Breast lumps

Thanks mucho for advice. I wish I'd done the ice sooner. Might have avoided purple boobs. I look so.....punk, or something. And I didn't get 'little one inch incisions' either; one is about 5 inches long. I'm gonna have a talk with the doc Monday....my internal bully is rearing it's ugly head

So you've got two kids? I just have one daughter who is now 32. I thought she'd drive me insane when she was a teen, but we made it through. Whew. She kept me busy when she was younger. I don't know how women deal with more than one child. Admire your going to school fulltime- good for you! I have a friend who has her LCSW. You don't have far to go to get your master's now. What's your dissertation about?

Hi littlek,
No, the idiot doctor didn't suggest it and neither did hospital, but it felt better when I iced the area so I figure it's ok. Too bad it's not Halloween. I could go as myself and scare heck out of folks. It looks yucky. And I am still waiting to hear about biopsy results, so having panic attacks most of the day today.
Bathsheba
Dianne

It can be uncomfortable, for sure, but sure isn't as bad as getting biopsies! The joke on the mammo machine here shows a woman with boobs like saucers and says 'it's magic - you come in with cups and go out with saucers'. Haha.

I still think some woman oughta invent a testiculorgram.

Bathsheba
Dianne

I was just checkin in on ya, but...

Owww

RH

So, you hear the results from the doctor on Monday? Is that it? I'm feeling so badly for you. I can't believe how long they make you wait for info.

Wow, I've never heard of anyone passing out before,that's a new one. What happens is they compress your boobs one at a time. I don't find it painful, just uncomfortable. It only lasts for a minute or so. I don't know the age recommended for women to begin mammos - is it 35 now?

If you have a mammo tech who knows what she's doing it's no worse than some other yearly exams I could mention.

Bathsheba
Dianne

They recommend the first mammo at 40 unless there's a family history.

Hey, I had a purple boob when I had my lumpectomy. Quite a belligerent boob it was. I should have taken a photo but it didn't occur to at the time. Hang in there, girl. (hang? girl?) Well, you know what I mean. I had my needle biopsy on Tuesday, and heard on Friday morning, and that was, as previously mentioned, a hell of a week for everybody around, not just me.

Whatever was there, was there. It's just the finding out one way or the other that is happening. Well, that's my view. If it was a serious something, you are on your way to dealing with it, taking care of it. If not, scary experience, but warranted, it sounds like.

Marty,

Maybe you should consider a little mild anxiety reducer, like Antivan, before you go for the mammo or other stuff? Or a stiff drink?

They have to squish you to get a good read on the xrays, especially if one has dense boobs or implants. You'd think, though, that with all the modern technology somebody would come up with a less uncomfortable machine.

Boy, this waiting is making me a really old, old lady............hope for good news soon!

B
Dianne

littlek,

No, I've been having these for over 20 years and they are just uncomfortable, not painful. Just speak to the tech before they begin and she can explain what they'll be doing. Watch women as they emerge from the waiting room after the squishogram. It's not that bad. I find it humiliating but then so much of what we women go through is. I never had any soreness afterwards and they squish me to the max because of the fibrocysts. Don't put it off, like I said, it's much better than having biopsies!

Bathsheba
Dianne

Hmmm......not sure we have one of those in our area. Does it squish less?

Are you in the medical field, Miller? It'd be nice to have a doc on board.

Bathsheba
Dianne

I can't remember how many mammograms I've had. I started with them, I think, in my early forties. Have the records but don't want to go ferreting around.. it might have been my mid forties. One a year. Found out I had ca-lite (but who knew at the time, that's another story) when I was about to turn sixty. Then had another bunch of followup mammos. No mammo ever hurt me.. slightly uncomfortable, and the techs varied in their pressing down behavior. I remember them all as solicitous of whether it was hurting. So, what is that, probably approaching 30 mammograms over decades, without significant pain.

Maybe some people's or departments' techniques are more painful (I seem to remember reading or hearing that more squish past a certain point is not any better than to a certain point, but don't trust me on that. Or maybe some women have more nerve endings in fine places. Seems more like technique to me.

Hi Dutchy,

Thank you for the well wishes. We hope the wait won't be much longer either. I'm exhausted.

Are the words/trivia games going well? I'm still trying to figure out how to see which posts have just been replied to. Got too much on my mind to figure out the new and improved ak2 (rolls eyes).

Bathsheba
Dianne

You said it.
And thanks for the good thoughts, jespah. Waiting is the hardest part.

Bathsheba
Dianne

Thanks, littlek. That's sweet of you. A friend in the states had a lumpectomy and it took her 3-4 days to hear anything. It's the standard waiting time. This sample went to pathology in Vancouver so it takes a while longer. The good thing is that everything is on computer in Canada as far as medical records so any doctor can give me the results once they are electronically entered into the system.

When I had surgery in Feb 08 the doctor called me at around 7 PM 3 days after surgery to let me know he was in his office and saw my report and just wanted to let me know my ovarian cyst was benign. Bless his heart, he knows what hell we go through. I'm not going to ask the surgeon who did this for the results but am bypassing him and asking my GP, who has a heart. I can't believe the surgeon won't tell patients over the phone that it's benign. I wonder if compassion is taught in medical school?

Patience is not one of my virtues and I got a bit testy on the phone today with the recept.

Heading for another glass of wine........
Bathsheba
Dianne

You deserve another glass of wine - enjoy!

Did we scare you off with our stories of pain? Sorry!

It's an owie alright and I wish this was over with. Thanks for checking in, RH, you're a nice fella.

Bathsheba
Dianne

Hi ossobuco,
I just wondered what a ca-lite is? I've never heard of it.

Bathsheba
Dianne

When you get to know me, you'll learn I make up words. Ca is a medical shortcut word for carcinoma. Lite, well, like lite beer. In other words, I had a small one, caught early, but it also seemed to be fast out of the duct by it's position re the pathology slides and I had a second lumpectomy (making three procedures) for my surgeon to be sure she got it all.
I had radiation after that, and checkups at various levels until a point where my surgeon told me I was over this. And that is true. If I ever get ca again, it won't be from that situation.

Re me, I have a little information on my profile - if you click on the name ossobuco above my posts. It doesn't say on there that before I studied landscape architecture I was a clinic and research tech for, thinking, exactly fifteen years, thus my comment earlier about having worked in that hospital.
Didn't work there as a tech, but in high school and all the way through university. Knew a lot of the people from those years, but also from my work in various labs... even though by 2001 it was a lot of years later.

Ossobuco,
I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. It's a scary time. But at least it's over and done with and you're ok. I still don't know how I will wrap my brain around cancer, if that's what it is. My impulse will be to run and keep running.

I guess that's what is scaring me - the possible side effects if I need radiation or chemo. And maybe it's too late for that. It's the not knowing! I don't understand why it has to take so long to look at a pathology specimen and determine if it's ca or not. I understand your medical shortcuts - I worked as a medical transcriptionist and front/back office, and nurse-in-training (didn't finish) so I've been in the medical field for many years & know enough to be dangerous. I have my mammo and ultrasound reports and what is scaring hell out of me is the sentence "soft tissue mass demonstrated with suspicious calcifications associated with it. This is highly suggestive of primary neoplasm". It is 'irregular' in shape and has 'acoustic shadowing'. None of this bodes well for me and I know it. I have microcalcifications which are higher for ca than macro. Could still be benign but we're trying to prepare for not good news......I am not the eternal optimist but am working on it.

Do you miss working there? Are you retired or work part-time?

am going to have my prn glass of wine!
Bathsheba-Dianne