The bologna slice

My brother, the glassblower/glass sculptor should enjoy the complexities that go into preparing the supreme court of biopsies, "The Permanent Section Biopsy." Let's step back a bit to a few weeks ago when I felt a small bump in my neck ... just below the jawline. This happens to most men when ingrown hair turns in upon itself, causing a lump. But this lump didn't go away. To be brief: an ultrasound diagnosis came back describing this mass as "unknown" which meant a trip to the autolaryingologist who said I ought to have "the nodule" excised and biopsied. Surgery ensues. Upon removal, there's a quick biopsy takes place method where a section is frozen, sliced thin and examined under the microscope. But a day later, the doctor calls and says the results at this point are "inconclusive."

Enter a far more conclusive method, "The Permanent Section Biopsy"-- very much akin to the lost wax process used by sculptors. A nice, fresh section is immersed in a fixative for several hours. This hardens or “fixes” the proteins. Next, the section goes into a machine that spends the night removing all the water from the specimen and replacing it with paraffin. Next morning, a professional tech, called a “histotech” removes the paraffin-embedded specimen and further embeds it into a larger block of molten paraffin. The block is now chilled and taken to a special deli cutter (a microtome) for slicing into ultra-thin sections The sections are floated on a water bath. The paraffin is dissolved from the tissue on the slide, the water is replaced (weird) and it is stained with a mixture of dyes. The truth lies in the dyes.

Results go to the very busy specialist’s office and maybe he gets to it sooner rather than later. He can’t fob this job off on a nurse. The news, good or bad, has to be delivered by the doctor. My doctor tells me he'll have results in about 4 days. Four working days, that is. Suddenly I understand what the job of defusing bombs feels like, waking up every day and wondering if this day is close to your last.