One step closer...

I am so glad today is over with. After giving ten vials of blood, I was ready for my bone marrow. Well, they were running about an hour behind schedule (surprise, surprise) so I went for my echo first. That was a piece of cake. Ultrasound on my heart wasn't bad at all. It reminded me of being pregnant and seeing the little heartbeating on the screen. Well, mine wasn't so little but you get the picture. Then it was off to the bone marrow department...

So, after having two bone marrow biopsies now (both at MDACC) I can confidently say that there is a difference in who you get. I had a pretty good experience the first time around and I was expecting the same today. Boy was I wrong! My first clue should have been the tech's scrubs...he was wearing a top that said Methodist....ummm, hello...you are at MD Anderson now???? The next clue should have been when he didn't know how to silence the blood pressure machine. oh, great! That's when I started to feel a bit uneasy about his capabilities. There are two people in the room during the bone marrow procedure and I learned why today. Since MDACC is a learning center, the tech performing the biopsy is less experienced than the one supervising. So, when this 6 ft, 200 lb tech was unable to break off a piece of my hip bone I quietly and tearfully requested that the other tech try. Apparently, my hip bone was not willing to give up a part of itself. I knew I had strong bones from the first biopsy, but a short pregnant woman was able to do it and I thought for sure this dude would be able to. Not so. The more experienced tech happened to be a woman and after finding another spot that wasn't quite so sore, she (a whole foot shorter and thinner) was able to do what he couldn't in 5 minutes. Note to self: Next time make sure to demand the more experienced tech to perform the bone marrow biopsy. On the bright side, I don't think I have to worry about falling and breaking my hip bone in the future.

I see my doc at 11am to go over the test results and should be admitted later tomorrow night around 7pm. Let's hope the tests still are negative and that I don't have to do that ever again!

--B