Bone marrow tests suck butt

Henry is a trooper when it comes to all of this medical crap. Today we headed back to Doernbecher's for Henry's second bone marrow test. (The picture at the right shows the type of needle used for the procedure. Egads.) The doc is looking for signs of smoldering leukemia, also called preleukemia. I will have to remember never to allow them to schedule testing of this nature in the middle of the day again. Poor Henry was starving and dehydrated from not being able to eat or drink for several hours before the procedure. Not having anything in his stomach made it nearly impossible to get him to take a nap before we headed to the hospital. Luckily, Henry can still sleep in the car so he had a little rest before we got there. When the IV therapy folks showed up, Henry was poked in the arm but he didn't cry until the lady started fishing around for the vein with the needle inside his arm. Ouch. (I hate it when they do this.) On a side note, our doctor is really great. If you ever find yourself in need of a good pediatric hematologist/oncologist, ask for Dr. Kurre.

Our news includes results from Henry's genetic test, which came back negative. Because this puts fanconi anemia back at the top of the list, Dr. Kurre took a skin biopsy while Henry was sedated. We expect results from that test to come back in about a month. Here's why - the skin is placed in a nutrient-rich environment that facilitates cell growth. When there are enough cells to run the test, about one million cells are needed, the doc will look for chromosome breakage. Weird, eh? Henry is also being referred to an endocrinologist next so his wonky growth hormone numbers can be reviewed by someone who knows something about wonky growth hormone numbers.

For now, Henry has been labeled a puzzle by his doctor. Here's hoping Kurre is smart enough to put the pieces together and return to us a healthy boy.

UPDATE: I totally forgot to mention that Henry has had his first stitch. Just one, placed where the skin biopsy was taken. It'll be removed next week when we go in for the results of the bone marrow test. Also, we've been given the go-ahead to continue all non-live vaccinations. His vaccine schedule was stopped when he first became sick. While at the hospital yesterday we had hoped to give him his flu vaccine while still sedated but he was waking up when they injected him. Bone marrow tests suck more than usual when you wake up from them to someone jabbing you in the leg.