Cytogenetics and Scooter

[tried to post this in May, but it didn't work somehow]

I just heard, my "cytogenetics" from my bone marrow aspiration/biopsy are normal. Cytogenetics is where they look at my chromosomes to see if I mutated. I didn't, so that is good. It is the final analysis of my bone-marrow biopsy. For now, I am on monthly blood-draws and I will continue with my 'hypocellular marrow', which means messed up bone marrow. Some doctors think it will improve, others think I will just have low marrow forever, and either way it isn't that big of a deal. I'm glad to be fully done with this little scare.

My scooter was stolen early this week. How awesome is that? I am getting good at bad news - I didn't even really care that it was stolen! I mean, I guess I want to punch whoever took it in the head, but I'm really not all that worked up. It was a really girly-looking scooter anyway and I was much larger than it so I looked sort of like one of my bears on a tricycle when I was riding it wearing my huge helmet. Oh the memories though, like the time I was stopped at a stop light near Menlo School and some high school kid was driving by me and and leaned out the window, pointed at me, and mockingly laughed out loud. Or the time when I drove from San Carlos to Santa Clara - about 45 minutes - with two bags of 6 volleyballs each on my back, under medium to high winds pushing on my volleyball-bag-sails and swirving me around on the road. Or the countless times I drove home in the foggy cold, shivering and crouched in a race-style position going under 45 mph. I will miss my tiny, white, efeminate scooter, but will try to move on. Maybe I'll get an actual motorcycle and grow a pony-tail.

Cancer Free Again

What would this adventure be without a scare or two? I got some of my results yesterday - the really important ones - and they did not find any lymphoma in there. They did this thing called flow cytometry, which is something like a coin changer that divides up cells. So, I think they can say with relatively strong assurance that there is no lymphoma in my bone marrow. They also found that the amount of cells that produce my blood cells is diminished. That essentially means I have "damaged bone marrow" from radiation and chemotherapy and cancer. The bone marrow produces my blood cells, so since it is damged, I will have low blood counts forever. This is typical of someone that has gone through treatment like I have. We already knew that last year took a notch out of my previously picturesque athletic body, so we can just add this one to the list of my prematurely aged body parts. You can lead a normal and healthy life with low blood counts - my counts are not extremely low, just a little bit.

This is great news. My oncologist had me worried in his rush to get me my aspiration. Another good thing is that I now have a mark from my aspiration on my right side symmetrical to the old one on the left. It looks like two eyes peering out just above my pant line.

So let's take inventory: damaged bone marrow, bum right hip, 10 little blue tattoos, incorrectly radiated upper sternum, fusarium species toe fungus, eczema on my hand, irritated stomach/esophagus and low blood counts. At least I have a posterior smiley face grinning sideways, smug that I'm alive and happy.

Snap Crackle Pop

Bone marrow aspirations are a pain in the butt. They had me lie down on the table and then the doctor gave me a local anesthetic and then screwed some device into my right illiac crest. It made a crackling that I felt throughout my pelvis and particularly in my tailbone. Once it was deep in my bone, they told me they will count to three and then I would feel a "weird" sensation, and pain. He counted to three, and at that moment it did hurt quite a bit. They did it a second time and it hurt again, like 8 people kicking me at once. But that pain was only momentary, so it wasn't that big of a deal. Then finally he cored out a sample from my hip that was 1 inch long and about an 1/8 of an inch in diameter. He showed me the results: a vial of blood and marrow and the inch-long spongy chunk of my pelvis. He sent the gross stuff off to the lab for a series of tests. They will be looking for lymphoma relapse, damaged bone marrow, infection, etc. I'll know some of my results this week.

It was pretty stressful getting the thing done on Friday. I am getting better at going through these funky procedures, but this one seems particularly invasive to me. The doctors also made it more stressful for me because my appointment was at 10:20 am and they didn't get around to me until12:30.

Now again is waiting for the results. I did get some reassurance from the Renschlers. They say that there is a very good chance that I have low blood counts due to damaged bone marrow. The chemotherapy and the radiation damage the bone marrow, and sometimes it does not come back all the way. You can live a normal life with low blood counts.

This last weekend my City Beach 16's team won the Northern California regional volleyball tournament and we earned a bid to Junior Olympics. This time my club submitted the paperwork and we do get to use our bid. My kids played great.

Bone Marrow Aspiration II

My blood results came back today and they were low again. Since both my white blood cells AND platelets are low, they want me to get a bone-marrow aspiration. They had a cancellation, so I get to go in tomorrow at 10:20am. This is the one where they screw a thing into my hip and then suck out bone marrow. I had one of these before. I am not totally sure what they are looking for, but I guess there are a number of things that could be causing the low blood cell counts.