First Three Days of Testing

Berry Smoothie Barium. Yum!

I have just finished three days of tests at MD Anderson. I had to have two surprise fine needle aspirations yesterday after another ultrasound of my breast area showed a teeny, tiny, about as small as you can get, spot on my breast. The radiologist said he thought it was probably benign, as most breasts have something like this, but since they still haven't found a point of origin, he needed to get some tissue samples to see if it was cancer.

I reluctantly agreed. I didn't think it was anything either, since no one had mentioned this tiny spot before (I had two sets up mammograms nine months ago, bunches on May 24th, and another huge set just the day before, and an ultrasound of the same area on the 24th - all were clear.)

Unfortunately, the place was so small he had to do it twice, which wasn't too bad, the core needle biopsy under my arm had to be numbed, this didn't even need numbing, it just felt like a sharp stick. That is, until he put in the metal tag to show where he had taken the biopsy. That HURT! The nurse said afterward he had to use a little bit bigger needle for the tag. Why the heck didn't he numb it then?! OUCH!

They said I would get the results in 10 minutes. Wow, at St. E. it took two days and then I had to wait thru the Memorial Weekend holiday. Eight minutes later he comes back and says it's benign. He did say he was sorry, but they are desperately trying to find the point of origin. He said that hopefully the MRI I am to have on the 13th of June will show something.

By the way he talked, it seemed like he had looked at the other test results and they still didn't show the origin. But that's just guess work on my part. I will know more when I meet with my doctor Wednesday afternoon after the MRI tests and all the others are reviewed.

So, this past week I have been poked, prodded, drank barium, had iv isotopes inserted, chest x-rays, core-needle biopsy's, two fine needle biopsy's, a clip put in, have passed out completely from a blood pressure drop and when I woke up I didn't know where I was, I have had more mammograms than you're supposed to have in a lifetime, oh, yeah, and an iodine flush. If I didn't have cancer before, I would probably have it now! If you see a green glow from the west end of Beaumont, that's me! And this is before the rough stuff starts!

I also had an echocardiogram to see if my heart can handle the chemo, which is tentatively scheduled for June 20th. I will know more after meeting with the doc next Wednesday afternoon. As always, prayers are much appreciated.