Biopsy Opinion

This is for those of you who are awaiting and dreading their first biopsy.  I had mine done an hour and a half ago.  The memory is still fresh, so here goes:

After I checked in, a nurse came and got me within 10 minutes.  I gave a urine specimen and then went to an exam room where I waited a few minutes and was then led to the procedure room.  The nurse asked me a few questions to which they had the answers.  She then told me to take off everything below my waist, sit on the table, and cover myself with a paper sheet.

The nurse came back in a bit and had me lie on my left side with my butt at the edge of the table. She then raised the table.  The doc came in and began explaining what they were going to do.  I told him I already knew what to expect and to have at it.  He greased me up and slid the probe in.  It was smaller than I expected.  They sonogramed me for a few minutes (very few) and then gave me the shots.  They pinched a bit, but no worse than that.  He then did 12 samples which took another few minutes and caused absolutely no pain.  None.  Zip.  Zilch.

The only surprise was the blood.  There was blood on the pad I lay on and some bright shiny blood dripped from my penis.  I wiped a bunch of blood from my backside, too.  I told the doc and he was not concerned.  I had to change my underwear when I got home - soaked through my pants in front, too.  It aches a bit down there, so I have taken a couple of tylenol and it's better.  Not much blood now, either.

Beats the hell out of finding cancer when it's too late.  It was an unpleasant experience and I hated every minute of it.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat if it caught cancer in its early stage.  I hope this helps some of you guys.  I'm a real weenie about medical stuff and this was tolerable.

I think I'll take my bride, my daughter, and my new grandson to lunch.

Regards,

Bill

Today is much later than this original post.  As you know, I did/do have cancer.  I'm sending this to the top in case there are other guys (like bobbailey) who have not yet experienced their biopsy.  I sure wish I had known what to expect.  My blood pressure would have been about a thousand points lower. 

There was blood in my urine for just a few hours and blood in my ejaculate for weeks.  It was bright, shiny red blood for a few days.  Not fun.  My uro said I could have bloody ejaculate for up to three months. 

Hi jetguy,

Yep, Brings back old memories, but as you said if it brings in an early diagnosis than it certainly was worth the 15 minutes of discomfort. Good luck; I hope the results are better than you expect.

Glen

Hi Bill, must apologise, you put a reply on my page ( Mickeyboys page ) and i clicked on some icon and you disappeared, still not used to forum yet. Anyway more important how did you get on with biopsy, hope it all went well, ive had 3 of them 12, 16, 12 samples over 18 months, not the nicest of things to have done but bearable, lets face it my friend the sooner they find out if anythings wrong the sooner they can sort it, unfortunately the last 1 not so good
found something suspicious and diagnosed Gleason 3+3 a couple of weeks ago, having surgery on 8 Dec, not something i expected to go through at my age
( 48 ) but my dad diagnosed about 62 and ive been checked every year since i was 40, he didnt die from it though he died from something else at 70.
In reply to your post i live in an area about 8 miles from the centre of london just on the outskirts, lots of people leaving our once great country due to the influx of all the east european immigrants, they are gradually taking over, especially in the building trade. But me no its in my blood and lets face it somebodys got to stay and look after it, family all set up here wouldnt be fair to ask them to move, but if the kids wanted to go i wouldnt stop them at least they would be able to afford to buy a property somewhere like America,Canada.
Anyway nice to talk to you, let me know how you get on and i will catch up with you soon.
All the best
Mike ( London )

Bill, I'm glad that's over and now to wait for the results. Jeff said it wasn't too bad, not something he'd elect to do, but a necessary evil. He had quite a bit of blood in his semen so don't be surprised if that happens.

I just read where one of us had his biopsy today, so I'm sending this to the top in case there are others lurking and dreading their biopsy. It's survivable and in my case it found cancer early and treatable. It's my understanding that some guys refuse the biopsy and later suffer the consequences. I was almost there.

Regards,

Bill

TTT!

Not all biopsy's are done that way. My husband was checked into the outpatient surgery part of our local hospital. The worst part was the 2 hour delay we had. He was knocked out for the entire procedure (21 cores). He does not remember any of it. As a matter of fact, after waiting one hour past scheduled time, he was ready to walk out and get a second opinion before having the biopsy. We came home that evening. The biopsy is not the worst part. Finding the cancer early is the best part possible.

B's Biopsy:

Accepting the urologist's recommendation for a biopsy was difficult. There was a lot of worry about pain, especially after the biopsy. We put it off for a month, because we had the trip of a lifetime planned, and didn't want to know until after. But, the whole idea of it was very difficult. B suffers from anxiety in general, and due to this asked his primary care physician about the possibility of receiving some anti-anxiety medication right before the procedure. He directed him to the urologist, saying it was a reasonable request. The urologist's office said that the doctor would administer an IV valium, but that B would have to have someone drive him to the appointment. No problem, I drove him there. After waiting a long time in the waiting room, he was ushered into a cubicle. Nothing was administered, and he waited for 20 minutes looking at what he deemed "instruments of torture", long needles and a "***" shaped instrument, while I waited in the waiting room. He said it was all he could do to keep from walking out of there! When the urologist came in, B asked when he would receive the anti-anxiety meds, and the doctor replied, "You don't need it" B said, "But I specifically asked to have it" Doctor said, "If you insist, but you don't need it. I have already done two of these today and they didn't need it." Angry, B shut down and went through the procedure which, he reported, was uncomfortable but not terribly painful. The worst part was the anxiety leading up to it. Needless to say, B was very angry at the doctor. The incident further exemplified the lack of communication between staff and doctor in this urology group. One week later, after waiting 45 minutes in another cubicle, the doctor came in without even having previously read the report, sit there for 3 minutes and then pronounced, "Well, you have a little cancer" We stumbled out to the desk to make another appointment for a consult after the prescribed blood work, and the young woman couldn't even get B's name right. That did it, we found another urologist after he had the blood work. Our lesson from this was: be pro-active, speak up, find support, find comfort, don't settle for second rate.

Becky

It sure does Jim!!!
Pete

My biopsy was a no brainer.  I was anxious (as usual).  Went to a brand new outpatient surgical center.  I had a valium by IV. Drifted off, woke up, went home (wife drove).  Obviously the procedure was painless.  No blood at all.  Next day noticed a little blood in my stool.  ejaculate had a brown tinge for about three times.  None in my urine.  No pain, no complications.   I was concerned because good friend got E coli infection (5 days hospital) at Kaiser just weeks before. He was negative for cancer.  He says to me later what do you want a sloppy biopsy with E coli bacteria or cancer.  Ok, if I had my choice I would take the E coli.  I did'nt have a choice.  (Da Vinci January 2007). Post not edited ~ bottom had white blank area and this was cleared!!!   Post Edited By Moderator (bluebird) : 7/19/2007 8:36:28 AM (GMT-6)

Hi Wiggyann,
Kziz is not as frequent a visitor, as that post is old. But I think I can hit on it. Sometimes a person feels uncomfortable being awake through the procedure. I considered it and talked to my urologist about it. He told me that 95% get through it fine without general anesthesia. But some have had the colonoscopy by this age and it is much easier to tolerate at least from the perspective of the procedure and not the lasting effects of general anesthesia. Having done both, I would rather just grin and bear it versus checking into a hospital and all the fun things that entails. i tolerated it very well with some bleeding only during ejaculation. One thing you should not. Whether or not you do the procedure with local or general anesthesia, you still have the same side effects from the biopsy. And the discomfort is still present when you are awakened. When kziz was a regular here, I don't recall her posting who's idea it was. For me I was awake for the whole thing, and would have done it that way again.

Tony

Guys,

It's like everything else involved with this monster. Everyone have different experiences. Mine was very uncomfortable (hurt like he**), but this was due to how hard the surface of my prostate was. I was very concerned sitting in the room with a paper towel covering me up, looking at the needles and what appeared to be a small version of a "Los Angles Class Nuclear Attack Submarine" that was about to dive to the depths of my inner world and start firing missiles. The battle is always in our heads.

A close friend of mine has had the proceedure three time now and has "cracked" jokes with the doc and nurse all three times. Something about him and the doc "going steading".

The only real advise I have is to tell the doc to let you know when he is about to "fire" each needle. I almost came off the table when the first one went off. Sounded like a .22 being fired. After that the doc gave me some warning and everything went fine.

Everything will be fine.

Keeping all of you in our prayers and a big War Eagle to all.

Walt

Hello Nini,

I had the same experience. The first biopsy came back inconclusive so my uro had me do another one in a month. It was positive.

Its good that he got a second reading. Second opinions are always good no matter what stage of diagnosis and treatment we are in. Its just one way that we take control over our own treatment.

Here's hoping the next one is negative too.

Jim