Stereotactic Core Biopsy

I am 51 years old and am scheduled for a Stereotactic Core Biopsy next week for cluster microcalcifications in my left breast only. Can anyone tell me about this procedure? I have been warned that is is very, very hard - laying flat on your stomach unable to move, hoisted up in the air with your breast clamped for about 40 minutes while the procedure takes place below you. This sounds pretty bad and I am upset that this wasn't described to me by my doctor so that I could prepare mentally. Are there certain characteristics of a 'cluster' that would call for a biopsy as opposed to a 6-month re-check with a mammogram?

I had it 6 months ago. It sounds worse than it is. It doesn't hurt and the hardest part for me was trying to get comfortable before they started. They let me shift around a bunch until I was sure I was in a position that I could deal with for about an hour. If you can take in an iPod with headphones, it will help distract you and pass the time. You'll be staring at the wall for a long time and listening to the doc and nurses below you exchange info and numbers that make no sense. That was a little unnerving because you don't know what is happening. (I hadn't talked to anyone who'd had it before I did so my imagination was running wild.)

They give you a little shot of lidocaine which stings for a second. No big deal at all. They make a tiny incision and give you another anesthetic that will numb your whole breast for the rest of the day. After that you will hear the noise of the equipment whirring or compressing, but you don't feel a thing. Really.

Once they are finished taking the samples (I had 20 taken) they put in a tiny titanium marker. Since the majority of biopsies are benign, it will show up on subsequent mammograms or MRI's so they will know exactly where the biopsy was done the previous year. Also if you have a lumpectomy, the marker guides them to the right place. You don't feel the marker and it doesn't prevent you from going through airport security or prevent you from having MRI's, etc.

When they are finished, they put a steri strip over the little cut and you go to another room for a regular mammogram to make sure the titanium clip shows up correctly. That's it. Takes about an hour start to finish. May be less if you don't have as many samples taken.

After the numbing medicine wore off that night, the breast felt achy. I took some Tylenol and it was gone the next day. A week later I went back to have them check the little cut. I had a small bruise and a little tiny blister there. No big deal. No discomfort. The cut had healed already. I got a Band-Aid and left.

Good luck!

Franny-
Just reread your post and was reminded that the woman who was ahead of me (in line for second mammos) was told that she had calcifications and needed to come back in 6 months.
Made me wonder if the the whole "second mammo, biopsy process" was a new way for docs to earn more $ in light of the Medicare payment reductions. (I've noticed recently that docs are calling for more expensive tests than in the past.)

Did a little research and found this informative website:

http://www.hopkinsbreastcenter.org/artemis/200102/feature13.html

Interesting info.
IAS