WHO WOULDA THUNK IT?

I will admit that in the past I have been told that someone was "gonna take a piece out of me." I never imagined that it would come at the hands of a nurse practitioner. Today's appt. was for a bone marrow biopsy. Purpose is to use it to further verify the "first name" of the lymphoma and also what stage it is in. They will use the information gleaned from the bone marrow biopsy in conjunction with the biopsy of "the alien" to determine how we not only take a piece out of "the alien," but how we send him away. How it's done is amazing. They numb the heck out of your backside and deep into your tissue, including your bone and go into your hip bone - which is connected to the leg bone - I love that I have that tune in your head right now. Told them I was glad it wasn't my rib, because the last guy to have some rib bone taken out ended up with a wife as soon as he woke up. Brag time: she said I had really strong bones. Then, they use this device that has a metal tip on the end that goes in to your bone, rotates around (I refused to let them do the Hokey Pokey - because THE TERPS ARE GOING TO COME BACK FROM BLACKSBURG WITH A "W!" ) and gathers a small piece of your bone about as thick as a filler in a pen and about 1/2" long. I told the nurse practitioner, "All that effort and that's all you got?" She was truly amazing. Honestly, the pain was the initial sedative needle stick - felt like a small bee sting and when she hit the bone the first time with the sedative. After that, the only way I knew the device was in me was that she was standing there with her hand on my hip. Tomorrow, the MUGA scan (a heart thing - I don't think they'll take anything out of it.