Bone Marrow Biopsy

Bone Marrow Biopsy Prep

As I have said, my editor is MIA, so please forgive the not so smooth flow of my future blogs.

After all those tests, I was informed that I needed to have a bone marrow biopsy. I had no idea what that entailed, and from the faces of people when I told them, I didn't think I wanted to know.

I set up the appointment, and I asked if I would need a ride home or anything like that. I was told not to worry about that. I had to do nothing to prepare. A person at work decided to try and tell me something about a giant needle. She loved to make me cringe and frightened.

I drove myself to my appointment. When I arrived, the girl behind the counter asked me if I had a ride home. I explained that I was told I didn't need one. She had me call my mom to arrange a ride home. Mom was not available, so I had to leave a message. I was not allowed to go into the office until I had a reply that she would come when she got off work. The nurse finally called back and they brought me back to the office.

There, I was weighed in and had my height checked. The nurse led me back to an exam room. Thee, I was instructed to take off my clothes and put on hospital jammies. They are a little different than a gown. They are made of cotton, instead of paper. The top goes down to about my knees and ties at the neck, leaving the back open. The bottoms are like pajama bottoms with a drawstring waist, just a little thinner. After I put those on, The nurse came back to check on me, and led me down the hallway to another, larger looking exam room.

The room was a yellowish brown, with lights, trays, and a large chair that looked like a dentist chair. The nurse had me lay down in the reclining dentist chair. She prepped my arm for an IV. She told me that she was going to give me Demoral, to help me relax and so I would not feel anything when they did the biopsy. The doctor came in and explained the procedure.

They would, indeed, take a giant needle and insert it into my hip, all the way through my pelvic bone, into the marrow. They would suck up bone marrow until they had enough to run the tests, and retract the needle. Then, I should go home and rest.

To prep me, they had me lay on my left side, so they could insert on the right side. Someone lifted back the hospital gown and I was told to pull down the pants to my knee. I did as I was told, and I felt something cold and wet on my low back. I was being sponged off. Then another sponge and more wetness, this time the wetness dripped down my hip and underneath me. I was suddenly terrified. The smell of iodine reached my nose. It was sterile, slightly sour, and unfriendly smelling.

Suddenly, there was pain. At first it just stung, then it ached. I was shaking and I started to cry. The pain slowly subsided, but I could feel this pressure. Just pushing and pushing me into the chair. The needle was thick and I couldn't feel it so much as be afraid of it. And being afraid made me cry even more. The nurse came around to the side of the chair that I was facing, and help my hand. She wiped my hair back from my face and told me I as doing ok. Once I started feeling the scraping of the needle against my hip bone, I started to sob softly.

The doctor scraped and scraped and I assume, finally got into my bone. I could hear the marrow being sucked into the syringe. A horrid bubbly, sucking sound. It stopped, and I could fell the pressure again, as the doctor removed the needle. After the needle was removed, I was cleaned up again, and I got a bandage where the insertion point was. The nurse had me roll over, and sit up. She explained that the “hole” would heal withing a couple of days, but to be careful when showering, because it wasn't a small hole.

By that time, I began to get kind of woozy. My mom wasn't there to pick me up yet, so I was asked to wait in the waiting room for her to pick me up. I started to try and read a magazine, but the words just blurred in front of me. So, I tried to concentrate on the TV. That was not working either. By the time my mom came in to get me, I was sliding off the chair and onto the floor. My poor mom had to get me into the elevator and get me down to the car.

She took me home and told me not to worry about anything, her and dad would take me back to my car the next day. She told me to go in and rest. I didn't need to be told twice. I went in and immediately fell asleep.

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