Marrow, anyone?

So things are progressing rapidly on the diagnosis, treatment front. Today I got the opportunity to meet with my oncologist, Dr. Cirenza. He's quite a charming fellow - friendly, straightforward, seems knowledgeable. All in all, a good guy. He's trying to make a final diagnosis which will determine my course of treatment. The question, as I understand it, is whether my cancer is mediasteinal or diffuse large B-cell. If it's mediasteinal, then there's a different, and somewhat more intense treatment regimen. If it's large B-cell, I'll just be going with the CHOP-R therapy. That means only a few more tests to run. There will be a PET scan to further confirm the areas to which the cancer has spread. That's tomorrow - so more fasting and waiting. I love scans.
Oh, and did I mention that during this visit, the doctor wanted to confirm that no cancer has migrated to the bones. And did I mention that the only way to do this is to extract some marrow from my hip bone?

If you haven't had a bone marrow extraction before, it helps to know what they do. First, a local anesthetic is administered. Then the doctor drills down to the bone, and pulls some fluid from the cavity around the bone. Then a drill is inserted to drill into the bone and marrow is pulled. The coup de grace is the final step, in which a corkscrew like device is used to pull a piece of bone, from the bone itself.

The anesthetic is just a bee sting - standard old stuff. Actually closer to a yellow jacket sting - I was stung by both a yellow jacket and a bee while mowing yesterday and it's definitely closer to the former.

The first needle insertion is uncomfortable, but the local seems to fend off most of the pain.
The syphoning of the fluid from around the bone is a sharp nail-like pain and is unpleasant, kind of like a very sharp needle exerting pressure in an strange place. It's little difficult to describe, but it is much like an intense pressure on a sensitive nerve.

Ah, but I neglect the joy of the final stage - plans for which were heretofore unannounced by my doctor. After concluding the marrow removal, he explained that he'd also like to have a bit of v. I have never, ever, in my entire life encountered this intensity of pain. I'm not given to hyperbole, but if I were, I would be at a loss for a way in which to exaggerate. Apparently, unlike other parts of your body, bone is completely filled with nerves. I was, I'm ashamed to admit, driven to screams of agony - like you might expect to hear when entering a dungeon. How those civil war soldiers had un-anesthetized amputations, I can never imagine. I feel sorry for anyone entering the doctor's office at that time.

It still hurts now. But at least I'm off that table.

Tomorrow I go for a PET scan and an ECG for some final tests, and tomorrow evening I'll be admitted to the hospital for treatment - chemo. The doc recons that there will be 6 months of chemo, followed by some bad ass radiation to destroy what remains of the tumor. That's the plan today anyway.

On a happier note, my dad helped me to bottle 10 gals of my fresh hop Cascade American Pale ale. Most of this will likely be given to lucky friends as I'm going to be on the wagon for a few months. Enforced due to possible conflicts with medication and liver sensitivity. I have high hopes for this one...