Days 17-20: Biopsy and the Waiting Game

I’m not a patient person.  I think I might have mentioned that once or twice before.  My mom tells me that it started before I was born.  I was due in mid-September, but come the end of July I couldn’t wait anymore and chose to enter the world premature, screaming and fighting.  Being patient takes a lot of practice.  I turn 40 years old on my next birthday (ouch), and one would think I’d have it nailed by now.   Nope.

Friday morning was my repeat bone marrow biopsy.  Now just to catch you up, Friday was Day 17 post-diagnosis, Day 13 past the start of chemo, and Day 22 since being admitted to the hospital.  In choosing my standard of counting, post-diagnosis was the measure that made sense to me.

My biopsy was scheduled for 11:00 am, but I wasn’t taken down until 12:30-ish.  The waiting was driving me insane, and my nurse didn’t even come in to tell me that there was a delay.  In fact, I hadn’t seen my nurse or a tech in 3 1/2 hours.  But I was finally taken down to the pre-op area, and prepped for the procedure.

It was so much nicer to be knocked out for the bone marrow biopsy.  I didn’t feel a thing . . . and got a good nap in.  🙂  Was back up to my room within an hour, having woken up from the anesthetic fully within about 5-10 minutes after the procedure finished.

All seemed to go well, but we would not have results until Tuesday morning.  I settled in for more waiting . . .

Days 18-19: Saturday and Sunday

Saturday started out with a number of visits.  I  But none so important as my two boys.  I hadn’t seen them in almost 10 days – an eternity to a mom.  I was aching to hug them, hold them.  When they came through the door of my room, and ran over to my bed, I nearly lost it.  Their sweet little boy smell was the best medicine I could have been given.  It was a great visit, and lifted my spirits enough to fight this fight another day.

One of my coworkers arranged for a very special gift.  He took a picture of my whole department (whom I lovingly call, ‘my guys’), and then had that picture put onto a cake from my most favorite bakery.  I make an annual pilgrimage to this place on my birthday – it is the ONLY place I will go to get my birthday cake.  Simply just the best icing I have ever had.  And I’ve had my share.  For those of you in the NJ area… http://www.woodlandbakery.com/.  You won’t regret it.

My doctors came in shortly after, and really had good news overall.  My white blood cell count was still at 0.3 – holding at that ‘rock bottom’ level.  The better news was that my fever was gone, and the blood test showed that the antibiotic had taken care of the staph infection.  I was already beginning to feel better.

Sunday brought more good news.  My white blood cell count finally went up.  Just a hair to 0.4, but up nonetheless.  My hemoglobin and platelets were down, so I would need transfusions of both.  A little after lunchtime, my nurse came in to give me my pre-meds (the usual tylenol and benadryl before a transfusion) and I spent a good deal of the rest of the day sleeping.  Much needed after the activity of the day before.  The only problem with sleeping in the afternoon, is that I can never get to sleep at night.  Was up until 2:30 am, but at least managed to finally get some blogging done.  🙂

Monday, Monday . . . 

A very non-descript day.  All of my levels held – WBC count was still 0.4, and my hemoglobin and platelets responded to the transfusions the day before and had gone up.  A very quiet day, which left me plenty of time to think.  Tomorrow morning – the biopsy results are supposed to be  in.  I was told that the doctors would come see me first during rounds, knowing that I would be on the edge of my bed, waiting for answers.  And I was already.  This is going to be a long night for the girl who has no patience.

On the iPod tonight:

Valparaiso – Sting