April 13, 2012 (yes, it was Friday the 13th)

CT-guided needle biopsy of abdominal lymph nodes at Sharp Memorial, in spite of blunders by my primary physician’s office staff:  referral not received by Sharp Memorial because primary physician’s system and that of Sharp Memorial can’t “talk” to each other; biopsy coded in as being for breast (no, no, no, wrong body part); scheduling conflicts; etc. etc. etc.

Check-in was at 6:AM for the 8:AM procedure, followed by prepping with lots of blood draws and installation of the IV.


Again with the ginormous hospital gowns?

All hooked up and ready to go.

The biopsy was painless and, dare I say, downright enjoyable with the combination of Fentanyl and Versed which put me into twilight sleep (no, not the vampire kind), along with a kick-ass local anesthetic that was injected into the needle site.  I was on my tummy, as they had to go into my abdomen through my back.  I remember chatting with the nurses about our dogs, then going night-night for a while, then waking up in the middle of the procedure and chatting some more.  I could hear the instruments that were snipping/sucking/extracting the tissue samples, and felt a little pressure whenever extraction was done, and I could see the doctor passing the samples to the nurse who bottled ‘em up, but there was absolutely zero pain.  Then apparently I was injected with some kind of wake-up drug, because before they even got me off the CT table and onto the gurney for the ride back to recovery, I was totally with it.  I asked to stop at the potty outside the CT room to pee, and realized then why there had been no pain:  the local anesthetic was apparently some kind of partial epidural, and my legs were quite wobbly and only somewhat functioning.

Once back at recovery, they brought me a sandwich and juice (thank Buddha, because it had been like 15 hours since I had eaten), and I napped a little during the “observation” period. 

Post-biopsy.  Done and done.

Six and a half hours after checking in, I was done and one my way home.  Piece ‘o cake.