I spent a lot of time explaining this procedure, fearing it and trying to work up the requisite nerve to undergo it. I woke up this morning per usual a few minutes before the alarm, then laid in bed waiting for it to buzz feeling butterflies flitting their wings in my stomach. I still couldn't get used to the idea that over the course of an hour and half, I would be repeatedly moved in and out of an MRI machine while the radiologist intermittently placed plastic grids on my breast, inserted a needle, checked its placement, pulled a sample, then send me for mammograms. So I got a prescription for xanax from our family doctor yesterday. The bottle said to take 1-2 as needed half an hour prior to procedure. Not having taken it before and fearing that if I took one and it didn't relax me, I'd be stuck in an MRI tube with a big titanium needle in my boob held up by what is essentially a plastic quilting square with needle-sized holes in it and there would be nothing I could do about it. That's scary shit right there, so naturally I took two.
Two Xanax actually made it possible for me to briefly pass out on the MRI platform (not while in the machine), and then come home and sleep for three hours more. Noted: 1 Xanax is sufficient.
They put me into the mri machine, pulled me out, propped up my left side with foam wedges to encourage my right breast to hang lower through the cut-out in the platform where they tugged it, pinched it, pulled it, secured it between two plastic plates, and continued doing so over the course of two hours, which would have been awful if I hadn't taken a bit too much Xanax. As it were, I didn't mind terribly, until they pulled me out of the machine for the final time and sent the radiologist to explain that the suspicious spot is too close to the chest wall for her to be able to reach it through this biopsy process, or apparently any biopsy process because the ultrasound guide failed and the mammogram couldn't pick it up either.
All of this means that the only remaining solution is to wait until the say of surgery, have yet another MRI wherein a fine wire will be inserted into the breast and left sticking out like an antenna, and the surgeon will then follow that wire down to said suspected cancer, remove some tissue, and send it for testing. Of course, that will only happen if I have a lumpectomy. If I have a mastectomy, they will remove 98% of the breast tissue so this pain in ass spot will be taken care of.
So now we wait again and hope that Monday when we go to U of M we will get some of our questions answered.
haha oh dear...i had to LOLZ at your xanax adventures, in spite of the lame facts surrounding them. still kinda laughing...you cutey.
ReplyDeleteso does this mean that on the day of your surgery, they'll test that tissue for cancer and then if it is cancer, will have to do ANOTHER surgery afterward? that just seems to suck too much to be plausible...but i guess that's the thing about cancer, huh?
thinking of you.
This means that on the day of surgery, they will send me for an MRI and do a very similar procedure where instead of taking a sample, they insert a thin wire and some dye into the spot so the surgeon can find and remove it while she is removing the other tumor. For the morning of my surgery, I will have an boob antenna. Then that tissue gets tested to find out if it was cancerous. If yes - great! hopefully they got it all out; if not - bummer, better safe than sorry.
ReplyDeleteJust realized I totally neglected to answer your question - it means only one surgery, all this happens on the same day.
Deletegot it, that makes sense. i sure am glad *i* don't have to figure out how to fix the gol durn dang ol cancer...because i would suck at it, massively. such important, serious decisions being made, all the time...yikes. zoinks!
Delete