clear that?

    I don't know. Maybe I'll find out more in my postop appt tomorrow.

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  • leaf
    leaf Member Posts: 8,188
    edited January 2018

    At the tumor board, they said no other treatment needed.

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