Hey all. Thanks to everyone for the good thoughts and the advice. I had the biopsy this morning. After not getting much sleep, and the tension over the past week, I’m so tired I can barely see to type!
To get right to the point (ha, pun), the actual process was very minor, as far as pain goes.
Firstly, to answer my own question (which all of you did, I’m just confirming!), I was allowed to breathe, but couldn’t swallow.
After I walked in, I spoke with the endocrinologist who was doing the procedure. (Actually she and another endo were both involved; she did the sonogram, I think, while the guy used the needle–well, actually, they passed the jobs back and forth due to the different angles of each needle stick.)
I mentioned my anxiety issues (and took an Ativan on top of my usual Xanax, not that it did much)–honestly all day I was only about a “3” on a scale of 1 - 10, I’m not sure why I was so calm. I think my having begun to expect a cancer diagnosis put my fear of a needle prick in perspective. It’s kinda made me sanguine, to a certain degree.
While I was lying on the table, it was funny, they were talking in heavy “industry speak” about what they were seeing, but I’ve done so much research that it was pretty easy to pick up “isoechoic” and “hypoechoic halo” and so on.
I didn’t ask for the local, though I think you were brave and strong in requesting one yourself, Mama Zappa). Fortunately for me, the needle felt no worse when going in than a blood draw, and I’ve had dozens of them–admittedly, not in my throat, but the feeling was similar. Some were actually worse when the nurse couldn’t find a good vein in my arm and had to go digging around.
The only slightly painful/uncomfortable part came when they were rapidly moving the needle up and down within the nodule, which I believe they do to chop up the nodule matter so it could be sucked up for the sample At that point I could feel the pressure and a sort of dull pain, which–weirdly–radiated to my jaw and ears a bit. But it lasted maybe twenty seconds for each sample they took. (They did four.) Then I got a Band-Aid and was free to go.
BTW, curiously, when I came in the endocrinologist sat me down to explain the procedure (which I’d pretty much already memorized!) she was telling me how most nodules are benign, yadda yadda, and I said, well, but mine has some fairly typical signs of malignancy, doesn’t it? I mentioned the microcalcifications in particular. She said “they might be microcalcifications, they might not. I really think you’ll be okay.”
So that’s two endos (this one and my own doctor) who’ve brushed off the punctate echologic foci/microcalcification stuff, which seems odd. They must be trying to soften the blow, maybe. I don’t mind that my regular endo gave me reassurance when she originally got the ultrasound results–it meant I had 4.5 weeks of not being miserable with dread. But from here on out I don’t want too much sugar-coating.
Oh! One big disappointment is that they no longer have a cytopathologist on hand to look at the slides immediate and judge whether there’s enough useful matter there for them to examine. So I guess it’s possible I might need to do this again. If so, at least now I know the pain really isn’t bad, at least not with competent docs.
Now that I’m home I really don’t feel much pain, as I said. I could take a Tylenol but it doesn’t even really rise to the level where I think I need one.
If/when I hear any results next week, I’ll let you all know. I’m sure you’re fascinated by the essays I’m writing about my thyroid! 
But seriously, I owe you all my warmest gratitude for your guidance, experiences, information and support. This would’ve been even harder without you all.