The procedure was rather simple: numb the area, stick in a needle and pluck out some sample tissue. Average run time for the even is 6 minutes.
But do not mistake simple for easy!
It takes a couple hours to prep, and about 30 minutes after they’ve rolled you into the room to cat scan you, mark out a map for the journey, then finally sedate you for the simple procedure.
And it is easy for those in support roles to pass off the fact that someone will be sticking a long metal needle into your internals and snatching out a few pieces of you.
All of this is of course challenging my meditation practice, my secular-buddhist beliefs, and what I’ve learned recently in regards to trauma and how the human brain functions (very poorly I’ll add).
One of the stand out expressions in my mind is “This too shall pass”, ie: all things are impermanent.
This means that sadness, pain, joy, happiness, cars, houses, pets….all things are impermanent, and it is in the clinging to them that we suffer.
So my advise to her was she only had to endure the needle for 6 minutes.
The time leading up to, and during the procedure seems insurmountable, and if you focus on the 6 minutes, you invite suffering.
However, if you hold to the idea that “this too shall pass”, you can (in theory) better deal with the situation, knowing that even this has an ending.
I’m not sure if it helped, but she made it through and is only a bit sore today.
Now we will wait a few days for test results, which themselves are not guaranteed to be definitive.