Wires, Brackets, MRI and a Timely Email

Three days before my scheduled MRI, I was sitting in the recovery room of the ambulatory surgical center with my husband who had just had hernia repair. (Hard to believe that was just last Friday.) We were having a good time joking around with his nurse, a hearty woman a few years older than us with a great sense of humor. I pulled out my smart phone to check my email, burst out laughing and handed her my phone to share what I had just read.

"Boy, I'm sure glad she prepared me for that," I said. 

The email was from a friend who is a nurse who's had breast cancer:

 "I thought I would give you a heads-up on the MRI if no one has. You are lying face down on the table with your breasts hanging down through a hole in the table...I won't go into the jokes that my co-workers thought of... "

I had that MRI this past Monday, and had a hard time keeping a straight face when the male technician rather sheepishly directed me to the table.

Yesterday, which was Wednesday, I started the day by going with Rick to drop our dog Zoe off for her orthopedic surgery before my work day started. On my lunch break I got a call from my surgeon's office. The scheduling nurse told me that the MRI showed no additional cancer so I would be able to have lumpectomy, huge relief there. Then she went on to tell me that the MRI also showed that the tumor we did know about is larger than the mammograms and ultrasound had revealed. That was not a relief, but it does make me very thankful for the MRI, because that information will help my surgeon to be much better prepared. The nurse went on to talk about wires and brackets and "localization" and the need to schedule a radiologist for the surgery. She said that the surgeon has a particular radiologist he prefers to work with, so she'll check his schedule and call me back with possible surgery dates. I should hear from her again today.

About ten minutes later I got another call from a lady who gave the name of the medical testing lab she works for, rattled off the name of a test and asked if it sounded familiar to me. It didn't. She said my surgeon had ordered it if I consented and if my insurance covered it. She had already determined that it would be covered at 100%. She said the test was to predict the likelihood of my cancer recurring within the next ten years. Maybe some people don't want to think about that, but I saw no reason not to consent. I guess this test will be part of the pathology testing that will done on the tumor after the surgery.

I did a little research into the wire and bracket thing. This is from the Susan G. Komen website:

Breast cancers found by mammography or other imaging may be hard to feel in the breast. If the tumor is nonpalpable (cannot be felt), a procedure called wire-localization or needle-localization will be done before surgery. A radiologist uses a mammogram, ultrasound or MRI as a guide and inserts a very thin wire into the breast in the area of the cancer. The surgeon then uses this wire as a guide to find and remove the tumor during surgery.

 From the Yale University School of Medicine website:

If the cancer cannot be felt, a needle (or wire) localization with numbing medication will be done by one of our radiologists just prior to your operation to help guide the surgeon directly to your cancer. Occasionally several wires may need to be placed in your breast to “bracket” an entire area of concern for excision (removal). 

I think the nurse said at least two wires will be used for my procedure, but in the words of Scarlett O'Hara,

"I'll think about that tomorrow."

Today, I'm off from work and hope to hear from the veterinary surgeon that we can go pick Zoe up soon. That poor puppy is going to need a lot of TLC. One of my friends suggested that I need a good distraction during this time and I've got no lack of those.