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Biopsy experience


Deanna

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My mom is currently have a CT guided needle biopsy done on a mass in her lung. Anyone here have any experience with this type of biopsy? What was your recovery like? How long after the procedure until your results were available to your doctor?

 

We don't know if what is in her lung is lung cancer or a metastasis from her colon cancer (diagnosed stage 1 after she had her ileum removed just about 2 months ago). It is also possible that what was removed from her colon was a metastasis from her lung. We are all hoping for 2 different cancers. One doctor told her he didn't think that the two cancers were the same. I was a bit confused as I didn't think it was really possible to know that from scan results.

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Deanna,

A needle biopsy is a relatively easy procedure performed by mostly by an interventional radiologist.  A local anesthesia is given and I felt no pain during and after the procedure.  There was no real recovery.  The biopsy material is examined by a pathologist during the procedure.  That required a couple of minute wait in the procedure room. This examination confirms that the sample is viable enough to diagnose as to type of cancer.  In some cases, the pathologist also makes the diagnosis concurrent with this first examination.  But, the results are always reported to the doctor that referred your mother for biopsy. 

The cancer biopsy diagnosis involves mounting the sample on a slide and examining the cells using a microscope.  Results are normally quickly available so the delay becomes the scheduling an appointment with the referring physician for disclosure of the biopsy exam.

I'm not sure it is possible to diagnose the type of cancer with a scan but I've encountered a lot of folks who have had two different cancers that had the same dilemma --  is the new discovery a met from the first cancer or is the new discovery new cancer.  The biopsy will answer that question definitively.

Stay the course.

Tom

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Thank you for your reply, Tom. My sister just called to tell me that the biopsy is complete. However, my mom's lung started to collapse so they had to insert a tube. She said my mom will still get to go home tonight. My sister and her husband will stay with my mom for the night to be sure she is okay. They  have given her morphine twice and she is still in a lot of pain. I hope they got enough of a sample to be able to give us some answers so we can discuss potential treatment options.

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Deanna,

Well I did forget to mention the risk of a collapsed lung but the tube they inserted should resolve that problem quickly.  Is the tube incision causing her pain?  I've had 4 chest tubes in my medical history and recall one that was very painful.  It turns out, the doctors had inadvertently inserted it too far.  So, you might ask your sister to raise that possibility with your mother's treatment team.

Stay the course.

Tom

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Hi Deanna,as

My lung cancer was found in a CT scan that was done routinely to watch for possible metastasis from an earlier advanced cervical cancer. From the scan results, all the docs thought it looked more like a primary lung cancer,or possibly and infection and inflamation, than a metastasis. Apparently the lung nodule was sort of spread out, like tentacles, while metastisis would have been more round, and there would likely have been more than one of them. At least they thought that was the case with my cervical cancer,. I'm not sure if that applies to all metastases. I didn't have a needle biiopsy because they couldn't do it because of where the nodule was located. So I had a lobectomy and  the nodule turned out to be a stage 1A adenocarcinoma. 

I was sent home after the lobectomy with a chest tube that I had in for about 10 days after surgery because my lung kept leaking air. The surgeon and nurses assured me that I would have a lot less pain once the tube was out and that was indeed the case. 

Well wishes to your mom.

Bridget O

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Deanna,

My mom has had 2 chest tubes - one after a lobectomy and one to remove fluid.  Both were very painful - these were the only times through her cancer journey that she had to use narcotics for pain.  The good news is that as soon as the tubes were removed, the pain subsided. 

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I am unsure of where her pain is specifically. Unfortunately I live 3  hours from my mother and so I was unable to be there for her for this procedure. As you can imagine, she didn't feel as if she could hold a phone conversation so I was just getting reports from my younger sister. I hope she's feeling up to a call later today. Now it's just the horrible waiting period to get the test results back.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 11/8/2017 at 3:42 AM, BridgetO said:

My lung cancer was found in a CT scan that was done routinely to watch for possible metastasis from an earlier advanced cervical cancer. From the scan results, all the docs thought it looked more like a primary lung cancer,or possibly and infection and inflamation, than a metastasis. Apparently the lung nodule was sort of spread out, like tentacles, while metastisis would have been more round, and there would likely have been more than one of them. At least they thought that was the case with my cervical cancer,. I'm not sure if that applies to all metastases.

 

On 11/8/2017 at 3:42 AM, BridgetO said:

I was sent home after the lobectomy with a chest tube that I had in for about 10 days after surgery because my lung kept leaking air. The surgeon and nurses assured me that I would have a lot less pain once the tube was out and that was indeed the case. 

these 2 parts are simply way too close to what i've been going through... it's like you have shared my store up there... except maybe for the level of pain. during the time i was in the pain.... i couldn't think of anything else than just the pain...

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