Biopsy

What are all these tests for anyways? Making sure the cancer hasn’t metastasized in my bones, organs or lymph nodes. The first place breast cancer usually metastasizes is in the lymph nodes. One of my lymph nodes was a little inflamed so we decided to get it checked out. So next up… lymph node biopsy!

The lymph node biopsy was similar to the breast biopsy I had on the original tumor. For these types of tumors and for lymph nodes they usually do a less invasive procedure using ultrasound guided biopsy. So they have 2 clinical staff working on you at the same time. 1 ultrasound technician and the MD. The ultrasound tech controls the ultrasound to find the tumor or lymph node while the doctor numbs you with a local anesthetic, makes a small incision and inserts a fairly large needle that has a little grabber at the end. The doctor grabs the tissues that are needed for testing and then goes back in and inserts a little clip. This clip shows up on MRIs and other scans to show that was the tumor or lymph node they took tissues from before. Anyways, the entire biopsy only takes about 30 minutes and after the numbness wears off I was a little sore but not bad. They have you use an ice pack for swelling and send you on your way.

So after my biopsy… of course I went back to work, because what else is there to do. So I am going to see one of my home health patients as an occupational therapist and forgot that I still had the ice pack in my armpit. I went to lift up my arms to show him an exercise and the ice pack fell on the floor in front of me… how embarrassing.

So, like I said, IF the cancer was going to spread anywhere it would usually go to the lymph nodes first. IF the cancer spread already, we were looking at a way bigger problem than just breast cancer. So at the time I didn’t think much of the biopsy results, however in hindsight, these were probably the most important results besides the original diagnosis. So…. Drumroll please.

And… lymph node biopsy came back CLEAR!