So, I had an MRI with some funky stuff on it and finally decided to follow up with my nurse practitioner after my disastrous 5k race where I did just fine for the first mile and then felt like someone sat on my chest for the next two. I could not breathe and even when I slowed down to walk I felt like my lungs were the size of dimes. Near the end of the race I started talking to myself and trash-talking my tumor (Priscilla, if you remember) and threatened to kick her butt if she planned on coming back. I threatened her with a good beat-down, so let's hope it worked. I finished the race in a run but in tears as I seriously thought (think?) Priscilla may be working her way back. So I called the doctor's office the next week and made an appointment.
Betsy, my beloved NP who sent me to the cardiologist's back in 2007, listened to my issues and read my MRI report and suggested I get some blood work. I got the results back the next day and she said the results were "not normal, but not terrible". Everything was low: platelet count, hemoglobin, WBC, absolute neutrofils...you name it - LOW, LOW, LOW. I called Doug at NIH (and Peggy my caseworker) and read them both reports. In the end, Doug called back at the end of the day on Friday and said the team needed me to do a bone marrow biopsy.
After a few scheduling issues, I was set for the biopsy on July 1 with a follow-up on the 8th. Since my 6 month check-up was supposed to be the 15th, we moved it to the 8th so I could get the CT done and all the results on the same day. I did the biopsy in the special procedures unit - I'd been there before (for a PICC line installation that thankfully never happened and something else I don't remember). George is the NIH bone marrow biopsy rock star so he and an assistant (who kind of sucks) did the procedure. Mike found a chair and perched above to watch the whole thing. He didn't pass out, although I thought about it myself. It was painful, but not a sharp pain but an uncomfortable kind of pressure that went on for far too long. Mike said that they assistant wasn't strong enough to muscle it and she was having a hard time getting through my bone. Plus I felt a small sharp pain and one point and she said, "Oops, I missed a little". NOT what I want to hear. George finally stepped in and it got a little better, but not much. Also, since I work out and am in pretty good shape it was much more difficult for them to get through my bones. Lovely - one downside of working out.
I got it done and was sent home with instructions to take Tylenol if it hurt, which I did that night. I was also not allowed to immerse myself in water for the past 7 days (no swimming or hot tubs), which sucked considering I went to the Chester River on the Eastern Shore for the 4th - swimming, tubing, water skiing, jetsking. Not for me. So, now I wait until Thursday. I am nervous and worried, but I really try not to think too much about it. Mostly, I think about how I will react to bad news and what that would mean. I really just hope that I'll need some kind of shots to bring up my counts and I will take that over chemo any day. Either way, I will deal. I have to. I'm just hoping for a Happy Birthday next week - and that's the best I can do.
1 comment:
Weird question: Have you been checked for asthma lately? I have 3 friends who have been diagnosed in the last few years, who've described very similar sensations. One had probably had asthma his entire life and not known. But the other two probably didn't develop until they were adults. Not that asthma's a good thing to have . . .
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