First Meeting with A Breast Surgeon

November 11 I went in to the Breast Surgeon referred by my PCP. They had already requested the mammogram and sonogram imaging to review and received the reports from the radiologist at the hospital. Weight was 207 (down 8 pounds due to my no wheat/dairy/coffee regimen) - Blood pressure was 123/93 - again high to me, but better than at the hospital. I met with Dr. B in the exam room. He palpated my breasts (a fancy way of saying he did a tactile breast exam with is hands). He asked me if my hair used to be red (yes!) and he went on about how redheads have a greater amount of *hister* something, I don't recall what exactly, that makes redheads skin react to emotions and thoughts. We redden easily. Something I've always hated and unfairly blamed on my poor parents. He said that the nodes felt fine and he couldn't feel anything other than the mass I originally felt, but there needed to be further tests. He asked me to lay down on my side and rolled over a sonogram machine (I was feeling more familiar with these machines now). I asked him if he was taking another sonogram and he said not really he was going to perform the biopsy. Biopsy? I squeaked. He immediately stopped and said "Do you want to wait and do it another time?" I had to think a few minutes - what were my options? Did I want a biopsy? I guess yes, I wanted one so we could see what were dealing with. Did I want it now?? Well, why wait, I'm here and besides I'd have to pay another $40 copay to come back - the $40 copay made my decision easy - "okay, let's do it now". His nurse (I think she's also his wife, but I haven't fully determined that) got out some needles and bottles and the goopy gunk for the sonogram and rolled out a different machine for the biopsy. Dr. B located the mass on the sonogram (again with the same difficulty afforded the tech at the hospital) then he gave me a double dose of a local anesthetic and told me he had to go deep because the mass was close to my chest wall. He told me the biopsy was a needle that he would guide down into the mass and then a little clipper thing would come out of the needle and cut a little clump off the mass (I'm sure he was much more clinical and eloquent in his description, but you get the idea). He then demonstrated the sound the biopsy machine would make when it took the piece - it was like a thunk. I'm glad he let me listen to it a couple of times first because it was kind of a scary weird definitive sound - maybe it sounded closer to a guillotine? That said he bellied up against my back, pushed in the needle and then pushed really hard - He had to work it to get the needle in deep enough to take the biopsy. I felt nothing, until he pulled the needle out and that made my stomach feel a bit like I was falling. He did one more, this one a little easier since he already made the path. Dr. B stitched a tiny little single stitch where the hole from the needle was - told me to call next Monday and if the results were in he'd see me on Tuesday. So I had a hole in my breast - I figured this was the first of the indignities that would be performed on my poor breast. But one step closer to figuring out what my future will be.