Bone marrow biopsy

28th March, 2012,

 Bone marrow biopsy. We made our way back to Westmead Hospital. Chris was extremely anxious about the procedure, as she had previously watched it on YouTube (I wouldn't dare to)..We got there at 8.30am & we were led to a standard hospital room, where there were three empty beds, seperated by a curtain. I looked around & found a stereo, oh yay music, yup music makes eveything better. Ah no reception, bah no radio then, but I found a few CDs, scattered around & spotted WHAM. Well what can I say, we love a bit of Wham. Fab, it's a best of album, so I cranked it up & occasionally a nurse walked past & smiled. I knew Chris was super anxious, so well what else would you do but bust out a bit of Wham drag. (see video attached) I grabbed a neatly wrapped syringe & used it as a microphone. I started miming & dancing to Wham's 'I'm your man'...we have a good laugh & for a millisecond we forget why we were there. Soon after, Susie arrived & we all got into the songs & tried to keep things light.

A nurse came around & gave Chris two lorazipams (not sure of spelling) prior to the biopsy to settle her nerves. In the meantime, an elder lady had come in & sat on the bed next to Chris. We smiled as she was lovely & reminded Chris of her favourite aunty that had past (this particular lady happened to be having the same procedure).

Once the Dr came in, she decided to let Chris's drugs kick in & said that they would do the older lady first. They pulled the curtain that divides the beds & started the same procedure on this lady. Of course we could hear everything, then all of a sudden, we heard the worst type of moaning, the type of I'm in deep pain that comes from somewhere deep within. Of course we were freaking the fuck out, Chris was almost jumping out of her skin. She got up & walked out of the room which was a brilliant idea. My god, how could they make people listen to someone else going through the same procedure that you were about to endure?. We walked around restlessly, waiting for the lovely old lady's procedure to finish. Once they finish, they came over to Chris who was petrified. Chris asked why they made people sit & listen..why not leave us in another room. They didn't know what to say, they said that the lady's reaction was unusual & that it wasn't normal...Yeah great, that was comforting. Anyway, they decided that they now wanted to complete another lady's bone marrow biopsy prior to Chris's, so the lorazipams could 100% do their job. Yikes for real, we had to listen to another one. Fuck it, we all left again &  went for a walk as we were all terrified. Once we returned, we heard nothing, no moaning & at the end of the procedure, the lady thanked the Drs. This was a good sign, so we felt slightly better about things.

The Drs made their way over to Chris. The Lorazipam had kicked in & she was feeling dozy but still very anxious about the procedure. They then gave Chris a whistle (pain killer) to suck on during the procedure. They asked her to lay on her side & prepped her pelvic bone area, toward her lower back. They began by giving her a local anaesthetic to the area where they would be working. We got the whistle going & she started using it. Chris said that it was like one of those thick art line markers (we could also smell it & it was very potent smelling). I was stroking Chris's hair & holding the whistle in her mouth, asking her to breathe in & out. Susie & I were like her midwives, desperate to ensure that she wasn't going to feel this, so every time we saw the Drs about to do something, we just told Chris to suck on that whistle. Although I couldn't watch what they were doing, my main focus was just on Chris, watching her face to ensure she wasn't in pain. At one stage, I glanced back at the Dr to see what was happening but I just saw blood on the instruments, which was enough for me. Chris was in her happy place & wasn't feeling a thing. Susie & I were so glad of that but towards the end, the Dr was struggling to chip off a bit of Chris's bone. This was part of the procedure, as they needed a sample of the bone. 

So basically what this procedure entails is they use a needle to get down to the bone & then cork screw into the bone & suck out some of the bone marrow with a syringe. Anyway, finally the Dr says she is finished & slowly Chris comes back around, she was groggy but thankfully, she hadn't felt it. Oooh weee, I thought to myself, thank goodness for that whistle! We sat for a while until Chris felt well enough to walk. She still didn't feel anything in the area as they had pumped alot of aneasthetic into the area. We slowly walked around to the cafe & got a coffee & some jelly.. ah red jelly made everything seem better. We were all grateful that the procedure was behind us & we made our way over to Chris's mums for a lovely brunch. For the next couple of days, Chris felt like she had been kicked in the lower back by a horse.

Little snippet of our time at the hospital prior to the biopsy, gotta love a bit of fooling around

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A day of anxiety & action..........

27th March, 2012,

We both went to work, though every fibre of me just wanted to be with Chris. I can't explain, just how much, every thought in our mind was on our next meeting with Dr Blood... we wanted answers. It's the waiting that just eats you up, anyone that has been sucked  into the medical system knows exactly how this feels. Time means nothing, it doesn't matter how anxious you are, you just have to wait!!!

Chris spoke to the Clinical Trial Co-ordinator.. the decision to enter the clinical trial was still not made, although we were definitely leaning towards the trial. There seemed to be a lot more monitoring of the patient & they conduct a pet scan, after two chemo sessions, which they normally wouldn't do. I could go into all the differences, but the main thing to us was, if all was going well, you were randomly chosen & may end up with one of the chemo drugs being removed (the one that is toxic on the lungs).

Chris also left several messages for Dr Blood, as she eagerly wanted to discuss the results of the PET scan. We were all on eggshells, waiting to hear back from him. Finally he called, after several stalking calls to his receptionist. He told Chris not to worry and that he would know more once he met with his clinical team (next planned for the morning of the 3rd April, 2012). However, he decided that Chris would need to have the bone marrow biopsy, yes, this was the one thing Chris had dreaded... urgh ok, so the good news was that there was not a lot of time to be anxious...It was booked in for tomorrow morning.

FYI~Below is a lovely little diagram of where the bone marrow biopsy takes place on the body,  if you have a really strong stomach you can even YouTube the whole darn procedure.

P.S "Kids don't try this at home"