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Biopsy 2023
Apr. 29th, 2023 10:54 pmI have cancer, but I'm "only" on cancer watch, which means every other year I have to get a biopsy to see what my intruder is up to and see if it's ... intruding elsewhere. This year is a biopsy year.
Last time I had this done, the doctor said, "We can do this in the office without anesthesia, or we can do it in the hospital with anesthesia."
"You want me to be AWAKE when you pop a needle into my prostate twelve times?" I said. "What kind of fool do you think I am?"
And so I had the anesthesia. But anesthesia comes with its own complications for me--the crippling terror that comes when I'm forced into unconsciousness and have no idea what a roomful of people are doing to me or saying about me. (See: shoulder surgery rape jokes, December 2021.) I got through it with lots of Valium beforehand and by sneaking a recorder into the operating room so I could listen to everything that was said. (Unlike the shoulder surgery team, this group was professional at all times.)
When I moved, I changed medical providers to UM Medical, but my records transferred, so when it came time for the biopsy, the doctor's office called and said they set up a lab order for me to get a PSA test first. I did this, and when the results popped up on my patient portal, I saw that my PSA levels had gone way down, from a 7 to a 4.7. Well, cool! Maybe I wouldn't even need the biopsy.
But when I talked to the urologist, he said, "Remember, you're on medications that reduce PSA levels. You have to double your score. It's actually 9.4." It had gone up by more than two points in the last six months.
Now I was in anxiety overdrive. The cancer was likely getting worse.( Read more... )
Last time I had this done, the doctor said, "We can do this in the office without anesthesia, or we can do it in the hospital with anesthesia."
"You want me to be AWAKE when you pop a needle into my prostate twelve times?" I said. "What kind of fool do you think I am?"
And so I had the anesthesia. But anesthesia comes with its own complications for me--the crippling terror that comes when I'm forced into unconsciousness and have no idea what a roomful of people are doing to me or saying about me. (See: shoulder surgery rape jokes, December 2021.) I got through it with lots of Valium beforehand and by sneaking a recorder into the operating room so I could listen to everything that was said. (Unlike the shoulder surgery team, this group was professional at all times.)
When I moved, I changed medical providers to UM Medical, but my records transferred, so when it came time for the biopsy, the doctor's office called and said they set up a lab order for me to get a PSA test first. I did this, and when the results popped up on my patient portal, I saw that my PSA levels had gone way down, from a 7 to a 4.7. Well, cool! Maybe I wouldn't even need the biopsy.
But when I talked to the urologist, he said, "Remember, you're on medications that reduce PSA levels. You have to double your score. It's actually 9.4." It had gone up by more than two points in the last six months.
Now I was in anxiety overdrive. The cancer was likely getting worse.( Read more... )
