July 20, 2010 - spine biopsy from monday 7/19

Hello everyone, I made it out alive.  I got to the hospital at 7:15am for the procedure at 8.  They checked me in around 7:30, the girl who took care of my insurance info seemed alittle annoyed and unhappy.  She seen that I was an employee within the hospital system so she revealed that she was kinda unhappy with the position and thought it was something different.  She is looking to get out the 1st chance she can.  I went back out in the waiting room with her because I didn't have my license in my hands (mom was out waiting room with my purse).  She needed to look at it.   I think I waited about 5 minutes when they called me into the holding room to change into a gown.  My mother was there waiting with me.  I then waited for about 10 minutes when a guy came down, i think his name was John, took me in the guerney and wheeled me up to the procedure room on the floors so I had a ride on the guerney (kinda neat, I enjoyed that..LOL!!).  I ran into a few people along the way that I knew (never have a procedure or surgery where you know people at the hospital system you work at - next time I should go to the catholic hospitals).  I ran into the chief nursing officer over there (I deal with her on a limited basis).  Told her not to worry that I was there for a procedure (mental note to send her an email stating that everything went fine).  The only thing that I was unhappy about was that they had me in the hallway waiting for a few minutes (we spend multi-million dollar upgrade to this hospital site and I am in the hallway - just not right!).  Once I got in, the nurses knew who I was immediately and put me at ease (they wanted to talk nursing education!).  The interventional radiologist was nice, Dr Shanoy.  He explained to me about the spine biopsy.  Told me that they will sedate me but not put me out.  My father use to work on x rays (fix them) and this particular radiologist knew my father.  It made this doc feel really good that he was remembered by someone.   I had to lay on my stomach with my arms behind my head.  They hooked up the IV and gave me vicodin for the pain.  I didn't feel a thing, just a bunch of banging and felt the needle go in (very slight).  They were done before they said my name.  I think it took them more time setting me up.  The doc even thanked me for working on me and told me to have a nice restful day.   I would recommend Dr Shanoy at Millard Suburban (Michelle, my PKD Western NY friend - incase you need someone!) to do biopsy.  Everything went really good, and I was extremely happy with them.  At first, I didn't want to go there not because of the doc - but the location.    I would have rather had it done at my cancer hospital but that wasn't the case.  I am glad I went there.  You never know if I needed another biopsy done.  They wheeled me back to the holding room at 8:30am and found about 4 other people waiting for their procedures to be done (I was the only one there before I went in).  I stayed until 10:45am then they sent me home.  I was ok enough for mom to take me to lunch (I got something for dinner but I didn't eat it yet - I wasn't hungry). 
I will get back to everyone with their hugs.  This is just a general update to say that everything went fine.  They biopsied around the spine closest to the kidneys - could it be polycystic?  I am about 90% sure thats what it is (my own thoughts).  I am sure you PKD friends agree with me.  I would rather it be polycystic than the worst - cancer.