Nov 20 Appointment Results

Well, John and I went to John's appointment at Hershey Medical Center yesterday.  The appointment ended up lasting three hours!  As soon as Dr. Claxton got into the room, he told John he wanted to do a bone marrow biopsy.  Immediately John became nervous.  This is understandable.  A bone marrow biopsy is a very painful procedure in which the oncologist removes some bone marrow, which he extracts from the patient's bone.  But John agreed to it after Dr. Claxton promised him morphine.  So John was given two atavan, a morphine drip, and a lot of local anesthetics.  And he took the biopsy real well.  It still hurt him, but he got by.  He was satisfied with the amount of pain he had to endure compared to previous biopsies he had had to have.   

John asked me to stay in the room with him.  So I did.  To be honest with you, I am traumatized right now.  I will not tell John this, but I think I am going to have nightmares for years.  I am tough and can take ANYTHING.  But I have never seen anything like this before.  It has to do with the tools they use to do the biopsy.  That is all I will say.  I don't like to see the one I love get hurt.  And yes, I will go in there again if John asks.  I just won't look next time, lol.

So Dr. Claxton asked us to call in about one week if he doesn't call first, to see the results of the biopsy.  The biopsy will indicate the progression of John's bone marrow cancer, and help to determine when the transplant needs to be done.  Barring an emergency, John doesn't have to come back for six weeks (Dec. 1).  So it looks like the transplant probably won't be immediately unless the slides show something drastic.  This is ok with me.  I would rather wait a little later in the winter.  And let John get prepared this Fall.  He says he needs the time.       

I did something that wasn't too bright at the appointment yesterday.  Because we were just concentrating on getting through the bone marrow biopsy, I forgot to ask Dr. Claxton ifJohn had a perfect match, lol.  I must have been out of my mind.  Stress does things like that to a person.  Between the biopsy and discussing the transplant, it completely slipped my mind to discuss it with him.  I am going to call Ruth, the nurse, today and ask her if John has a match.  

So all in all the appointment went fine.  John said the biopsy hurt way less at this place than the four other times that he had it done at the hospital here where we live.  He was really pleased with the morphine that he got at Hershey!  He was in some pain, but definitely could bear it.  So I will let you know in about a week how the biopsy went.

Oh, before I forget, John need prayers and good thoughts for something.  John is going for a test this morning at our local hospital.  Please don't mention this in my other journal as it is a Shhhhhhhhh. Why alarm everyone when it may come to nothing?  He found a lump and it might be cancer.  It is NOT related to the Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma and NOT related to the MDS.  If it is cancer, it will be a third kind of cancer.  He is having the test today and will not get the results until Oct. 27 (a week from today).  So prayers please, and thanks.  I will let you all know after we get the results.

How am I feeling about this?  Numb.  I refuse to let myself think.  Whatever is true is already true.  I can't change anything so I am not going to think about it right now.  

Well, I was going to end on a sort of a funny, but I don't feel like it anymore.  I hope this entry didn't bum everyone out.  I do have good news to share too.  I will do it soon.  One piece of news is that I may have a cool volunteer job, and I have a craft I am going to start!  I will tell you all about that soon.  And maybe I will tell you the funny tomorrow... 

Take care of yourself and each other, you all, Love, Krissy :)