Bone Marrow Aspiration - 2nd attempt

Lymphoblastic

On Friday July 8th at 10:30 AM they wheeled Mayleigh down to the pre-op room to get her ready for everything. She so far had been amazing when it comes to dealing with the diagnosis and everything that was expected of her. Knowing she has anxiety and has not had to deal with pain much throughout her life I wasn't sure what to expect but we are so proud of her for being so brave and appreciative through this whole process. She never complains and she thanks everyone for anything they provide for her. She has never once lost her wit and smart-ass personality which has kept us sane throughout. Things like naming the devices closest to her has been a mood breaker for everyone. She has named her IV Phillip because it "fills her up". She also has new friends like "Ted the Bed", Mort the Port" and a new buddy we found downtown for her she named "Lymphoblastic".

It was almost noon before everything was ready to go. We assured her everything was going to be ok and that she was in good hands. The Dr. doing the procedure was one of the best at OHSU and she had a full team of people ready to help if needed. We gave her huge lovins and went out to the waiting room. We were confident it was going to be fine but we were told that if they weren't' able to keep her calm they may need to do the LP without sedation so we were praying they could get them both done at this time to avoid more anxiety.

After about an hour of waiting the student nurse came and told us that all had went well YAH!!!!
When we got to Mayleigh she was already awake and immediately let us know that she was not asleep and could feel everything. I was given conscious sedation for an endoscopy and although I remember at first choking on the camera going down, after trying to pull it out they gave me more medication and I was out and didn't remember anything after that. She unfortunately remembers everything.
Either way it was over and they got a good sample and was even able to get the spinal tap done. They also administered a first dose of chemo to the spinal column for prevention; even if cancer was not present they would still treat this area to protect the central nervous system.

We were very happy and again thankful for having the right doctors. We would soon have additional answers as to what was going on. At this point we were still thinking it was Acute T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. A couple of times the doctors referred to it as leukemia but they often twine together and have many of the same symptoms. The main differences are that in leukemia, the cancer cell is mainly in the bone marrow and blood, while in lymphoma it tends to be in lymph nodes and other tissues. Being that her lymph nodes were so out of whack they were leaning towards lymphoma but OHSU wants all their own answers so they re-did allot of the testing under their own roof to be sure.

Mayleigh was already scheduled for a pet scan as well right after the biopsy so they wheeled her upstairs where she was given contrast and had to wait an hour to go through the scan. After another hour and a half she was finally back in her room where we awaited the results.