The Journey to a Biopsy

It's 10.05am.

I am waiting for a biopsy to be done.

It's a lonely feeling walking to the hospital, imagining how the doctor would carry out the procedure: prick a needle into your neck and extract a sample of the nodule in your thyroid.

Is this how all patients who need to go for a biopsy feel?

Is this how middle-age single women feel like when they need a surgery or biopsy, with no one by their side?

I understand that the actual procedure takes just five minutes, but when it's painful, even a split second feels like an eternity.

I have requested for local anaesthesia though. I hope it works.

My prayer for the biopsy: painless and quick, in that order.

My endocrinologist has detected a nodule (a solid) in my left thyroid 6 months ago. When she suggested a biopsy, I got a shock of my life and refused to discuss more. I did my own research and read that when you have hyperthyroidism, a nodule in the thyroid is likely to be non-cancerous, so I went about my life happy for the next 6 months.

However, half a year later, it was still there, so the doctor suggested the biopsy again 'to rule out the possibility of a thyroid cancer'.

I also found out that this procedure could be classified under 'day surgery' and my insurance would cover the cost as well as the costs incurred for treating my condition up to the previous 6 months. That comes up to more than $2000, excluding today's biopsy.

So here I am.

Pray for me that the procedure will be a pain-free one, and the test comes out well.