At the clinic today i explained my extreme instument phobia. I said that I would get upset, but would keep competely still and they could carry on and do what they had to do.
I got through the core biopsy, not much crying or screaming and even relaxed half way through.
the needle biopsy under my arm was worse, perhaps because i was still distressed from the first proceedure or perhaps because they could not use an aneasthetic. Anyway i still kept still and kept relaxing the area so that it was not too tense to work in. But after a while he stopped and said. I am not doing any more, I will not work on a patient that is screaming!! I am so upset about it. If he has not got enough I have to go through the whole thing again,and the worry of another proceedure is far worse than the worry of the results, and it might delay the diagnosis.
If I could manage to keep still and not stop him, surly he could have managed to carry on
I am so angry at him to, i got 5 core biopsies taken last week and they are not nice. I had lovely women who were very gentle. Men grrrr. Dont let this get you down, ask for a sedative the next time.Thinking of u.x
'have to wait till next thursdays appointment for results, told not to make any plans for the summer.
Oddly enough I am still in cloud cuckoo land about it all. More worried about how much its going to hurt when the aneasthetic wears off and can I manage my band rehearsal tonight. Totally laid back and fatalistic about next weeks meeting’
Sorry, i’m confused now. Was the area numb or not? I’ve never heard of sugical procedures done without anesthetic. How on earth would a person keep still?
for the core biopsy they used a local anesthetic. for the needle biopsy under the armpit they did not use anything
old and lumpy the main bit is to find out if the lump has cancer in it… if its not a cancer or is DCIS alone then you dont have to worry about the node anyway as its maybe just being reactive to what else is going on.
they may have gotten enough cells from what he had already removed to give a diagnosis but all diagnosis are only provisional and dependant on what they find during surgery.
the only thing that if they know you had cancer cells in the nodes at the outset they will normally remove them all rather than doing a sentinel node biopsy but you can discuss this all with your breast surgeon.
sorry you had an awful time… im a bit of a woose when it comes to needles too although not got a phobia just hurts after being knackered from chemo so i always tell the doc or nurse just to ignore me as i go lalalalala and LALALA if it gets very sore.
skittle what a way to warn you that it maybe bad news… it doesnt sound like your being fatalistic more like being realistic.
take care x
Gosh, I would not like to be under your hospital. Firstly to treat you that way when you have told them you have a needle phobia, how cruel and uncaring. Big hugs to you.
Also, telling you to “not make any plans for the summer” good grief, what a thing to say. They should not be saying things like that until they know for sure its cancer. My doctors were the complete opposite, I kept asking them, do you think its cancer. I got the standard, we dont know, we wont know until we get the histology reports back. I found out after speaking to my bcc nurse that, they were pretty certain it was cancer, by the way the cells looked, but they have been wrong before and would not ever give a patient any answer until they knew for sure, as it can upset or cause terrible distress if there wrong.
I hope things improve for you.
xx
oh I am not scared about the comments. the doctor went through the different grades, and i meant to record what he said, but was too distressed after the biopsy. anyway I think he was saying that it was still very possibly benign but the thickening of the lymph nodes but it up a grade into possibly cancer but need more info.
i am glad the breast nurse made it clear that i should not make plans till we get that info. Means i will not accept any more bookings for now.
The radiologist was very unhelpful about wether i should rehearse tonight because of the biopsy, and wether i should cancel my gig next friday. The Breast nurse put it into perspective and told me to go ahead with both We agreed that for me being bruised was less important than missing the rehearsal, and that anything that was decided next thursday was not going to happen by next weekend.
And yes you are right. He got enough cells from the breast, so that should give them enough info to see what sort of cancer it is, and knowing from the lymph nodes wether it has spread or not is a secondary thing at this stage
Hi if you do need to have a sentinel node biopsy, you wont have to worry about needles, well apart from the one to put you to sleep, but they give you a general as its quite invasive surgery. I only had two nodes removed, but nevertheless it was still very painful afterwards. They don’t do the nodes biopsy until the cancer is confirmed. I had my first lumpectomy when they thought I just had dcis and because of this they didnt want to do the sentinel node biopsy, as if the cancer is still in the milk ducts there is no way of spread. Once I had my results back and was told I had invasive as well as the dcis, I then had to have the node operation. Thank fully for me the nodes came back clear. I am now waiting to get a surgery date. This will be my SEVENTH operation in just over a year, as I had a hsterectomy just before christmas and then was diagnosed with cancer, it never rains but it pours eh lol
Good luck with your results.
i am now confused, I was told the proceedure I had without anesthetic was a fine needle node biopsy, was that something different to a sential node biopsy
Oh yes, a sentinel node biopsy is when they remove the sentinel node or nodes to see if the cancer is in them. THe sentinel node or nodes (I think there can be more than one sentinel node) are the gateway to the other nodes (I hope I am explaining this right) anyway if once the nodes are tested they come back clear then it is taken that you do not have node involvement. Mine were clear and I had two removed to be biopsied. But if it comes back that is cancer in them you go on to have all or quite a few of them removed. I was surprised to find out that even having only two removed that there is still a chance of lymphodema and therefore I was given the sheet with various dos and donts etc to read.