Is that a tent peg in your pelvis, or are you just happy to see me?

First  a quick hello to the former Cinda S., an friend of longstanding (but not an old friend), who was the first girl to ever con me into eating a raw oyster.  I did it wrong.  We 'reunited' via Facebook and I just shared the address of my blog with her.  Hey, Cindy!

Also, incidently, it has been just over a year since I started this blog.  Doesn't seem possible somehow--then I do some reading and think, "Been a hell of a year."

ANYway, went to Georgetown yesterday for my fourth (FOURTH!) bone marrow biopsy.  [ed. note:  see the February 27, 2009 entry for the story of the first bone marrow biopsy.  Pretty good stuff, if I say so myself]  I left very early in anticipation of blizzard-like conditions, but was pleasantly surprised by a beautiful, windy morning.  Arriving at G-town at 8:15 for a 10:00 appointment, I had time to wander around the student union and to coordinate by Blackberry a response to a frantic data call by my boss (thanks, Denise and Vic).

Got back to the waiting area by 9:40, got my vitals taken (BP:  126/67, Pulse: 86, Weight: Mind your own damn business), and was in the treatment room by 10:00.  This is the first time I've ever been in a treatment room at the time of my appointment.  There with me were all the accoutrement needed for today's hip bone penetration.  As long as the lidocaine was there, I was OK with the rest.  Interestingly enough, by your fourth marrow draw you can get rather blase about the whole procedure.  SO there I was at 10:00, waiting for the lovely Katherine, with only the smallest of butterflies in my abdomen.

Unfortunately, Katherine's schedule had gotten rather muddled that morning and she kinda forgot that I was waiting.  She finally arrived at 10:30, apologizing profusely.  I told her, "That's OK.  Being seen at 10:30 for a 10:00 appointment may be a record.  Besides, it gave me a chance to finish the magazine article I was reading."  What?  You think I'm not going to kiss up to the lady about to jab a pointy metallic bendy straw in my hip bone?

Incidentally, Katherine is glowing pregnant, and is due in the middle of May.  She is truly a wonderful, sweet person and a consummate professional.

Anyway, she had me lay down on the procedure table, helped me drop trou (no, thank You!), swabbed the target area, and numbed me up.  The lidocaine shots were the most painful part of the procedure and in the grand scheme of things, didn't really hurt that badly.  She harpooned me without me being aware that she was in the bone--it was the best of the four procedures through which I've gone.  I actually asked "Are you in?" [a question guys fear above all other], to which she replied "We're already about halfway through."

There was a eight second period of discomfort while she sucked a marrow sample out of the bone, but that was pretty much the limit of the 'owwiee'.  Katherine bandaged my wound and had me lay on a cold pack for about 20 minutes, during which we discussed the advantages of having a baby in the middle of May.

The good news yesterday was that the CT scan that I thought necessary was not necessary at all.  Jenny--the trials coordination nurse--delivered that news.   No quart of blueberry-flavored library paste to drink yesterday.  I was on the road by noon and back in the office by two o'clock.  My arrival surprised at least one of my employees who, figuring I wasn't coming in after such an ordeal, had parked in my parking space (did I mention that one of the few perks of my job is that I have my own parking space?).  Anyway, after I had her car towed by security, we laughed and laughed.  OK, I didn't have her car towed.

In a random conversation yesterday, I discovered that Rob, a guy with whom I don't work and I would have never suspected, keeps up with my blog.  I'll tell you the truth (and I apologize if this seems like whining), but many times--when I'm feeling sorry for myself--I'll think, "Why write this?  What makes you think anyone anyone outside of Kim, Peggy and Meno is reading it?"  Then I stumble across someone who out of the blue says, "I keep up with your blog."  Blows me away.  To all of you, to all of you who read this, thank you.  Please feel free to leave a comment--comments make me feel like a kid on Christmas morning.  But even if you never leave a comment, thank you for reading my ramblings.

Without saying why, let me say that I am once again tremendously proud of my little guy, Robbie.  For those keeping track, at six years and two months, he is one inch shy of being four feet tall.   Be warned:  he looks like his mom, but he has my sense of humor.  And he has me to mentor him.  I feel a little like the emperor when he first met Anakin Skywalker, but substitute 'warped sense of humor' for 'the Dark Side'.

Hope your weekend is great.