I had today off from work. Apparently I decided that kicking off a holiday weekend, would best be accomplished by sitting in the doctor's office and having my breast biopsied.
The whole procedure and consultation took about an hour and a half. Basically, the biopsy procedure begins with a sterile prep (minor surgical procedure...important to minimize the infection risk with the betadine scrub) and then using a sterile ultrasound wand, the lump is located. Lidocaine (with epinepherine) is injected around where the insertion site will be, and then the needle actually is inserted all the way to the area that will be biopsied, numbing along the way. Thank heavens for Lidocaine-I didn't feel any pain during the procedure-just pressure and tugging. The insertion site is made using a small scalpel, and then a special probe which can drill out the tissue sample is placed in the insertion site, and then "drills" over to the lump. I could see the probe, lump and tissue being harvested on the ultrasound machine. It would have been much more interesting if it hadn't been me lying on the exam table. The doctor took 5 tissue samples (although when she transferred the samples to the specimen cup, the samples looked like blobs of blood) and had them sent to pathology. There was a little bit of bleeding, so I had a pressure dressing for about 10 minutes, which was replaced by three steri-strips with a gauze dressing covering the steri strips. I'm not supposed to shower for 24 hours, so I guess that means I can't have my evening workout tonight.
I was numb until a little while ago, when the lidocaine wore off. Now, it feels like someone punched me repeatedly in the chest, and I have quite the bruise. It hurts. I guess I'm just feeling sorry for myself right now, although I'm sure I'll eventually stop whining. As this is a holiday weekend, I won't have results until at least Wednesday. Thanks for all of your positive thinking-every little bit helps!
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