Another long wait

On Feb. 24th Jim and I drove to San Francisco for a long day of appointments that would culminate in one, two or three biopsies. Well, you know what they say about the best-laid plans....

The first appointment went just fine. I arrived at the Van Ness location to get a dye injection in preparation for a pet scan. That goes well. It's when we leave there that things start getting sketchy.

It was 10:45 and I was hungry since I had to fast for the pet scan. So I decide we'll go to Sarku at the Westfield Shopping Center. Yeah, no. They were closed even though when I looked them up online it said they were open. I ended up with a very dissatisfying chicken philly sandwich and fries. Then off we went to the next hospital. We were over an hour early so I napped. That's good!

I checked in at 1:30 and got another mammogram of the right breast. They wanted to focus in on the new mass that was seen in the MRI last week. After much smooshing and contorting, the tech pronounced success. Off I went to another room for ultrasound exploration. That didn't seem to go as well. She spent a considerable amount of time running the wand in my armpits and right breast. Then another person came and did the same thing. Finally the doctor came and did the same thing. At 3:37, I was told there was good news and bad news.

The good news was the very swollen lymph nodes seem to be related to the covid vaccine! Yikes. There were considerably larger on the 24th than they were on the 3rd. I had gotten my second vaccine shot on Feb 8th. Sheesh.

OW!! That was a lot of pressure as
they tried to find the new mass!

The bad news was they were having a difficult time seeing the new mass in ultrasound. In anticipation of the biopsy, they had scheduled me for an ultrasound-guided biopsy of that new mass and then couldn't really see it in ultrasound--it was showing up better in a mammogram. Well, that kind of biopsy (a stereotactic one) requires entirely different equipment and that room was not available until March 2nd!!!

I was moved to a consultation room and got to meet my nurse navigator, Mara. She explained what was going on. Basically, the MRI showed considerably larger lymph nodes and they needed to really check them out to rule out cancer. Then they had such a difficult time finding the new mass with ultrasound and need me to come back. So that's what I am scheduled for: March 2nd, 2:30,
for a stereotactic biopsy.

It's hard to see, but the stereotactic biopsy requires being face-down on a table
and you put your boob in a hole!!

I will not lie--I got home that night and had a pretty good cry. It's the not knowing what's coming next that has me on edge. The waiting is so stressful. I do feel better after my cry so that's good. Now to keep focus on the fact that I cannot control everything--I can only be grateful to have a team that I trust and loved ones rooting for me!!