On Friday I had to take a COVID test because of surgery on the 17th. I left there and had a SCOUT inserted during a mammogram. This tiny tracking device will help my surgeon locate what remains of my tumor.
It was a simple procedure. They use a mammogram machine and so my breast was squeezed in the annoying contraption (which is the norm for mammograms), although this machine was lower to the ground and I didn’t have to stand at all. Instead, I sat upright on a table the entire time.
First they took a lot of images to find my tumor. After numbing me, the radiologist inserted the device with a needle inside the tumor. It took about 10 minutes.
In theory, it should save my surgeon lots of time and avoid having her cut into unnecessary places. A month ago she did a sonogram in her office to look at my tumor and couldn’t find it. It was there, but small and hard to locate.
SCOUTS are not essential, but I’m told they save time AND money. I don’t know what the out of pocket cost will be but I read online that… “It is estimated that a SCOUT can result in a 29-minute reduction of unproductive OR waiting time and could result in savings of nearly $2,000 per procedure.”