The results are in

Well the good part about the liver biopsy is that it turned my 3-day holiday weekend into a 4-day weekend.  Woo-hoo!!  I knew enough about the procedure to be nervous as it approached but I figured that I’m pretty good with handling pain so all would probably be OK.

The doctor that did the biopsy was great.  His name was Dr. Burgos.  As opposed to other interventional radiologists that I’ve had for port insertion/removal Dr. Burgos was very social and upbeat.  He told me what to expect and kept me well informed as he was doing things.  YES, I was wide awake and undraped.  i.e. I was able to see everything as he was doing it!  That was both good and bad because I was able to know what was coming but darn those needles were BIG!  About the only part that really hurt was right at the beginning when he inserted the needle through my rib cage and then into the liver.  The best part came at the end when he told me that I had “scored one for the team”.  I asked him what he meant and he told me that whenever he sees that his patient is a relatively young man he gets worried because men can’t take pain like a woman.  He told me that I did as well as a woman.  Now there’s a compliment for you.  LOL.  I’ll take it.

I got the biopsy results last evening when Dr. Richards called.  While I’m HER2 negative I never heard him so excited before.  The biopsy provided a lot of detail about the liver metastasis and Dr. Richards is excited because this information opens the door to a different set of drugs.  And with some that are very new.  With this turn of events he suggested that we go to MSKCC for a consultation and I’m working to make that happen as quickly as possible.  I called Saint Peter’s pathology to get the biopsy slides and I already have the CD from the last PET/CT.  Hopefully I get a date from MSKCC tomorrow.  The MSKCC doctor I had seen 3 times over these years has left the hospital and I’ve been assigned to a new doctor.  Here’s a link to her profile page at MSKCC.