RADCAT 4 really does mean priority result. Rhode Island Hospital called Thursday and said do you want to do this tomorrow? Since I probably should have done it three months ago I said tomorrow’s good, say when, ya mo b there. So they checked me in at 7:45 a.m., IV port goes in, they check blood pressure (110/76) pulse (72) respiration (14) oxygen saturation (100%) then into the CT scanner and…
And then you don’t remember much after that.
They dose you with fentanyl and midazolam and do what they have to do. A 6-inch needle goes in through your back, about level with the bottom rib. That’s the way into the abdominal cavity because all they have to go through in your back is muscle.
The midazolam really messes with your head. I don’t remember getting back into my clothes.
I was in the procedure room, they were saying we’re done here, then a nurse is walking me to the front door of the hospital in that dream where everybody’s dressed and you’re the weirdo. But wait, I’m dressed, too, and, uh… oh yeah… biopsy…
According to the report in my file, it took the doctor 15.5 seconds under CT-guided fluoroscopy to place the needle against the lymph node he wanted to sample. The first needle is hollow, it acts as a guide for a cutting needle that goes down through the middle of it. So dig it: a target 3/16ths of an inch wide on a major blood vessel and he accurately places the guide needle against it through 6 inches of people meat in the time you and I take to pour a cup of coffee. That’s pretty cool. With so many retrograde voices shouting nonsense, do speak up for science and expertise in our times.
The doctor took two tissue samples from one of those brightly lit nodes the PET scan had identified as intensely interested in eating, just plain cuckoo for cocoa puffs. The lab has the samples now, we’ll see what they say.
That’s about it. I’m going to saddle up the iron piggy and ride to Vermont in the morning. Jonny and Eduardo plan to be there late Wednesday, early Thursday. We’ll finish up the exterior work on the building.
Closing here with a photo that came in over the weekend from my friend Robyn in Montana… lambs born on the Lode Ranch this spring.
Tony DePaul, September 4, 2023, Cranston, Rhode Island, USA
