This morning was my ultrasound appointment for Boomer the Boob Tumor. It’s a four-day weekend for S, so he was able to stay home with the girls (thank goodness, I was not looking forward to trying to find a babysitter).
A resident radiologist (Captain) did the initial scan and was pretty quick about things. After maybe 5 minutes of looking at Boomer, she was done and brought in the attending on staff today. He did a quick look himself and showed me what we were looking at–regular tissue vs. Boomer tissue. And then he said: it all looks pretty normal… Well, not like regular tissue, but not something that sends up any red flags. In their line of work, it was explained, they categorize what they see as an A, B, C, or D level lump, D being the kind that send up the warning signals. He said Boomer is an A, so not very worrisome at all.
I’m still going to worry.
He said he saw two options. The first, a biopsy, leads to some risk since I am breastfeeding and plan to breastfeed for at least another year. I think he called it a fissure, but essentially there is a small chance that poking holes in my boob could lead to milk sprouting out of places that from which milk really isn’t supposed to shoot. If I decided to go that route, he said, they would use an even finer needle than normal, but he said they would be able to get what they needed. The other option, and the one he said he would lean toward is to just keep an eye on it. He would have me come in for repeat ultrasounds at six months and a year to do some measuring, and if there was significant change, then we would do the biopsy.
I asked if I would even be able to get in for a biopsy before we PCS. He said we could absolutely get it scheduled in the next few weeks, but if I wanted to wait, he would schedule me a second ultrasound for February and then go from there. After discussing all of the moving we would be doing this year, he agreed to let me just go ahead and get it done so that I wouldn’t have to try to follow up at unknown locations.
They had me get dressed and then meet with the nurse practitioner to set up the appointments. I have to go to a pre-procedure appointment in 10 days, and then two days following, the actual biopsy itself. As she was going through everything, she said the doctor wrote down it was a cystic lump, which, if I have my information correct, is a much better case scenario than if he had said it was fibrous.
Obviously, they aren’t ruling anything out since I am having a biopsy. But I guess I feel a little bit better. I’m hoping to know more of what to expect after the first appointment, but she did warn me that I shouldn’t nurse F off of the biopsied side for 48-72 hours after the procedure so I don’t encourage milk to squirt me in the face from the biopsy hole. That has me a little worried, but it is what it is. I can continue to breastfeed from the other side, but there’s always a risk.
I guess all I get to do now is wait, git stabbed with a giant needle, and then wait some more.
