Diagnosis: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML). A Journey

Yesterday, March 28 we drove out to UPenn in Philadelphia for George’s scheduled bone marrow biopsy. He has had two previous biopsies at Cooper hospital, but said this experience was different. At Cooper, he was hospitalized when he had them so of course it was different in that respect. This time his biopsy was done on an outpatient basis. It was mainly different in that there was interaction with the doctor. Dr. Nadolski came in before the procedure and explained everything that would happen, told him it was a very safe procedure and that it wouldn’t take more than 20 minutes. He asked if we had any questions and we had none! George never saw any doctor before his last two biopsies. Transport just came and fetched him from his hospital room, wheeled him down to Interventional Radiology and he waited on his gurney, lined up in the hall waiting for his turn. The nurses were kind and basically explained the procedure, but he had no interaction with the doctor who actually performed the biopsy. As with the previous bone marrow biopsies, this procedure would be done under sedation, which in this case meant a cocktail of fentaNYL and VERSED. Hard to believe these procedures are done bedside with local anesthetic! We are thankful George has his done under sedation in Interventional Radiology.

As we were making our way out to the parking garage, George was still feeling the effects of the sedatives. He said he liked how it made him feel….and that he understands why people like to do drugs. LOL.

Today George is enjoying a normal day at work in the home office. Days of normalcy are precious to us amidst the flurry of appointments and phone calls. Tomorrow, we are back out to UPenn for a lumbar puncture.