On Monday, December 11th, I had a consultation with my surgeon. Once I was checked in, my surgeon came into the exam room and asked me what was going on. I told him that I had my PET scan on October 31st, that my cancer had spread, and that my oncologist wanted to send out a tissue sample of the tumor in my neck for molecular testing. He asked me to give him 30 seconds so he could check my PET scan results. When he came back into the room, he used his mini ultrasound machine to spot the tumor, and he determined that he could biopsy it. He turned on the color for the screen to see the blood flow in my neck. It was so weird to see my heartbeat and the fact that the blood flow stopped at the tumor, which was black and oval-shaped. He told me to come back first thing in the morning the next day on Tuesday, so that he could do my biopsy.
When I left the exam room, my surgeon was at the front desk talking to the schedulers. They were questioning him about doing a biopsy on my neck as it is not a common area for him to do a biopsy. He laughed and said, “Yes, a biopsy in the neck, and yes, I have done it before on Ms. Mills.” I confirmed that he had indeed performed a biopsy on my neck in the past. He asked them to please work me in before his first surgery of the day on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, December 12th, I arrived at 7:45 am for my biopsy. The girl at the front desk told me that my surgeon rarely works someone into the schedule on surgery day. I told her that I knew this wasn’t common and that I was very grateful that he took my care so seriously. I have been his patient for almost five years, and I trust him, so when he can do anything that will help me, I ask him first to see what he says.
His PA came to get me from the waiting room, and once we got to the exam room, I noticed that everything needed for the procedure was laid out on the counter, along with the mini ultrasound machine. He has a student shadowing him as usual, so the room was a bit busy with the four of us in there. He let me know before he did each step of the biopsy as my back was to him, and I couldn’t see what he was doing. He sterilized my neck first, then he gave me two numbing shots, which hurt like hell, and then proceeded to put the core needle in to extract some of the tissue from my tumor. His shadow was facing me, looking at the ultrasound and holding a saline cup. Once he had the material he wanted, he leaned over me and put the contents into the saline cup. He said to his PA and shadow, “See how cloudy it is? That is what tumor tissue looks like, white and cloudy.” He took a few more tissue samples for another cup going to pathology, and then we were done. Every time he does a procedure concerning a tumor, he has to send a sample to pathology so they can type the cancer. All through the biopsy, he kept asking me if I was OK because the last thing he wanted to do was cause me unnecessary pain. His PA cleaned up my neck and put a bandage on my neck while my surgeon told me that he would call me as soon as he has the results from pathology; as of today, I haven’t heard from him, but I know it can generally take five to seven business days to get the results back.
I love my surgeon and his staff because they are kind and attentive. My surgeon had cancer at one time, so I feel that this helps him connect with his patients in a way that most doctors can’t. I have been his patient for almost five years, which sadly doesn’t seem to be too common when it comes to cancer, but because I have had five surgeries and three biopsies done by him, he likes to keep an eye on me and see me every six months to see how I am doing.