Friday, November 7, 2008

Scared Straight?

Yesterday I had my appointment with a hematologist about my funky platelet levels. First of all, it was a little weird because hematology is part of the oncology department. Everyone in the department and the lab workers who follow all treat you very kindly and look at you like "What a shame. Cut down in his prime." It was sort of sweet and deeply uncomfortable all at the same time.
Anyway, my hematologist was this fabulously beautiful woman with a thick South African accent. She was marvelous and took a lot of time to explain what might be going on with my blood. When we got around to next steps, the first thing she mentioned was that she wanted to schedule a bone marrow test along with a battery of blood work and genetic testing. Bone marrow testing??? OUCH! OUCH! She tried to reassure me that it isn't as horrible as it sounds and that the procedure would likely not be performed by a student doctor. How reassuring. So, she scheduled the bone marrow draw for a few weeks out and sent me to the lab where they extracted about 8 or 9 vials of blood for testing.
Within the hour, the fabulous Dr. Morton called me up and said "Well, we have an unexpected result." "OH SHIT! " I thought calmly to myself. "Your platelet levels have come back normal for the first time in 3 years. I'm going to cancel the bone marrow test for now and wait for the rest of the blood work to come in and let you know how I want to proceed." Hooray! No painful medical procedure! Could it be that my fear of minor discomfort sent some of my little platelets into hiding where they couldn't be counted? If this is true, I'm now going to work on scaring myself thin.

3 comments:

Madame Leiderhosen said...

Let me know how scaring oneself thin thing works, Honey.

Bone marrow testing? Piece of cake, but it does sound dramatic and now you are free of the looming procedure. Now go have a fabulous weekend.

Mnmom said...

Yee hah for your platelets!

You scare yourself thin by getting a fatty liver - seems to have finally forced me to eat right and quit messing around

Dale said...

Nothing like walking through the fear of medical testing. I'm embarking on some of my own although I fully expect I'll be fine.