A Gentle Needling

Today was my needle biopsy. That has such an ominous sound. Needles and my breast are not words I want in the same sentence. But it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared. No boobs hanging through holes on a table. Thank God! The radiologist numbed the site over the lump with “bee sting” pricks. Let’s not pretend that bee stings don’t hurt but it wasn’t bad enough to evoke yelps or groans and was over quickly. I didn’t even feel the big needle go in and only had mild twinges as they took samples using the large needle as a canal for smaller needles to zip in and grab a piece of the tumor/cyst. I watched on the ultra sound as the needle approached the dark lump and then sent out a zip line that shot into the mass and retrieved a tiny piece of it for testing. How astonishing. I got my instructions about no swimming or hot tubbing, no exertion or lifting, put ice on the incision and take it easy. I can do that! I probably won’t hear anything until Monday afternoon as they take two to three business days to process the samples and then contact my doctor about the results. Benign is my new favorite word. Benign cyst has such a lovely sound.