Biopsy

I meant to post about this on Thursday, but for some reason blogger didn't post it even though I thought I'd pushed the right buttons.

On Thursday afternoon I received a call from one of the orthopedic doctors apologising for the delay in organising a biopsy on the new mass. Someone in the system had put it down way in the future without realising it was urgent. Anyway it was way past the time when it should have beem biopsied and he informed me he had organised the biopsy for the following day, Friday, and that he wanted me to come in to hospital immediately that night, so that I could be ready in the morning . He also informed me that he had arranged an ENT review for the lymph nodes in my neck.

I was making my evening meal at the time he called and finished doing so. So off I went to Brisbane. I chose to leave my car at home as I did not like leaving it out over night, especially as there had been much vandalism of cars last year (thankfully the police now have a station on the island and things are now a bit more peaceful). Ferries are only hourly at that time of night and the bus did a bit of a Cook's tour of the 'burbs on the way in. I arrived at the hospital a bit after 8:45PM and their admissions counter was closed so I went up to the ward. The doctor had a lengthy chat with me.

The biopsy required fasting from midnight. I always find sleeping in a new environment such as hospitals always takes a bit of getting used thus I was surprised that I fell asleep easily and enjoyed a good night's sleep, despite all the clatter and noise.

The ENT team saw me early in the morning and the ENT consultant was very happy with nose, throat and mouth. He asked me about TB (which I once tested positive to but was not followed up at the time). Anyway he gave me a clean bill of health as to ENT and dental problems and suggested the possibility of lymphoma as a possible cause of the lymph nodes.

However the Orthopedic doctor told he doesn't think the nodes are lymphoma as the nodes of the jugular chain are slightly enlarged. He told me that lymphoma does not usually involve an entire chain of lymph nodes and usually just one or two. He suggested they are probably just reactive. (They have been a feature in that region since 2002, slowly spreading and becoming very hard, even if not large. The nodes are also reactive to the consumption of alcohol, a symptom of Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hodgkin's nodes usually require removal to fully diagnose as there is a reactive component to Hodgkin's nodes and the cellular pattern required to diagnose Hodgkins is difficult to obtain by needle biopsy. - None of the doctors appear to realise that making mention of a possible needle biopsy - Hypochondriac Rob, Lol -Who am I to suggest illnesses to the medical profession? Perhaps more on thus subject in a future post).

After many hours of starvation, the biopsy on the mass finally happened about 5:00PM on Friday. The biopsy was carried out by fine needle aspiration in a CT scanner. (Hence the delay as CT were busy with IC and emergency cases on Friday, and I kept getting pushed back). The procedure was relatively painless and no more discomforting than the pain I am already in (which varies between level 0 to level 7). There was fair bit of fluid in the mass which the radiologist drained to make life a bit more comfortable.

The orthopedic doctor did not tell me the results of the PET scan, preferring to wait until all the results are together. He did tell me that the MRI scan does look like a sarcoma however until all the results are known he does not know for sure. He told me that I will receive the results in the ortho oncology outpatient's clinic this coming Friday. He didn't like to speculate on any possible treatments if it was sarcoma, until the 'big wigs' review the scans and results next week.

Blood pressure was a bit of a problem during the admission. The stress of the whole situation, rush and some of the frustrations would certainly add to it.

I spent Friday night in hospital due to the late completion of the biopsy.

All in all despite the frustration of the delays, hunger and long wait I was very pleased with the way things went. It was a pleasant change to encounter such a communicative and obliging doctor... he certainly works very long hours. The nurses were very good this time too.

Looking forward to Friday....

Rob