Made it through the bone marrow biopsy yesterday. Seriously folks, it's not all that bad. I arrived at the clinic at 10:15 and was walking out of there at 11:00. Maybe 10 minutes of that was the actual procedure. There are needle stings and a dull bone pain throughout the procedure, but the length of those pains is no more than 2 seconds tops. After that, you can tell that something has happened back there, but it feels no worse than a light bruise.
As I said before, the Nurse Practitioner doesn't enjoy doing them because of the pain that the patient feels. However, based on my experience, the anxiety before the process is the worst part. I took my IPod and listened to some Gipsy Kings in one ear and listened to the Nurse Practitioner and the Nurse Tech with the other ear. We had a conversation the whole way through the process. I'm proud that most of it was humorous and I wondered if the folks outside of the room were saying, "Isn't there a bone marrow biopsy going on in there? Why all the laughing?" I also took the bear that the Nurse Practitioner gave me along to the procedure to make her relax and smile. She appreciated that and I'm thinking there may be a bone marrow biopsy stuffed animal in her future.
Bo is doing well and is off of the weekly chemo schedule and now on a schedule where he only has to have chemo every three weeks. I know that makes him happy!
Hunter participated in a Relay for Life event last week and was quite the rock star. I saw some pictures of him and his mohawk hair cut. I may look for a wig like that!
Not sure of the details, but Judith, who is a regular reader of this blog and posts some very encouraging comments, is undergoing some difficult procedures.
My friend Pat has a friend named Jim dealing with colon cancer. I've started to correspond with him and will keep you posted.
I'm thinking of taking a Memorial Day weekend vacation from the blog. I have some tests tomorrow and Friday (CT Scan and PET scan), but the results of those won't be back until Tuesday morning. If I get results from the Bone Marrow Biopsy before that, I will post them here. Otherwise, I won't be doing any blog posts until next Tuesday around 11AM or so when I know the results of the scans.
Enjoy your weekend!
1 comment:
Don't worry about me Greg. My biggest difficulty right now is waiting for test results which should have come back last Friday and still aren't in. The waiting is the hardest part for me as I don't like the uncertainty of what I am dealing with or what the future holds. I'd rather be able to tackle my issue with information much as you do. In the mean time I will try not to turn into Ms. Crankypants and will rather try to feed off of your positive energy.
- Judith
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