As is my new pattern I woke up early to more blood tests and measurements, ate some breakfast, read a little and watched some TV.
Before my wife arrived for visiting hours, the doctor came in to discuss my situation. She’s a cancer doctor and the head of the unit I was in.
She told me that they would need to run a few more tests aimed at confirming whether or not I had cancer of the blood. She would have to do the test promptly so that they could be on the 11am shuttle to the lab in Oslo that day.
After the routine blood tests, she rolled me on my side felt for the closest part of my hip to the surface, numbed me with a local anesthetic and stuck in what I can only imagine was a long hard sharp needle. I may sound casual as I write this, but the event was anything but. The doctor knew exactly what she was doing, how to do it and where to do it. It was a success as she sucked small tubes of bone marrow out of my hip. It was a weird feeling, like when you suck snot out of your sinuses, only it was inside my hip bone.
After that the real work started. The doctor needed a tissue sample from inside my hip bone. This would require her screwing some sort of long metal rod into my hip and taking a core sample. She lined up the tool and started turning, and twisting, and screwing. I was still numb so I couldn’t feel anything except that some one was back there pressing into me, but it didn’t hurt. I could feel her working hard. After a little bit she mentioned how hard my bone was and how difficult it was to get through. But she kept going and eventually got what she needed. Thank God. When she was through, she patched me up, rolled me over and told me that we could expect the results tomorrow morning. I could go home and spend the night but needed to be back by 9 am tomorrow morning. And she wanted me to bring my wife in case it was going to be bad news.
I limped around until my wife came took me home.
What a long night this could have been. A million thoughts running through my mind. Did I have cancer of the blood? Were we going to find out that it was something else and that there was nothing to worry about? Was I going to die? Would I be laughing about the whole thing tomorrow? I allowed my mind to wander a little before I reeled it back it. I didn’t google anything because I know that that only leads to trouble and worry. I asked God for peace and actually got a good night sleep on a night that could have easily been the longest night of my life.
On the bright side
I live in Norway and all this is happening so fast. I think of all the places the to get sick in the world, this must be one of the best. I know that the US has some of the best hospitals in the world and they are leading the way in most of the cancer treatment breakthroughs. But the system there is flawed. It takes too long to see a doctor who can give you a diagnosis and start a treatment. Enough about that.