I’m not sure that I slept for more than 60 minutes in a row last night and was utterly exhausted when my alarm eventually went off.  To be fair I was also being kept awake by my friendly fox, AKA Foxy, who regularly visits my garden and was clearly seeking attention.  I think he’s cross with me because I threw away his favourite toy on Monday (an old Croc shoe)… It was totally tatty and in bits due to his favourite game when he picks it up in his mouth and flicks it over his head only then to retrieve it and do it all again!   Last night he brought me an old tennis ball and then spent quite a while throwing it at the wall just below my window!

Anyway I digress.  I arrived on time for my appointment this morning and was expecting a mammogram with a vacuum assisted biopsy being taken whilst my boob is clamped in the machine.  However I was told that I would be having another ultrasound, further mammogram pictures and then the ‘clamping’.   Wow what a long procedure this was to be.

As before the ultrasound didn’t show up any ‘dots’.  Next off to the ‘boob squishing’ where the dots were clearly visible.  Next they lay out a bed beside the machine where I would lie on my side whilst my boob is clamped tightly in place and pictures taken.  The pictures, fortunately, were clear and I was in the right position for the next part… the biopsies to be taken.  The Dr injected anaesthetic into a number of places and whilst it took effect he lined up the biopsy syringe and switched on the ‘vacuum’ so I knew what noise to expect.

Despite all the anaesthetic and the very clear explanation of what would happen, I wasn’t ready for the reality!  Blinking bananas that was truly painful.  Essentially a larger core of tissue is drilled out and then suctioned up.  They took a few of these and next had to check they had some of the ‘dots’ in the samples taken.  If not, we’d be doing it all again!  Next they insert a small piece of titanium as a marker to show exactly where the biopsy tissue has been removed from and so that future scans show this easily.  Hmmm I would have thought I’d have had platinum and the anaesthetic should have been champagne but I guess they’re cutting back on the NHS.

Fortunately they got enough and the ‘needle/straw’ was removed and I was released from the mammogram clamp.  Only 15 minutes in the clamp.  I then saw the hole that was left… I guess I’ll have a marker of my own to look at every day now!

The tissue will be reviewed by the pathology team to see if there’s anything untoward in it.  It could just be ‘chalk AKA calcifications’ but I won’t know until it’s been under the microscope.

Crazily I thought that I’d be getting the results when I meet with my sarcoma consultant this afternoon but apparently not.  They’ll be giving me the results from a sarcoma/phyllodes perspective ie chest x-ray, ultrasound and mammogram results but NOT the pathology results from this morning’s biopsies.  I’ve been given another appointment for those results on the 22nd July.

I guess there’ll be a few more sleepless nights!  Hello Foxy, fancy a game of catch?

OK so they promised to call this afternoon.  Why is it that ‘this afternoon’ is more than just a specific time?  I’ve been on eggshells all day however have put it to good use – 3 lots of washing (done and dry), walk in the park, grocery shopping, front garden weeded, yukka trees pruned and hedges tidied up, lawns mown, jasmine tied back, back garden weeded and cleared out, patio hosed down, pathways swept and tidied, roses deadheaded… etc!  Amazing how much you can achieve when you’re trying not to realise the time is passing and the phone isn’t ringing.

The phone eventually rang at 4.30pm and the lady from the Marsden introduced herself.  It was clear that she wasn’t sure if I knew exactly what had been seen on the scans nor what was ahead.  I told her I did and suddenly the call became so much easier!  Upshot is that they’ve made an appointment for me on Thursday to have stereotactic biopsies under mammogram in the morning and then see my sarcoma specialist in the afternoon for the results.

How efficient is that?  Both appointments in the diary.  The specialists have seen my earlier scans, I’ll have the results delivered to me by my consultant with the pathology already completed.  And all that within a week since the ‘dots’ were first found on my scan.