"But Mr. Thornburg," the children yelled, "What is a Bone Marrow Biopsy?" Let me break it down for you all or y'all if you are from West Virginia. The first part (called the aspiration) is where they jam a big, hollow needle into your hip bone and suck out marrow. The second part (the actual biopsy) is where they take an even bigger, hollow needle and bore out a piece of bone and marrow together. If I were to rank this procedure in a place of my "to do again list" it would be above having a toe nail removed and right below having a toe nail partially removed. Oh well.
Because the doctors moved fast, I was in a specialists (Hematologist/Oncologist for those in the know) office two days after I was diagnosed. He came up with a diagnosis of Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia. For those of you who like to read, you can do so here http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/chronic-myelogenous-leukemia/DS00564.
The Doctor was very cool and the staff was great. The Doc tried to convince my wife that lifting laundry baskets and housework would cause me to go into some type of Leukemia induced coma, but she didn't buy it. He put me on Gleevec (http://www.gleevec.com/). We laughed, cried, hugged, and expressed our inner most desires to each other. He invited me over to his house for dinner as his "Coolest Patient of the Month." I, of course, declined seeing as how there was a Sheetz right down the street and my Honey Bear (wife) just LOVES Sheetz. The twinkle in his eye led me to believe he would either be seeing me soon or maybe he just had a glass eye from some horrific needle accident as a young resident. I don't know which.
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I was told a few weeks ago that I'm a potential match for a patient needing a bone marrow transplant. I've had one set of tests done and now awaiting the results of a second set of tests to see if I'm a close enough match for the bone marrow recipient.
ReplyDeleteI'm hoping the bone marrow I donate will be helpful to the recipient (even though it's going to hurt!).