Before I tell you just what happened (what the biopsy revealed, that is) on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act becoming law, here's a confession:
The whole procedure took only 45 minutes, and...it wasn't as painful as I'd first imagined the biopsy would be.
A little after 8:30 AM, Cynthia (the nurse on duty at Omaha's Urology Center) had me fill out another form, then instructed me to strip down (I could keep my T-shirt on if I wanted to...and it stayed on my back), then gave me a surgical gown to put on.
She then had me lie down on my left side on the gurney...to inject an anesthetic into my hind end. (I didn't even want to see the needle. After all, it and the syringe housing the needle added up to the length of my arm.)
That turned out to be the worst part of the procedure.
Next, Dr. Michael Kroeger came into the procedure room to team up with Cynthia.
They joined forces to put a probe into my rectum in order to take twelve pictures of my prostate, all to find out if there was any trace of cancer in it. (I got through that phase of the procedure by counting to twelve with each click of the probe.)
And by a little after 9:15 AM, I was out of there...and ready to spend the rest of the day at home.
No strenuous exercising or heavy lifting for another 24 hours (and that meant a trip to the supermarket was out)...I finished taking the antibiotic Michael prescribed (one tablet before the biopsy and the other three afterwards)...and I got plenty of opportunities to watch some NCAA Division 1 men's basketball tournament games.
Finally got the word this past Tuesday (and, knowing my luck, it came while I was still at my factory job).
The results of the biopsy showed...no trace of prostate cancer at all.
Next time I meet up with the Urology Center staff will be Monday, 10-1-2018, at 8:45 AM, for a blood test.
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