Biopsy day was this morning, I forgot all the prep readings in my dad’s car yesterday and didn’t read any of it last night (whoops). The nurse told me NOT to Google anything about CT guided needle biopsy because there’s a lot of misinformation out there and I could freak myself out so I basically came into the clinic this morning not having many expectations on what the day would look like besides what Dr. Harmon told me. Good thing I did all my research and found a doc that knows what he’s doing!
While I was getting ready to head to the hospital, I realized my blog crashed and was rushing with Bluehost’s IT support in India to get it fixed. Luckily it only took 10 min, just 1 min before my dad arrived to pick me up. I checked in at Methodist at 7am and they brought me into a medical room with a bed and a hidden toilet that looks like a chair! Probably the most impressive part of the room.
The nurse got all my vitals about an hour after check in and then they wheeled me away to a CT scan room similar to the one they used on me at the ER on Monday night.
The team that was going to do my biopsy introduced themselves: there was Dr. Harmon who was going to perform the procedure, the radiologist was Chris-Ann who had 27 years of experience and so so nice to me, and there was a CT lab tech named Rob (I think).
They explained that I would have to lie still on the CT bench thing for 45 min with my arms above my head. I’ll be slightly sedated to calm my nerves but they needed me awake to follow certain breathing instructions and they would use local anesthesia on my chest where they were going to collect the samples.
My dad took this picture before he left the CT scan room, I sent it to my co workers and someone decided to do a little bit of photoshop. It’s too funny not to share.
They rolled the bed up to the bench and I scootched over, gave me an oxygen tube under my nose, heart rate monitor on my finger, blood pressure cuff, and injected sedative in my IV. I honestly didn’t feel it kick in at all. The reason why they had to keep me mostly awake was to follow certain breathing instructions during the procedure so I kinda just laid there and held my breath when they told me to while they got the initial scans done prior to the procedure.
When we were ready to begin, Dr. Harmon said that I’ll feel a pinch on my chest and then a slight burning feeling. He was right, it felt like a bee sting but that was literally the only discomfort that I felt that entire procedure. After that area was numbed up, he stuck a wide needle with a cap on top into my right pec muscle. He would remove the cap and then stick a long, probably 8 inch long needle with a trigger at the end inside the first needle, pull the trigger, it would click, take the needle out, put the cap back on, then Rob would push me into the CT scan for them to check where they got the sample from. There was a computer monitor hovering over my head that they would use to view the live scans.
I can’t find the exact needle they used but it looked like this with a trigger from a water gun instead of a plunger.
They repeated this procedure about 10 different times. I wasn’t allowed to move at all, occasionally Chris-Ann would walk up to me and put her comfortingly warm hands on my arm to reassure me as they repeatedly stuck me with this giant needle from different angles. The empathy she showed really made a difference for me. One concern during the procedure was me coughing while they were pulling samples. Surprisingly, the sedative calmed me down enough where I didn’t even cough once for the entire thing. This made it easier for them because they wouldn’t have to wait for me to stop coughing before they could start again or risk puncturing my lung.
When we were done, Dr. Harmon said that everything went really well. It appears that my lung was not punctured and there is no excessive bleeding but they would do an xray in an hour to double check. He took 7 tissue samples when they normally do about 2 and showed me a little jar of clear fluid with a few red strings about the width of angel hair pasta and 1cm long floating around. For some reason I assumed the tumor would be white and was surprised to see them look like thin red yarn in water.
They would have my biopsy results ready by Monday and right now there’s about a 70% chance that if they have to do surgery to remove the tumor, the surgeon would have to crack my sternum in half and remove the tumor that way. It’s because it’s a better healing method, they can make sure that they got everything, and if they went through the rib it would be a more painful recovery if I cough or move since there would be more muscles involved. Still a scary thought though.
I thanked everyone for doing such a good job taking care of me and they wheeled me back to the room where my mom, Jonathan, and Joanna were waiting. During the procedure, my dad and sister left to the Mayo clinic so that he could make his appointment at 11.
I wasn’t allowed to eat past midnight and at this point it was around 9:30 am and I was starving. The nurse offered me some PREMIUM saltine crackers, which I think she had to pull a lot of strings for considering how high quality they were. Joanna and Kimberly got breakfast burritos at the cafeteria earlier, but I’m sure they were pretty jealous of me. I couldn’t help but be curious about how big of a hole they left in me. It looks like I got shot with a nail gun.
At 10 they wheeled me to radiology and I had a quick chest xray done. An hour later, the nurse told me that Dr. Harmon cleared me to go home but I am not able to pick up anything heavier than a gallon of milk for at least 10 days (sorry Speedy) and that he would recommend that I stay with my parents tonight and I can go back to my (mostly) normal life after that. I asked if they would write me a prescription so that everyone would be nice to me but I left empty handed 🙁
Dad’s visit at Mayo went well, they scheduled his biopsy for next Monday during the time I’d get my results back so he pushed it out a week.
I’ve just been getting nonstop calls, texts, and messages from people today and it’s been great since all I’ve been doing is laying on the couch doing nothing because I can’t do anything for the next 24 hrs. I’ve coincidentally been asked by several friends what my home address is (I’m on to you ಠ_ಠ), been offered to have meals cooked for me, and all sorts of really wonderful gestures. Giving is super easy for me as many of you may know, but being in the spotlight like this is giving me goosebumps. Even after getting the biopsy, I still don’t feel like I’m sick and therefore “deserve” the generosity people are offering to me. At the same time, I don’t want to sound ungrateful to them either.
Two people offered to start Caringbridge sites for me. Since I already have this blog, I’m already good on having a place to provide updates. My work has been more than willing to give me the time off I need to recover, however long that may be. Financially with health insurance, I should be good too. However, I could use a 65″ LG OLED 4k tv and a PS4 pro….you know…for the recovery…
