12:56 pm: At Georgetown, waiting for my next bone marrow biopsy. Looking across the small room, I can see the table holding the shiny implements. I'm blogging in real time from the treatment room, waiting for the lovely Catherine to come ply her trade. I hope they aren't using the generic equivalent Lidocaine today.
Best Marrow Draw Ever! Seriously, Catherine just did the best, most discomfort-free draw I've had yet.
Still in the exam room, lying on an ice pack to stop swelling/bleeding. The labs guy just came in and apologized for all the blood he's going to draw. This should be good. 15 tubes is my personal record. Also, they've never come to me before. Yoinks!
Personal record: the phlebotomist drew 18 vials of blood. That breaks my old record by three. They brought me two small containers of orange juice to replace the fluids, though I think a pint of really good lager would be a better choice (particularly given the lowered blood level).
I've moved on to Cardiology, where I'll be getting an EKG. No worries, as after my hospital stay I had at least three echocardiograms done that all showed my heart in great shape.
And I'm done (until March 1st). The EKG was pretty amazing, time wise. The tech laid me out on the exam table, attached adhesive leads to my ankles and arms, then put 11 more in various places on my chest. We chatted while she wired me up. She then told me she needed me to be still for thirty seconds. I assumed we were calibrating the machine. After thirty seconds, she started pulling off leads--we were done.
I'm now eating a late lunch consisting of a tasteless roast beef wrap bought at the Hospital deli and a coke. Leaving to beat rush hour traffic, but I'll be back tonight to talk about the CT scan that started the day and the really neat lady I met while waiting.
CT Scan update: I started the day getting a CT scan (the big doughnut-shaped machine you get pulled through to image your innards). Showed up at 8:10 for my 8:30 appointment, having braved the early morning snow to get there on time. They--of course--had misplaced the order for my scan, so I sat for a while until they found it. Once it was in hand, they led me back to a familiar waiting room.
While there, I ended up in a conversation with Jackie, a really nice older African-American woman being treated for colon cancer (first diagnosed in 2001). Turns out her late husband retired from the Air Force. We played "Where were You Stationed?", during which she said something that really hit home. At one point she told me that they had been stationed in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. What she said next rocked me back on my heels: "Of course back then [early/mid-1960's], we couldn't enjoy the beach."
Turns out that "back then", Myrtle Beach was segregated. Blacks weren't allowed on Myrtle Beach. It was "whites only". If you were black, you had to go to Atlantic Beach, known at the time as "The Black Pearl". I learned all this just now on the Internet.
Look: I grew up in segregated South Louisiana. I remember a laundromat that had separate facilities with appropriate arrows for "coloreds" and "whites". I remember drug stores--owned by church-going, God-fearing folks--that ripped out their soda fountains rather than serving black customers. I remember desegregation. I just don't think back on it too often and I only knew one side. This fact, stated so gently and matter-of-factly by this woman, really hit home. And I know we have a long, long way to go. But it's worth remembering sometimes just how very far we've come. Race ain't such a big thing for most people anymore. Sexuality ain't such a big thing for most people anymore. We're making progress. So thank you, Miss Jackie, for reminding me just how far we've come and how far we still have to go.
By the by, I did NOT have to drink good ol' Barry Smoothie today before the CT scan. Instead, Grace--the cool Jamaican tech--gave me two large glasses of water with what I can only assume was concentrated goat bile dissolved in them. It didn't taste good (think 'bitter burnt vanilla' with an aftertaste that just goes and goes), but it went down quickly.
Anyway, I go back next Tuesday for my first dose of Ofatumumab (All Hail Prince Ofatumumab!) to see how I tolerate it, then the real dosing begins the following Tuesday. Back in the saddle again.
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Glad it was relatively painless! Amazing to think that you're blogging from the room. Technology sure changes quickly!
ReplyDeleteI vote too for the lager! Glad it was relatively painless as if that is possible.
ReplyDeleteYou are such a trooper!!
ReplyDeleteAs an aside, with just a wee bit o' alcohol in me, it strikes me what an odd thing it is to have a big, big needle shoved into one's pelvis. For the sixth time. God bless you, Catherine, for being so good at what you do. The only thing that hurt (and it more stung than hurt) were the shots to numb up the site. It is weird--every time--when they say, "We're in the bone now." That just ain't right.
ReplyDeleteTim - I'm more of a stout kind of guy (beer speaking - of course). Still owe you one, BTW.
ReplyDeleteThe real change is - I think - coming relative to race relations.
Discussing last years classmates with my 3rd grader just last week, reminiscing (if you can do that with a third grader) about her friends from last year and who's class they are in this year and such.
We arrived at a girl from Tahiti with a noticeably different skin color, complextion, hair, etc. I was trying to remember her name - and instead like the doof I am described her as the girl with the darker skin. My daughter had absolutely no idea what I was even talking about. Literally no idea what I meant by the phrase.
The best part - I haven't had to make an effort as a dad to help her create all equally. Never had to tell her to do it. It literally seems to just have disappeared from her generations radar. One can only hope.
Hang in there Tim - thinking of you often (but no too often to be creepy).
- Meno
Skin color does play a part in our family because Lizzy is tanner than Meera, even in January, and of course tanner than Sukumar who hides away in the computer room 24/7. We always put skin color on a continuum. We have dark skinned angels and santas out at Christmas along with all the other knick knacks and we always pointed someone out by clothing, rather than race. However, when my daughter was in middle school, some friends described a store as carrying only black people clothes. By then at least, I was able to say she wasn't raised that way, and she agreed.
ReplyDeleteOne thing wrong with hiding race distinctions is that while I was pointing out Italian, Indian,Mexican,or Vietnamese culture, I never pointed out African American culture. It's more than just transplanted southern culture, and ignoring its differences didn't give it its due.
By the way, the black beach in Atlantic City was on the bay back then. Segregation was up here also, apparently, so much for my notherner snobbery.
Judy and the Patels