Joan's Bone Aspiration

We had Joan's first session today to get more information on how much cancer she has in her body. We will not get the results for a week but this visit was tough and we knew it was going to be tough.

Basically a Bone Marrow Aspiration can be one of two procedures. Either way the Nurse Practitioner (Ours was Lauren) uses a small hand operated drill to drill into your pelvis. Once they are in there they will either extract only fluid through a narrow cannula, which is not too painful; or they extract the fluid, plus a sample of the marrow itself, plus a small bone fragment. That second one hurts and that is the one that Joan had done.

The procedure was done in a regular examination room with little fan fare. Lauren came in told Joan to lay on her side and expose her hip. Then the entire area is bathed in betadine or some antiseptic. After that a topical anesthesia is applied. None of this was scary of course but watching the nurse use a small hand operated drill to get into Joan's bone was excruciating for me. The nurses expected this and warned me that it was tough to watch. Joan seemed completely comfortable through the entire ordeal. While the topical anesthesia offered Joan some comfort initially, there is no way to numb the bone or marrow and she felt every bit of that.

After the drill had reached the correct depth Lauren transferred different needles into the cannula and withdrew all the fluid, marrow and even a small bone sample (see the picture). Finally, they slathered some of the marrow and fluid onto several slides and sent them off to pathology. For the rest of the day today and perhaps tomorrow Joan's hip will probably feel like she fell off the roof and on to her butt, but she is still an incredible trooper. The nurses both were blown away that she never winced while they drilled into her bones.

Tomorrow Joan has her PET scan which is pretty simple. They crank some sugar water into her veins and then follow it with a scanner much like an MRI. It will be a piece of cake for her to deal with that procedure after today! Both preliminary results will be available at her next appointment with Dr. Capone the Oncologist on Thursday April 5th.

I will be sure and send another update tomorrow about the procedure, but we will not know Joan's treatment options until the results of both of these tests are back. So keep praying for Joan, and while you are at it say a prayer for Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edwards too. By all accounts they are two of the nicest people inside the beltway, an area known for chewing nice people up and spitting them out. Joan and I pray for each of them everyday. We hope you will too.