Mammogram guided Sterotactic Core Needle Biopsy

Birads 4b.  On Valentine's Day I arrived having had a US-guided FN bx ordered-they did another mammogram on arrival because I had waited 5mos to proceed with biopsy (yes, surgeon refused to even consider mastectomy/lumpectomy and I don't have enough clout/money to force the issue.)

When I looked at the machine I realized they had changed their mind to mammogram-guided core bx. (Wear your glasses when signing the consent-US was crossed out lol.) The machine resembled my dad's drill press turned sideways.  

I felt very blessed to have the sitting-upright-in-a-chair version-most likely since my area of concern was not deep into the breast and was near the areola and I have large breasts that compressed well in the mammogram machine. I suspect deeper areas of concern/smaller breasts might be better off with the stomach/dangle version.

They compressed my breast and then twisted/tilted the plates to satisfy the radiologist/computer. There was a nail gun sound in the beginning-I figured they shot a hole in me lol-that was all I heard-probably because a tech thought she needed to engage me in distracting conversation.

The resident dr did 3 lidocaine injections-each one a little deeper. Tiniest needle I have ever seen-like a strand of hair. I could not feel the needle enter my flesh even though I was watching (they talk too much about pain out of context increasing women's fears-they should be more descriptive imo.)

With the first injection my only sensation was when the lidocaine began to flow into the tissue. This sensation lasted 1 second tops and was exactly like a putting piece of Dentine gum in your mouth-nothing more. (No pain after that no pain throughout the biopsy no pain leaving no pain in the week to follow-a tiny tiny bit of bruising appeared around 7days later.)

A teeny teeny tiny incision was made-watched it but couldn't feel it. The long apple corer (core needle if you will) rotates as it drills in and then out. Kind of surreal watching but couldn't feel a thing. When the core samples (12) were removed the samples were imaged separately at another machine-procedure report said the image contained "all" of the microcalcifications.

Then the titanium bead was placed. I didn't research this in advance, wish I had, I would have declined it.  

I was bleeding as they pulled out of me for good. (Not sure why they said very little blood in breasts-lol I can clearly see blue veins!) I said to the resident to let it bleed for a bit. (I believe in blood letting.)

Because of the distracting, and angle, I could not see the exact entry location-it wasn't until after I removed my tiny dressing 4days later that I realized they entered at the edge of the arreola.

My path results were available 5 working days later. I have read many biopsy reports but apparently my pathologist was a man of few words/english: 1. Microcysts  2. Fibrous tissue  3. calcifications in milk ducts(benign).

I am on a 6mos recall schedule for mammogram. My genetic testing only showed one variant-51c. Genetics counselor estimated my lifetime risk of bc is ~25% and they recommended I have an MRI each year in addition to mammogram.

Given that US imaging only saw one mass (and I felt the imaging tech did not comprehensively scan my entire breast) and I feel other masses nowhere near the imaged mass/biopsy, I am most eager to get that MRI. And I still want a mastectomy, more than ever now, because I feel even more threatened by the invasion stirring up trouble.

My biopsy took ~45min. I was dressed in my jeans, with an open in the front waist length hospital gown. They tucked large flat sheet-like pads around the waist of my jeans to prevent blood stains. I left just before 5pm the place was deserted. They gave me one of those squeeze and it turns cold ice pack to place in my bra. Frankly it was nowhere near as cold as real ice. I walked out, caught the next bus, and stopped at the pharmacy downtown on the way home. Went to work the next morning.

On a note of humor, when I stepped out of the shower after my dressing was off, I chuckled looking in the mirror. Basically, for 45 minutes of my time and the insurance company's money, I had a wonderful breast reduction and breast lift done. If you held a ruler up to each nipple there is about 1/2 inch difference in elevation and perkiness, if you will. That is slowly resolving as the breast refills and sags again.