trans perineal fusion biopsy at Johns Hopkins

I just had my trans perineal biopsy at JH. I was very apprehensive, but it was not bad at all. The staff was great and really helped ease any anxiety, telling me exactly what to expect with every step.

There was a mild sting when they injected the lidocaine into the muscles around the perineum. The injections into the prostate itself were a little worse but not bad. The actual biopsies (16) weren't bad either, once you got used to the sound, and the doctor warned ne before each one. All in all it wasn't bad. I was the 11th patient that day and they said that I was the best, didn't even flinch. The nurse said the last patient almost broke her fingers he was squeezing so hard.

Everyone has a different pain threshold and mine is very high so this experience might be different for everyone. MY advice is that whatever you expect or envision it is probably worse than what you will experience.

In reality, the worse part for me was the enema! I expected to take it and flush me out in a few minutes and be ready to go. I was going for a half hour and thought that I was good to go. I had a 1 1/2 drive to JH and had to stop partway there and had to make 2 runs once I was at JH. Not fun! Fortunately, my wife was adamant about building extra time in our schedule and I needed it. Plan accordingly.

Now the worst part is waiting the 10-14 days for results. This prosate cancer journey is full of delays between procedures. Next step will be to get the results and decide on a treatment plan. My Pi-Rads was 4/5 so I expect that I'm early in this journey.