As part of the comprehensive care I’m receiving, I had an MRI on Monday evening. (I’ll post more about it at another time.) The reason for an MRI pre-breast surgery is to make sure there are no other areas of concern.

Turns out there are two more areas of concern, as my surgeon let me know when she called me at work this morning. Both are in very different areas off the breast, so it is very unlikely that either are going to turn out to be the original lump.

I know, that sounds strange. But think of it this way: a breast is not . . . shall we say?  . . . static, like a kidney. Or solid, like an arm. Lying down does one thing, standing up another, etc. As well, the three scans I’ve had — mammography, ultrasound, and MRI — use different techniques for reading the terrain of the breast. So there is a possibility that where they thought the original was, was incorrect.

So I needed an ultrasound of the original site, and the new areas of concern to help answer these questions. I had that just an hour or so ago. (They really accommodated me on the schedule.)

It turns out I do have a second area of concern, and the third area is still questionable, but it is so small (2 mm) that they can’t get a good read on it with the ultrasound.

At this point, I’m going in for another needle biopsy on Tuesday. That was the soonest we could schedule (after today — and I have a truly long and stressful day at the office tomorrow so I chose no to make it worse by being in pain as well).

Whether or not that 2nd area is cancerous as well is a moot point for the outcome: I’m still having a lumpectomy, and I will most likely have that small (3rd site) lump removed as a precaution. By choosing that option now, I don’t have to have a MRI-guided biopsy. Which sounds truly awful. (And if I can say that after the horror of the needle biopsy, you have a sense of how bad it must be.)

So — my surgery is re-scheduled for November 11th.