Wednesday, October 30, 2013

No worse than a bee-sting

Barbara and I headed down to Dana Farber again today - well to be more precise, we headed down yesterday afternoon and stayed in a hotel last night because we had an early morning appointment.

The appointment today was for additional tests - no treatment - just tests.

The first test was to draw some blood. As the tech was lining up the vials, I commented on the number of them. She said, "Yeah - there are quite a few. I fact I have to go into the next room to get some additional ones." It turns out that she filled 17 vials. I was very impressed. I was a bit concerned about the number of them, but then I realize that they all get filled from the same pin-prick so it does not really matter how many they fill - up to some limit I suppose. Barbara keeps asking me about exsanguination. Does anyone know what that means?

The other test was a bone-marrow biopsy. This did not sound like much fun at all. The worst part of is was that any time anyone at the clinic mentioned it, they kind of looked down and mumbled as if they did not want to discuss it. I was like freaking out. But - SURPRISE - it was no big deal. There were a couple of novocane shots. No big deal there. Then there was the part that involved what they refer to as "discomfort". Even that was no big deal. If anything, it was like a bee-sting. At the end, I was a bit disappointed that I had been so worried about such a minor thing.

So that was our day. Not very dramatic or exciting.

Our next event takes place next Wednesday when my treatment actually starts.

By the way - a couple of blog-housekeeping items. The main thing is that people have been having trouble leaving comments. It turns out that there should be a link at the bottom of each post that says either "No Comments" or provided the number of comments. I think that if you click that, you can leave a comment.

There is also an area to the right of the posting where it says, "Enter email below to be advised of new blog entries."

That is all for now. I will try to post next week once treatment starts.

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