So here we are again, another biopsy, just shy of a few weeks from three years ago when my surgeon did my first biopsy and diagnosed me with breast cancer.
This time I was only in pain when my surgeon gave me the shot of lidocaine. He kept asking me if I was OK because the needle was in for a little bit as he moved it around at different angles to numb the area around the mass. I was facing away from him so he couldn’t see my face for a reaction, so I appreciated him asking me how I was doing multiple times, as it was just another example of what a kind and caring doctor he is.
I had to lay on my right side so he could easily get to the mass because it was at an odd angle on my neck. Since I was lying on my side, I was able to watch the ultrasound monitor and see him put each needle in the mass, collect a sample, then pull the needle back out. As he put each sample into a small container with a tiny amount of saline, his assistant closed each container; there were three in total. He said that the mass is about 1 centimeter, so I hopefully caught it early enough.
All in all, everything went fine. I should have the results back at the latest on Tuesday. I couldn’t help but notice that my surgeon told me that he was taking the samples over to the lab personally, right away. Yes, that did concern me a little, his urgency, and that only made my gut feeling about all of this feel more valid. He also told me that he spoke with my oncologist and that if my results are positive, my oncologist will order the PET scan asap.
My gut feeling is based on these events, are they coincidences? This mass is very much like the first one three years ago in many ways. It feels the same and looks the same on the ultrasound, and there is something else, each time I have had pain in another part of my body before finding a mass. I first had pain in my neck, shoulder, and shoulder blade a few weeks before finding my tumor. I thought I had slept funny, but as the days went by, the pain did not go away. This time, around Thanksgiving, I had terrible pain on the outside of my ear, going up the side of my head to the top of my head. As I said in a previous post, my oncologist ordered an MRI of my head, but it was clear, so we had no explanation for my pain. I was in agony until about two weeks ago when the pain suddenly stopped, and I now have found another mass.
I will update as soon as I have the results…prayers! 💕