I had a kidney biopsy performed in June 2026.
Pre-procedure:
- The anxiety leading up was worse than the actual procedure or what came after.
The procedure itself:
- It didn’t hurt at the time. The most painful part was the initial lidocaine shot. I didn’t feel the biopsy needle/catheter itself. The only reason I knew it was happening was because I heard the second or third click of the Tenmo biopsy gun.
- The sedative was a mix of benzodiazepine and fentanyl, but at a dosage much lower than what would be used for a colonoscopy. I was awake for the whole time, but it felt like I was three whiskies deep as they were performing the biopsy.
- They used Gelfoam (a slurry version) on the way out to promote clotting of the biopsy site which lowered my anxiety around bleeding. The risk of internal bleeding was the overwhelming source of my anxiety, since it’s not something you can easily determine is happening.
- They let me see one of the biopsy samples, and it looked like a pink stringy piece of meat that you might floss out of your teeth. Kind of gross, but also not what I expected a kidney sample to look like.
- I was in recovery for three hours, during which time my vitals were taken every 15 minutes. They mostly
Recovery:
- It didn’t hurt afterwards, but it was uncomfortable and sore. The biggest issue was not knowing how much movement or stretching was safe to do, because I knew I had a hole in me.
- The afternoon following the procedure was mostly sitting on my couch playing video games. I was dizzy and not cognitively sharp for much of the rest of the day, so I wrote the whole day off.
- The day after was still unpleasant and uncomfortable. I did work that day, but I had to work from my couch because my office chair pressed into the place where the biopsy needle was inserted. I was cognitively at 80-90%, but I had a hard time reasoning through complex tasks. I suspect much of this was psychosomatic though.
- No hematuria, contrary to what online literature told me to expect. The medical staff told me that I shouldn’t expect it unless the doctor told me to (he did not), because they weren’t digging around any parts of my kidneys that would cause it to happen.
- The biopsy side bled for at least 36 hours post op.