Hi Ladies
Could someone please help me and tell me what this involves. My surgeon has recommended snb as a fine needle aspiration was inconclusive. Is snb a painful procedure?? How will my arm feel afterwards?? xxx
hi
i had a sentinel node biopsy 10 days ago. i had it under a general anaesthetic along with a wide local excision. The snb scar was a little larger than I thought it would be, and bruised a lot. The op itself was no problem and recovery ok. My arm was a little numb for a couple of days but that has gone now. I have been very careful and not lifted heavy things. Still got some swelling under my arm but they say that can go on for weeks so am told. Gentle shoulder exercises and keeping my arm on a cushion/pillow when sat. Good lucky - it really is not too bad. I was just relieved to one more step of this very long journey over.
I had SNB. First of all you have to go and have some radioactive liquid injected into your breast (this was done through my nipple) it sounds painful but it was not at all. Then you wait for a couple of hours for the material to spread to the lymph nodes. Then they take x-rays and this shows the sentinel lymph nodes closest to the site of where you had or have your lump. These are then marked and you go in the next day for the surgery. Mine were removed from a incision under my armpit about 2cm long, under general anaesthetic. They gave me some simple exercises to do after the op. I have never had any problems. (mine were done last december). You must not draw blood from that arm after. SNB is better than regular lymph node biopsy as there are less complications afterwards. Basically they only take out a couple rather than a whole bunch, which can cause lymphodema. Don’t be scared. xxx
Hi,
I had sentinal node procedure about 5 weeks ago. It is not really a biopsy, but the removal of a few lymph nodes to see if they are clear. I was given a dye as well as the radioactive tracer. The tracer was put in by injection in the side if the breast, no more painful than a normal injection. The dye was put in under general anaesthetic. Both were done on the same day.
The procedure should have a lot less side effects than lymph node clearance - particularly less liklihood of lymphodema.
If you have the dye, you will have blue wee for a couple of days, and possibly lips, and a blue tinge to your skin.
My scar is quite big, about 4cm, and I had 8 nodes removed, the nurse told me that it is more usual to remove 3ish, and to have a smaller scar.
There was puffiness around the scar for a couple of weeks, and some loss of sensation, but this has gradually disappeared.
I got some tightening in the arm/shoulder, but no real pain - I’d recommend doing the exercises from the BCC leaflet a few times each day.
Hope it goes well, and remember everyone is different, if you are not sure talk to your breast care nurse or the helpline and ask rather than worrying.
XX
Just thought I’d add - spoke to the surgeon about the 8 nodes bit - he said that they also need sometimes need to remove a bit of tissue to get to the sentinal node and he sends all the tissue off to be analysed, not just the node they are after. So sometimes get some of the tiny nodes in the tissue.