Testing Testing Testing

So last week was all about establishing exactly which Lymphoma I have.  At the moment I still don't have this information, however my oncologist should now have this and it will drive his plan for my treatment in the coming weeks and months.

I was admitted to hospital on Tuesday evening to be ready for a bone marrow biopsy on the Wednesday morning. Well, those who have spent a night in hospital will know the disturbances you get, however the nil by mouth thing and the very dry atmosphere was dreadful. By the time of the biopsy my mouth was as dry as a scottish bar after hogmanay!!  The biopsy was interesting, as the anaesthetist pushed the sleep juice into my arm the nice lady doctor started pulling down my underwear!! Well would you believe it, next thing I knew I woke in a different room 10 minutes later!

The following day after an echocardiogram to check out my heart (to make sure I was up to the chemo to come - this was the hour of chest rubbing!) I was discharged to return the following day for a PET scan.

A PET scan is like a colour CT scan, you must starve prior, then are injected with a sugar solution containing a radioactive material.  The scan gives multiple images of your body. Areas where the particular injected 'radiopharmaceutical' accumulates (for example, fast-growing cancer cells) appear ‘brighter’ than normal tissues on the images.  The worst part of this was that you must lie with your arms above your head for 10 minutes!  Now I'd done a CT scan no problem, however this time my arms ached almost immediately and I really had to focus to keep still and deliver the required images. Anyway what is 10 minutes in a lifetime!!  After the scan my upper arms were pumped like Arnies - very interesting!

Final test was another biopsy to gather more details for the Oncologist (I learnt this term from 'House'!).  Thankfully they chose to biopsy my groin (1 hour recovery) rather than my chest (4-5 hour recovery) although the next thing I knew was a $700 charge!! Something else to sort next week.

At this point you should understand that it is not cheap being ill!!

Well next week I'm into hospital to start the journey proper and will get the update on which Lymphoma I actually have.  This will set the tone for the next few weeks. So call in next week for an update.