11th February 2019 - First attempted biopsy

Gherardo and Cristiano left on Monday morning, and shortly after I made my way to the hospital to do the biopsy. I thought that this would be a relatively straightforward procedure but I could not be more wrong.

The doctor explained that the safest way to take a sample of the tumour was to insert a needle directly inside my liver searching for one of the metastases with the help of an ultrasound machine. The considerable challenge was represented by the fact that the number of metastases in the liver was large (more than 20) but each of them was quite small, meaning that it would not be straightforward to hit the right spot with the needle.

The procedure lasted quite a while and it was not particularly comfortable given the size of the needle in question and the way the doctor kept going in and out with it. I also did not like his body language – he did not seem confident that the samples that he was collecting would actually contain any tumour cells. When he finished, he gave himself a 50:50 chance that he had been successful in doing so. But I was left with the strong impression that the real probability was far lower.