I am due to go in to have an excision biopsy, on a 7mm patch of calcification in my right breast, in the next few weeks. I have had a small biopsy but the results have come back as inconclusive as although they didn’t find any cancer, they have found changes in the cells and want to take it out to get a better look and also as a prevention in the future.
As the lump is so small they will need to give me a mammogram first and then insert a needle where they need to operate and then take me down to theatre - I am absolutely terrified!
I keep telling myself off for being such a wuz, as there are so many more ladies going through a lot more than me, but I would really appreciate talking to someone who as gone through anything similar.
is it the wire proceedure you are terrified of or the operation??
Someone will be along soon that has had that to reassure you, but i understand they aneasthatise the area before the start.
as to the operation I had a much bigger lump taken out and it really was not bad. I am frightened of needles so they gave me a shot of laughing gas when they put the anesthetic in my hand. They advised me to refuse the blood thinning injection when i came round if it would upset me. I take ages to recover form anesthetic but apart from grogginess and one tiny moment of nausea I was fine, they offered me pain killers but I honestly did not need them. the scar is quite neat and there is not a dent.
when do you go in for it??
I suppose it is the shock of it all really, although I am scared of the needle bit as when they did the original biopsy they also had to do that whilst they did the mammogram as the lump was difficult to see on ultrasound so they have to be guided by the mammogram.
Even though I was given a local anesthetic whilst they took the biopsy, I also managed to faint!!!
I am having the operation on 1st Sept.
I’m glad that you have got over it so well, you give me hope that I am worrying for nothing.
Hi,
I am not sure if a needle guided excision is the same as a wire guided, but they must be similar.
I had an inconclusive biopsy for what they thought was about a 5mm lump. In the end I had a wire guided wide local excision.
I was absolutely terrified at the thought of it and tried to put my brain on blank. In the end the whole day was surreal but not painful! Take something to do as you may have lots of waiting around at different places.
I had mammograms and they stuck labels on my skin but I can’t remember if that was before or after the wire insertion.
In the biopsy room I had a local anaesthetic injected into the breast and the wire was inserted just like the biopsies and I could see shots on the screen of the wire and the little white looking mass.
They cut the wire off and coiled the end up and taped it to my chest.
I spent the next two or three hours not quite believing that I was looking a wire stuck in my tit as I walked around the hospital and waited for the operation.
It didn’t hurt, nor was it uncomfortable just weird.
Do let us know how you get on and the best of luck for the day.
Hi Surfie,
I must admit it does sound the same as they have described to me. Were you in and out the same day after the operation?
What was your outcome in the end and did you have a dent where they had taken the lump away?
hi paulsbabe. i too had a wire guided biopsey, prior to surgery… dont panic… its ok …i also had calcifications , so my problem was more of an area than a lump… firstly on the day of surgery after you have been given a bed gown etc, i was taken back to the mammogram room, there i had a cupple of small injections to freeze the area, nothing more than a scratch…i was again mammogrammed… and whilst still squadged between the plates they inserted the wire, because of the possition i was in i couldent really see what was going on, but i think they nicked the skin, and pushed the wire in to the correct place using the mammo as guidance… it did not hurt at all … bit uncomfortable when between the plates, just felt a bit of pushing and twiddling… nothing at all to worry about, then whan its done its taped in to place.
not sure if your having a sentinal node biopsey at the same time as your lumpectomy, thats to look at the lymph nodes under your arm , if you are i will tell you about that too if you want me to, dont worry, its not anywhere as bad as you imagine its going to be. i had 2 operations because there was unclear margines after the first one, and yes i have a dent… BUT i only have a dent i dont have cancer… hope this helps angie xxx ps i came home the same evening
Hi,
Yes I was in and out the same day, got home about 9pm. It took me three or four days to get over the anaesthetic. The scar healed well and I was back at work 14 days after the op. Overall swelling took a month or two to go down but I didn’t have any pain.
I had more annoyance from the sentinel node biopsy but that was done because they knew from a second biopsy that the lump was cancerous so you probably won’t have that.
My outcome was a 7mm invasive ductal carcinoma ER+ The little scar on the boob is almost invisible but because the operation took away quite a big volume as they cut the wire out with the tumour, and I have very saggy boobs, the overall effect is not pretty as I now have a diagonal fold in my boob.
The process of them putting in local anaesthetic for my first biopsy was the most painful thing I’ve ever had, I didn’t faint but should have. From then on I told them (my BC nurse) I was terrified of that bit and for the next two times they were a lot more careful and put the needle in deep very slowly and it was OK.
My lump couldn’t be seen on ultrasound no matter how hard they tried.
You have both made me feel so much better about the whole procedure. The consultant has said that if they find it is cancerous that they may need to look at the lymph nodes at a later date, but didn’t seem too concerned as he said no cancer had shown up in the original biopsy, but he wanted to remove it as a precaution for the future, but it would be screened and I need to go back for the results 2 weeks later.
So were both of your biopsys benign?
Thank you both so much for helping me through this
no mine was breast cancer…i was upgraded from calcifications, to ductal cancer, after the lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy, i was upgraded again to invasive breast cancer the nodes were clear, but that does not mean anything… it does not mean the same will happen to you…
no mine was breast cancer…i was upgraded from calcifications, to ductal cancer, after the lumpectomy and sentinal node biopsy, i was upgraded again to invasive breast cancer the nodes were clear, but that does not mean anything… it does not mean the same will happen to you…
I take it as the mass was small it was caught early? What treatment did you have to endure after the diagnosis?
I had this done. I had an area of calcification. Much bigger though four and half cms. They did a biopsy and it came back DCIS, I then had to have a wire put in via ultrasound, then mamogram to check it was in the right place and then went to theatre. I have to say it did not hurt one bit, even though the whole process took about and hour. After surgery I was upgraded to Invasive as well as DCIS and then had to have my nodes tested. They were clear but they didnt get good margins so I had to go into theatre again. They got them clear this time, but I went from being told it was early and I would only need radiotherapy and tamoxifen, to finding my cancer is her2 positive so I will now need chemo and herceptin, as well as tamoxifen and rads, so I have gone from having “early cancer” to having every treatment thrown at me, but if it gets me better it will be worth it.
Good luck and try not to be scared, it really does not hurt one bit.
xxx
Ps my invasive was very small, 3mm and two x 1mm, but Her2pos cancer is aggressive so needs the full treatment. My mums cancer was lobular and 7cms!!! But hers was not as aggressive as mine, so size doesnt always mean its bad or not bad, its what the cells are like and whether they are hormone positive, her2 positve, grade one, two or three. All these things are what make the difference.
Good luck xx
me again… i did not have a lump or any symptoms of breast cancer, my calcifications were picked up on a routine mammogram, to say i was shocked is an understatement, i was gutted, because i always think the worst. i was called back for further testing, this was a scan and another mammogram, i then had core biopseys done, and went back the following week for the results, my surgeon did not mention cancer, she said i had cell changes, alarm bells rang… she said she wanted to do further core biopseys to tell her exactly what was wrong… i then said is it cancer, and she said yes, very early breast cancer… i had the biopseys done on the thurs, the following monday was bank holiday but she wanted to see me the following day tues, to discuss the results… it turned out i had dcis, and invasive breast cancer, i had a wire guided lumpectomy, and sentinal node biopsey, 2 weeks later i went 4 the results… you seem to spend a lot of time in the waiting room worrying… good news was my nodes were clear, but there was one edge of the lumpectomy sample very close to the margin… so i had to go back for further surgery, just a bit more removed , i then had 17 radotherapy sessions, 15 to the whole breast and 2 boosters to the scar area, i am now on aromasin for the next 4.5 years,i was very fortunate my cancer was picked up really early, at the moment i am doing very well, had my first mammo post treatment on 9th june, and thank god , no cancer, just scar tissue… thats my story, hope it answers a lot of your questions, its such a worrying time and i hope this helped to explaine my cancer was stage 1… grade 2 … ER/poss … angie xx
I must admit even though the consultant said there were no traces of cancer in the stereotaxis biopsy I had, he did still say there were changes in the cells and I must admit I’m a bit of a worrier so I always tend to think the worse.
I did ask him if the site where the calcification was was fast growing and he said ‘NO’, so I have been trying to hope for the best but it’s very difficult. He did say that I could think about if I wanted to go ahead with the biopsy, although he did advise me too as he said I would only be putting off the inevitable of what may happen in the future, so I didn’t know if I should take that as a good sign or a bad one.
I feel so silly as I’m tears half of the time imaging the worse.
I just feel so out of control and so helpless and feel like I should be able to cope with this but I’m struggling.
im sorry if ive made you worry more, thats not what i wanted to do, firstly calcifications can be a normal process, they can occur naturally and they are nothing to worry about, as for having it removed, my advice to you is yes, if something is not supposed to be there , then get rid of it… its better gone… im so sorry if i have worried you, you asked what happened annd i explained , but thats only what happened to me… its not the same for other people…everyone is different, i have a friend, she had a rather large lump in her breast, she had puckering and a discharge from her nipple… she had tests and her lump removed… i obviously thought the worst, as did she… hers was nothing, just lumpy breast tissue and an underlying infection… hers was good news , as im sure yours will be xx
i too would accept any offers to have a lump out. They can only tell so much from biopsies but if they send a lump and the little bit of tissue round it to a laboratory they can definatley know what is going on in your breast. My biopsy showed slow growing cancer, once they got the slow growing beast out (2.5cm,) they also found some tiny invasive cancers along with it which they might not have known about. My nodes were clear and so the only treatment I need is radiotherapy to kill the invasive cancer and tomaxifan tablets to stop it coming back.
I have osteoporosis so the tamoaxifan will help me with that and it will get rid of all the precancerous cells they found.Normally they dont treat the precancer, just keep monitoring it, so I am glad they found invasive cancer because now I can get rid of my precancer too
Oh Angiem, please don’t think that you worried me further as you haven’t, I’m just worried all the time !! I suppose it’s because it’s going into the unknown, and that’s why it’s so nice to have all you ladies to chat to and to listen to what you have gone through, as it just shows not matter how things can seem there is always light at the end of the tunnel.
I never thought you could go through so many mixed emotions . . . first I’m fine, thinking ‘this won’t beat me’ and everything will be fine . . . to then feeling tearful and just feeling helpless!!
I am seeing my GP tomorrow as the consultant was a bit concerned that I had been on HRT for the last 25 years as he says that the risk of getting BC doubles after 5 years on it!!
Thank you all for all your honesty and inspiation, it is helping me so much x
Paulsbabe, The Waiting Room is the worst place to be in all of this, and The Rollercoaster is the standard form of transport. We all have ups and downs, and I don’t just mean good days and bad days but emotions that swing wildly from one minute to the next. Horrible, but very normal. And even if your results show “benign breast changes” or whatever term they might choose to use, the worry of not knowing, and the only thing you do know is that you’re in the dark and have no control, is a huge strain.
Seems to me you’re doing the right thing in talking about your fears with people who’ve had them themselves, so keep talking to us, we know the dark thoughts that you can’t keep out of your mind.
CM
yes the roller coaster of emotions is quite normal, some people get it more than others.
25 years on HT?? Did he never discuss taking you off it?? Dont think that makes your lump definately cancer though. the figures say something like if you look at 100 women not on hormone replacement 12 of them are likely to get breast cancer, but if you look at 100 on hormone replacement then 18 are likely to get it. so that means if you have 100 on HRT, 82 are not going to get cancer–you could easily be one of those 82. These figures depend on what sort of replacement therapy you have, and wether or not your ovaries are working (its less if they are not)
However, even if the lump is benign it might be a bit of a wake up call and give you and the gp food for thought about wether the benefits of HRT outweigh the cancer risk.