Re: Bone Marrow Test

May 18, 2002

Hey , I'm sorry to hear that your tests are not improving and that you have

to increase your Prednisone. I have done a quick check on bone marrow tests for

you and came up with this one:

www.health.sa.gov.au/cancare/treats/tests/bmbiop.htm

so I hope this site will give you the information that you are looking for or at

least a bit of an idea of what will happen. Good luck and I hope the bone

marrow tests go well for you with little pain and discomfort.

Take care,

Marilyn

mhogg69@...

Bone Marrow Test

Hey group,

I know i don't write very often, I am newer to the group and am still taking

it all in. I just went to my Rhuemy and found out none of my counts are

getting better. It's been two months now, and the dr says that the tests

keep coming back the same. How very depressing. He has upped my Prednisone

to 60mg. and has ordered me to have a bone marrow test done. I've heard

these are pretty painful, I'm such a wimp, but if anyone knows exact details

to these tests, ie: how long it takes, how painful, what they do to ease the

pain, how long the pain last, I would be greatly appreciative.

Hope the rest of you are having a great day!

May 18, 2002

I have had the bone marrow test. You go to the doctors office. There is not any

preparation in advance, or at least there wasn't for me. You will see the doctor

and receive and injection of demerol or some such pain killer in advance. The

breast bone and hip are the two most favorite places to have the bone marrow

aspirated. Most use the hip. After the pain killer has had a few minutes to kick

in, you will get anouther injection to numb the removal area (hip in the lumbar

area for me). This will make the procedure relatively painless. The doctor will

come in and take a large needle to take the samples. You will be face down and

won't see it. All I felt was pressure, but not pain. I could feel him working,

but could not tell what he was doing other than the pressure I felt. He said it

was going to hurt some, and I was waiting for it, but he said he was done before

I felt pain. I chose to have a wheel chair to take me to the car because the

meds made my blood sugar drop to the basement. It was 45 when they were done.

So, I needed the chair because I am diabetic, not because of the procedure. You

may or may not be given meds for the pain once the numbing agent wears off. I

would suggest you get some if you are a pain wimp. You will move VERY slow for a

few days. I think it was a good 2-3 weeks before the pain was totally gone but

you will be very sore the first few days and walking will be painful.

Toleralble, if you go slow, but painful. I did not take pain killers because

they mess up my blood sugar so badly. I would prefer to suffer pain than low

blood sugar. I think from start to finish, (not counting the struggle to

establish good sugar levels) It took 10 minutes or so to get the vitals, answer

questions and get the demerol. Waited about 10-15 minutes for it to kick in, and

10-15 minutes for the procedure. Get dressed and leave. Pretty simple in office

procedure. Hope this helps, if you have other questions, ask me. I may have

forgotten something. I would not worry about the test. It is preetty easy. I

would take the day off or do the treatment on a Friday. I would expect to miss

work for a couple of days if you have a job where you are on your feet because

your hip will be quite painful.I had a sit down job with occasional walking but

ended up calling someone to bring stuff to me because it was so hard to get

around the first 2 days. Plan food in advance so you just have to " nuke "

something if you are home alone. See if you can get help with kids if you have

small ones who need tending or if children are 5 and up, let them babysit mom

for a special treat when you get better.

Thinking of you and sending peaceful thoughts your way. Caroline

Jurski <ejurski@...> wrote: Hey group,