Hell

March 27, 2020

The world is in disarray. My MM’s job got shuttered completely. He went home. I haven’t heard anything from him since St. Patrick’s Day. At least he let me know he made it home safely. Last I heard, his new job is in limbo due to all the Coronavirus problems.

As for me, I am numb. A week or so before all the virus stuff happened in the US, I went to my family Doctor for a routine check up. I went to get refills, so I had to have labs drawn. Two days later I got a phone call saying I needed to see a hematologist. Just about every single one of my numbers was off. Most of them way off. My white blood count (WBC) was 89.2, when 4-10 is normal.

So I went to my hematologist. I saw him not even a year ago when one of my labs was slightly off, but that was determined to be a lab error (new equipment had not been calibrated correctly). He was very shocked to see how bad my labs were. He drew them again and by then my WBC was over 92. A lot of the additional labs he drew were odd also.

So today I had a bone marrow biopsy done. My back/butt/hip really hurts. It was done on the CT scan table. They did not sedate me but did give me some pain medication (which didn’t really work) and a little calming medicine. A sticker of a grid was placed on my back, then I was CT scanned so he could determine where to put the needle. Then he marked it, removed the sticker, and washed it. Then he put the needle in, and drew off some fluid. He seemed to have to do this several times to get a good sample (aspirate). Then once that was completed, he had to push in to get a core sample of the marrow. That really hurt. It was all done by needle so there is no big hole in me or anything, but it is very sore. I feel I will have a bruise.

I don’t go to get the results until April 6, but I will be checking the computer every day to see if results come in. I think he is suspecting leukemia or a type of lymphoma. From my own research, Indon,t think it’s leukemia, but lymphoma or multiple myeloma could be a consideration.

I never got a chance to tell my MM before all hell broke loose. If I hear from him I will tell him once I get results.

I really could use his support though.

It really is odd going to a hospital during the middle of a pandemic. It was very quiet and empty. No visitors are allowed. It was shocking they allowed my ex in the waiting room, since he was my driver, but he was not allowed to come back with me. Which was fine with me. I could relax more without him there.