Tuesday saw another stab at getting some bone marrow out of my pelvis - actually, five or six stabs - I lost count! This was done by a Dr rather than the specialist nurse. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts at a BM Aspirate he had a go at a Biopsy and got a sample.
Then he had at least a couple more goes at an Aspirate and finally got a really good Aspirate sample, thank goodness, I was very very pleased. The result is I am pretty sore and have a lot more holes in my backside than I was born with!
Whilst I was in the department they gave me a unit of platelets for good measure. Hopefully this will reduce my tendency to bruise at the drop of a hat, at least for a while.
If all goes well I should get the preliminary results from the aspirate at Thursday's clinic - 3rd November, fingers crossed. The full result will take another week or two as usual.
On Wednesday Graeme and Noelle took us to Clumber park in north Notts. The trees were fantastic, such beautiful colours and at times it was raining golden leaves. The sun shone through the branches dappling the leaves with a magical autumnal light (is there such a word as dappling?), an excellent distraction from everything else going on.
Thursday - time passes slowly when you are waiting and sleep is elusive. The morning dragged by at a snails pace. Eventually we got to clinic, my haemoglobin has fallen some more, 10.4g/dl. The EPO hasn't had time to kick in yet, I've only been back on it for two weeks. The platelets had risen thanks to Tuesday's transfusion.
Eventually Karine and I were ushered in to the consulting room - no result, nothing, zilch, not a drop! The aspirate sample turned out to be blood only, no bone marrow cells. The naked eye appearance of the two is the same. Everything now hangs on the Biopsy sample which 'should' be available this time next week.
Being in limbo is no fun but can't be helped. I feel wrung out by all this. I need a cure starting with a cup of tea, then a nap and then some distractions over the next few days! All will be well till next Thursday but there is plenty of time to think about that later.
* Paul Simon - "So Beautiful or So What" - track 5
No comments:
Post a Comment