I started my bone marrow extraction today. I had to be at the hospital for 9am. They took a sample of my blood and sent it away to be analysed to see if there was enough marrow in the blood stream. The results came back that there was enough, but I would also need to go back again tomorrow to have it done again as there wouldn’t be enough from one extraction.
I didn’t get to start on the machine until about 1pm as we had to wait for another nurse to arrive who had been working in Chester! Not extracting bone marrow though as they don’t do that in Chester (so I’m told). There is two machines in Liverpool and there was woman who like me has Myeloma on the other machine.
They put two needles in, one for the blood going out into my left arm and the returning one in my right wrist. It takes about 3 hours for the extraction to complete and I wasn’t allowed to move my left arm during the process. By the end of it my arm was really aching.
The first two hours was ok, then the last one I started to get the pins and needles effect throughout my body. This is a common and normal feeling during the process. I still have the pins and needles in my hands now, but it is a lot less than it was.
The staff are very nice, but the waiting area could be a lot better. It’s a very tiny room that looks like a bit of a storage room and isn’t really a waiting area. It has a sink, but it reminded me of a little utility room than a waiting area for cancer patients.
It was 6pm by the time we came out of the hospital. I had to wait around for some more injections to be administered of the G-Factor. The nurse injected me on the front on my stomach on the left and right, which hurt. I usually injected myself on my side which doesn’t hurt as much, although it might be just a wimp.
So after a long day, I have to do it all over again tomorrow!
