Biopsies. It’s a simple word. But behind that word comes a story of something happening in the body that doctors want to be more definitive about. It can be ominous or it can be benign. Have you ever had one?

I did today. My third prostate biopsy was performed early this morning. I’ve had two others. The first one was negative for cancer. Then the summer of 2024 I had a TURP done. That’s a term for rotor rooting the prostate to allow for better urine flow. Why would I share such a thing? Well, it is something I’m open about because I worked in a military hospital for almost thirty years and I saw a lot. In all that time I found a lot of people were not knowledgeable about their bodies and what happens when medical intervention is required. So, I will use myself as an example.

After the TURP the prostate tissue was examined and found to have cancer in it. That was over a year ago now. The doc told me on a scale of one to five this type of cancer is a one. It is the type that can take up to ten years to develop into something serious. So for the time being in lieu of treatment he felt nothing more that monitoring was the best course to take. So today was my third biopsy.

They prepping required an enema before going in for the procedure and I was to take two Valium two hours prior and one hour prior and then they would administer a local. The local consisted of lidocaine. It is uncomfortable to say the least, but not so much painful. It was done in a matter of minutes and I was released without complications back to normal daily functions.

With it being Veteran’s Day my wife and I went to IHOP for breakfast since I had not eaten. Veteran’s and their wives got a free breakfast with a short stack of pancakes. The only thing I had to pay for was our coffee. We enjoyed it and went about our way to go home. The procedure was done in another town 38 miles away and I was not fit to drive, so I laid my head back and went in and out of a nap. We were home in no time it seems. However, when we got home the lidocaine was wearing off and my backside was starting to hurt. I was still kind of out of it from the meds, so I went directly to bed and slept for about an hour, but the pain woke me up. I went to my recliner and rejoined my nap and when I woke up this time the pain was subsiding. The previous two times I’d had this done I don’t remember this kind of reaction.

So here I sit now, relatively in little pain. I am still quite drained from the meds early on, so I’m ready for bed. I have an early start in the morning. Fortunately, I work about three hours at a time in the morning and afternoon, so I will get to come home and rest some in between till the afternoon when I go back for about another three hours. I drive a school bus. This procedure was the worst of the three I’ve had done. I don’t think I will like the idea of it being done again in another year, but it’s a necessity to keep things in check.