Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Needle In My Chest

Today I emailed the radiologist who performed the RFA and asked him two questions: 
1) There are 3 incisions. Is this because other instruments had to be inserted to stabilize my lung? Or some other reason? 2) Do you have any cool images of the RFA? I'd love to see a couple if you have time to find one for me.

He answered:
There are 3 incisions because your tumor moved around and we had to use two separate needle systems. Please find images attached.
I edited the photos to remove my name and identifying numbers, but here they are, for your viewing pleasure. (If you click on them, you will see a larger version, as with all images on this blog.) That's a needle in my chest! The lesion is located on the left of the heart as I stand, so these images are taken from my feet, looking up through my body. 
The lesion is marked with a size indication here.
The needle going into the lesion (crazy how you can see it all the way through my body like that!)
You can also see how close it is to my heart here.
Below is an image I took of myself (with my beloved phone) which shows the incisions. After seeing me in pain and gently stroking the spot where the incisions are located on my chest, Captain Adorable gave me a kiss there to make it feel better (what a sweet surprise). He asked, "Why is your lung in your boobie?" I thought that was funny, (but logical, as you may be able to see from the photo) but explained that the lung is under/behind, not in, the boobie. :)

I have noticed much more panting since the RFA. I hope that this too will fade with time. I dislike being out of breath.

2 comments:

alexis224 said...

Wow.Wow.Wow. I am sort of panting and out of breath too from looking at the images because they make me so tense. Is the needle guided by a robot, or does the surgeon just trust his/her hands? That is really amazing. Such clear images!!

Rose said...

I am glad you enjoyed (haha) the images. I was very impressed by them when I saw them on the table and knew I had to ask for some to share on the blog because they are so crazy. To answer your question: there is no robot. Just the radiologist trusting his hands and watching the screen intently as he inserts the needle. Freaked me out a lot, thinking about it after the attempt on Dec 23 and before the actual procedure on Jan 11.