Testing Day

Before his day of medical procedures, Nick had to take a triple dose of Prednisone – one the evening before, one at four am and one at ten that morning – plus a double dose of Benadryl, to prevent him from having another allergic reaction after the CT scan.

His day started with an EKG, pretty straightforward, then the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy, where they remove a sample of bone marrow (the aspiration) and a piece of the inner core of bone (the biopsy), taken from the pelvis using a needle. When Nick had earlier asked if it would hurt, the doctor said she’d had a whole range of responses including one person who fell asleep during the procedure. Based on Nick’s experience, I’m going to call BS on that and propose that perhaps the patient in question had passed out rather than fallen asleep.

The doctor said that one of us could come in with Nick so I went in. She asked if I got queasy easily and I said no, with the naïve confidence of the uninitiated. The doctor tried unsuccessfully to perform the aspiration. She then tried the biopsy, again without success. Both procedures were extremely painful and afterwards Nick got a sharp, shooting pain down his leg.

The doctor then called for the senior hematologist who tried again. More shooting pain in the leg and still no success. At that point, I left the room and tagged Ray to replace me. My entire upper body was tingling with pins and needles. I’ve never had an anxiety attack before, so I was afraid I might be having a stroke. After a few minutes of deep breathing, the tingling went away and I re-joined Ray and Nick. The doctors had decided to give Nick some Ativan as a relaxant. Once that took effect, the senior doctor went in again (on the other side of his pelvis) and this time both the aspiration and the biopsy went much more smoothly.

After they’d done some blood work, we wheeled Nick down to radiology for his CT scan which involved spending an hour and a half drinking a solution that apparently tasted like pool water, followed by a quick scan and then a half hour wait to ensure there was no allergic reaction.

By then it was 2:30 in the afternoon, Nick hadn’t eaten all day and his body was pumped full of Prednisone – which increases anxiety and wakefulness – plus Benadryl and Ativan, which have the opposite effect. He said his body and mind were feeling very confused and that his tongue wasn’t working properly when he tried to talk.

As we were waiting for Ray to bring the car around, Nick found his silver lining. “This is already making me stronger because I used to be nervous about getting blood taken, but now, giving blood seems like nothing.”

After a quick lunch, Nick had his pulmonary function test and then we took him back to the suite we’d booked. He slept like a rock for a few hours, got up and had a shower, ate some pizza and seemed relatively unfazed by the day. Later that evening he was in the kitchen making himself a bowl of cereal, “I’ve got my comfy chair, my snack, a movie to watch, no hives or swollen face…I’m good!”

Oh, and never one to miss an opportunity to categorize, Nick created a table evaluating the ‘unpleasantness’ of each procedure he’s had so far.