Biopsy done 👉 results in a week/Monday :|

What just happened

Friday morning at Manhattan Eye and Ear with Dr. Glickman. The procedure: a transperineal MR fusion-guided prostate biopsy — needles go in from below instead of through the bowel wall, with the April MRI images overlaid live onto ultrasound (a system called UroNav) so the suspicious lesion gets sampled directly instead of blindly. Sedation, not general anesthesia.

Glenn, my discharge escort, showed up at quarter to ten in case they sprung me early.

I awoke after the procedure as Matthew Voigt Tribble (we share the same birthday — not year, which he apologized for :), my anesthesiologist wheeled me to my "waiting room," where I asked him about the countdown. What happened to the countdown? Apparently I never made it that far — I was out before they started.

How it went

Sixteen cores total. Four directly into the PI-RADS 5 lesion the April MRI flagged (right peripheral zone, mid-gland), twelve more across the rest of the gland on a standardized grid — the idea being to catch anything imaging missed. Blood loss two milliliters. No complications. Digital rectal exam unremarkable.

Escape room strategy! Discharge was contingent on a bladder scan showing under 200 cc of residual urine. First attempt: I peed 275, felt empty, scan said 370 still inside. Drink more, pee more. Second round came in at 183. Cleared.

Shift change happened mid-recovery. Amanda handed off to Melrose "Place" at ten. I would henceforth refer to her as "Place" — even though I've never watched an episode. Amanda told me to remember her name. I asked if I'd been a difficult patient. (No — the previous round had just run long.) When the ultrasound tech rolled the bladder scanner in, I asked if she ever finds things in there that surprise her. She did not commit to an answer. I'm convinced either Monday or Friday early mornings are good days for procedures — the staff is one shift from or to the weekend!

Before discharge, Melrose walked me through aftercare: change the gauze twice a day plus after every bowel movement; keep it tucked in place so the puncture site stays clean. Keep that up for a few days.

Took the F train (walked the 10 blocks north from 53rd) and the M home.

What this tells us (and doesn't)

The biopsy moves things from imaging probability to actual tissue. Pathology takes roughly five business days, so the report should land end of next week.

What it will tell us: whether any cores contain cancer; if so, the Gleason score (a 6–10 grade for how aggressive the cells look, 6 lowest, 10 highest); and whether disease shows up only in the targeted lesion or also in the systematic samples across the rest of the gland.

What it won't tell us: anything about spread beyond the prostate. That's a separate question, handled with additional imaging if pathology comes back positive.

Until then, treatment talk stays theoretical.