Monday, July 6, 2009

Bone Marrow Biopsy Tommorrow......

Spent several hours at the outpatient surgery part of the hospital, filling out all of the paperwork, getting blood drawn, etc., making sure all of the "proverbial ducks are in a row" for my bone marrow biopsy tomorrow. Have to be there at 9:00 am for the 11:00 am procedure. I'm not sure, and it wasn't documented on the paperwork anywhere, what kind of anesthesia I will be receiving tomorrow. Last time I had a biopsy at the hospital, it was a different kind of biopsy..... it was right after my cancer diagnosis, and the biopsy was to determine what kind of cancer I had. They had to take different pieces of my tumor from different areas to send to the lab for a definitive diagnosis. Tomorrow it will be going into the hip bone and extracting strands of bone marrow and be used to determine how many cancer cells are "hanging" out and where I basically stand with this disease right now. At initial diagnosis, my bone marrow contained 65% cancer cells, so I am curious to know how aggressive this disease is being right now, (especially after having had a transplant!) and it will also help the doctor assess how aggressive he needs to be in treating the MM. Fingers crossed they haven't gone up an outrageous amount. Which brings me back to...... I'm not sure if I will be out like a light tomorrow or he'll do what he did for the 1st one I just described. During that procedure, I was awake the entire time (I remember them asking me....how do you feel?....did you feel that?..it won't be too much longer....stuff like that) and was told they were giving me (through the IV line).....a fast acting but short duration pain medication that they could administer frequently as needed and another drug...( I forget now.....WOW, that drug has lasted a LONG time..LOL) maybe it was versed?), so that I could still be awake to answer their questions, yet not remember the pain ....THAT"S MY POINT DOING IT THIS WAY :) So we'll see, either way, as long as the biopsy goes smoothly is done as painlessly as possible, it's all good. I'll let you know how it goes, but if it's the same as the prior biopsies which I am anticipating, I won't even know something was done, except for a teensy bit of tenderness in the hip area. No big deal :)

1 comment:

Susan said...

All the best tomorrow and I'll be thinking about you. My BMB was done through a needle. The froze the back hip area and went in with a needle to extract some bone marrow...a bit of pain but "even that shall pass" Your strong you'll be ok..