Going for 1st biopsy ever
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Had 3T mpMRI scans read by 3 radiologists, all recommended biopsy. Dr. Karamanian in Houston is terrific. Hour-long consult, showed me exactly everything in the scans I had sent him weeks ago, where, how big the lesions are, he’s almost certain GL 7, made a pencil diagram to explain how gl7 can be read about 4-5 different ways... and that was an extreme simplification, he said. He admitted he’s done hundreds of in-bore FLAs but only a dozen or so in-bore (MRI-guided, not fusion) biopsies. Costing me $2400 out of pocket, at least another thou for airfare, motel 6 (cheap, but high-end, 5 mins from Hobby airport), cabs to/from Dr. K, etc. Will report how it goes later today.
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barney34567 rich22
Posted
Do keep us posted and good luck.
BTW, you mention "gl7". I assume you mean Gleason 7.
You must ask your urologist if he means 3+4 or 4+3 as the prognosis and therefore
treatment plan is different for each scenario.
rich22 barney34567
Posted
as it turns out, it doesn't matter. Dr. K drew a pencil diagram that i drew from memory, showing how gl7 can be tricky. i'll try to attach here, dunno if you'll see it. it all depends on where the biopsy needle takes the core sample from. bottom line, gl7 indicates a mix of 3 and 4, and requires treatment of some sort.
rich22
Posted
i'm back in motel now, was almost 2 hours in "magnet", pain of first lidocaine local was about 4-5 /10, extra shots were 2-3, took my own valium for sedation, now ready to roll. so far no blood in urine, dunno about stool yet.
Dr. K and nurse Donald were entirely professional, almost anxious to offer information, "better to give you too much info than not enough." Dr. K spoke with me every few minutes while taking cores; felt entirely safe and informed. They have a pathologist who was trained by Dr. Epstein in JHU but the slides will be sent to Epstein anyway, at my request.
will keep posting here if anything develops.