Saturday, October 24, 2009

The tests

Monday 19 October - CT guided biopsy

Shanean was given a mild sedative and some local anaesthetic and was rolled into the CT machine and they then inserted a needle to extract some of the growth. This was called a Core Biopsy, rather than a small needle procedure, to ensure a large enough sample was taken.

The procedure wasn't too bad pain wise, she was made to recover for three hours afterwards and me and the kids picked her up

Tuesday 20 october - Bone Marrow biopsy

This was a nasty one. They put her on her side and with a bit of local anaesthetic basically drilled into her lower rear hip bone to extract the marrow. They also had to remove a sample of bone, which unfortunately was unsuccessful on first attemp and had to be repeated.
This was extremely painful for her and i think she still has post traumatic stress syndrome from it. They didnt give her any sedative as it was a "short" procedure, so this made the experience even more real life

The good news is the cancer is not in her blood or marrow and she will not have to do this again (more later)

Wednesday 21 October - Test Free Day

Thursday 22 October - PET Scan

A walk in the park compared to the bone marrow. She was injected with some radioactive fluid, made to lie still for and hour and then put through an all over body scan

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