Last Friday was one scarey day! We were at the hospital from 7AM until 3PM. The lung biopsy itself is painful; I'm not going to mince any words about THAT. Thank goodness for painkilling & mind-numbing drugs!! Were it not for the drugs, I'd have been in really serious pain.
A hollow needle was inserted on the left side of my back, about midway up. Then another needle was inserted into that with, I suppose, something like a tiny pickle grabber on its end in order to get a tissue sample. I was awake ("partial sedation") and had to hold my breath when they told me to. The nodule they were trying to get to was in between two ribs - tricky. I was on my stomach on the CT scan table the whole time, so I couldn't see much (probably a good thing in & of itself!). I was actually lucky because they'd told me ahead of time that it can take an hour or longer to get three "good" tissue samples. But it only took them 25 minutes.
After the test was over, I had to lie still - no moving, no eating, no drinking and no talking (<---Gordy loved that part!!) for two hours. They watched me closely to see whether my lung had collapsed. After 2 hours, I was taken for a chest X-Ray and, fortunately, my lung had not collapsed. Another hour or so & they let me go home with instructions to do nothing except take it easy all weekend long. For the past few days, I've felt like I'd been in a mean street fight!!! My back hurt and I could not take a deep breath. Ouch! Today is better. I suppose in another few days, I will be better still.
We meet with the Oncologist on Wed, May 18th. Once he's confirmed what type of cancer he suspects this is, I will, in all likelihood, start chemo-therapy the very next day. So, that's it for now. Will update you all later next week. love - me
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