Showing posts with label bone marrow biopsies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bone marrow biopsies. Show all posts
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Bone Marrow Biopsy Day
This is a video I put together from pictures and videos from my boys' bone marrow biopsy day- it's got some fun stuff, but has graphic bone marrow biopsy pics at the end. As of 2013, each of my boys has had over 25 BMBs each.
Monday, May 6, 2013
My Book Available on the Nook
I was so excited to learn that B& N picked up my book on the Nook! Bone Marrow Biopsy Day is now available.
I knew Amazon had picked up my two books, but didn't know B&N had.
That's my exciting news for the day!
I knew Amazon had picked up my two books, but didn't know B&N had.
That's my exciting news for the day!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Bone Marrow Biopsy Day
Many years ago, I wrote a book called Bone Marrow Biopsy Day. Amazon picked it up two or three years ago. Very exciting stuff. Have you ever wanted to know what a BMB looks like?
Recently, someone in England contacted me about using pictures from the Shwachman-Diamond America website for a nursing article to teach nurses about the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy procedure. We are always eager to help teaching efforts!
Blast from the past- Joseph has always wanted pictures of all his medical procedures. This one bone marrow biopsy day in 2007, Dr. Harris brought our camera into the OR with the boys and captured great photos. We made a photo book to bring with us on subsequent hospital visits. At the urging of Dr. Harris and the nurses, I created the book -- we've donated these to CCHMC and our local Hem/onc clinic.Joseph had the nurses sign his book and had Dr. Harris sign it as photographer. Too cute.
Here are a few pictures from Bone Marrow Biopsy Day 2007:
Recently, someone in England contacted me about using pictures from the Shwachman-Diamond America website for a nursing article to teach nurses about the bone marrow aspiration and biopsy procedure. We are always eager to help teaching efforts!
Blast from the past- Joseph has always wanted pictures of all his medical procedures. This one bone marrow biopsy day in 2007, Dr. Harris brought our camera into the OR with the boys and captured great photos. We made a photo book to bring with us on subsequent hospital visits. At the urging of Dr. Harris and the nurses, I created the book -- we've donated these to CCHMC and our local Hem/onc clinic.Joseph had the nurses sign his book and had Dr. Harris sign it as photographer. Too cute.
Here are a few pictures from Bone Marrow Biopsy Day 2007:
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| Aspiration |
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| Biopsy tool poking out |
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| In OR |
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| In the OR |
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| Joseph in the OR |
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| Dr. Harris took pictures of Petty and Bengal |
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| The boys with Dad and Dr. Harris |
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| The Anesthesiologist trying to get a line in.... they tried before going under, but failed |
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| Trying to get a line in |
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| Pitiful Joseph lets them try to get a line in |
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| Sean in OR |
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| Sean's aspiration |
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| Sean's BMB |
Monday, September 5, 2011
Praise the Lord for Abnormal Marrow .... Back to Nornal life
A lot has been happening since I last blogged about our lives. We've started back to school and life is returning to normal after their bone marrow biopsies. We head out for two hospital trips later this month. Is it just me, or are we at the hospital a lot? My oldest can't go, so he will be holding down the fort and taking care of the pets...and we've added a new rescue kitty (picture to follow). We've named her Cupid and Valentine is not too happy about the new addition to our family. After four days, Valentine is still hissing and growling at poor little Cupid. She must have forgotten she was rescued, too!es.
I've been trying to recover from the last hospital trip and at the same time, prepare for a really long week of trips. We will drive to New Orleans to see our Mito specialist and the pain doctor he works with, then drive straight from there to Cincy's pain clinic. With bone marrow failure, we need to have the bone marrow doctors at Cincy involved in medications and since Cincy doesn't have a Mito specialist (he left a few months ago), this is a way we can get the teams to work together. Our doctors here say they don't have anything like what Cincy has, so..... we travel.
It is a constant struggle to find God in all of this... why we don't have doctors closer to us that can help with their chronic pain and other issues. I guess it is His will that we travel. Their bone marrow biopsies still showed myelodysplasia (Dysgranulopoiesis), but they compared them to slides from 2009 and 2010 and it has stayed the same. 20% of their granulocytes (neutrophils) in the marrow showed dysgranulopoiesis. They also had changes in their peripheral blood. So... life goes on and we get another year before we have bone marrow biopsies. I never thought when they were born that I'd be rejoicing that they had pre-leukemic bone marrow! Stable is good.... staying the same is good. A miracle cure would be better.... but in His time, I suppose. I Also found a great video, which was an inspiration to me (Below Cupid's picture)
My youngest turns 14 this week and he saved his money to rescue Cupid. How cute is that? His birthday present is that we will buy her food and litter for the next year. She won't go outside like Valentine does. Valentine was already an outdoor kitty for over a year before she found us! Cupid is 6 months old and seems very content staying inside.
Here's Cupid:
There is a really wonderful video that I watched the other day-- We are Catholic. Wow....
I've been trying to recover from the last hospital trip and at the same time, prepare for a really long week of trips. We will drive to New Orleans to see our Mito specialist and the pain doctor he works with, then drive straight from there to Cincy's pain clinic. With bone marrow failure, we need to have the bone marrow doctors at Cincy involved in medications and since Cincy doesn't have a Mito specialist (he left a few months ago), this is a way we can get the teams to work together. Our doctors here say they don't have anything like what Cincy has, so..... we travel.
It is a constant struggle to find God in all of this... why we don't have doctors closer to us that can help with their chronic pain and other issues. I guess it is His will that we travel. Their bone marrow biopsies still showed myelodysplasia (Dysgranulopoiesis), but they compared them to slides from 2009 and 2010 and it has stayed the same. 20% of their granulocytes (neutrophils) in the marrow showed dysgranulopoiesis. They also had changes in their peripheral blood. So... life goes on and we get another year before we have bone marrow biopsies. I never thought when they were born that I'd be rejoicing that they had pre-leukemic bone marrow! Stable is good.... staying the same is good. A miracle cure would be better.... but in His time, I suppose. I Also found a great video, which was an inspiration to me (Below Cupid's picture)
My youngest turns 14 this week and he saved his money to rescue Cupid. How cute is that? His birthday present is that we will buy her food and litter for the next year. She won't go outside like Valentine does. Valentine was already an outdoor kitty for over a year before she found us! Cupid is 6 months old and seems very content staying inside.
Here's Cupid:
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| Cupid, the Cutest Kitty Ever |
There is a really wonderful video that I watched the other day-- We are Catholic. Wow....
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
The good thing is that we didn't end up with any infections while we were on our first real vacation in years. I feel like the world is getting even with us. I suppose things happen for a reason. I think I had a breakdown of sorts (it happens in my world) and ended up talking to my pastor, my doctor and another priest all in one week. This life isn't always easy to cope with. Many times it seems surreal to me. I don't know how other people cope with having two chronically ill kids. Maybe it was God's way of making me slow down and seek advice. The stress with sick kids never goes away.
Joseph's anxiety and meltdowns affect our entire family. His OCD spikes before any of his procedures and it can make life really quite miserable. It hurts to say it, but it is an ugly truth of living a life with chronically ill kids. We don't live in that elusive land called perfect. Anticipating the stress overload may be just as bad as making it through the stressful hospital days.
For the last three weeks, Joseph has been battling an infection on his toe and we've managed to avoid being admitted for IV antibiotics. Two different antibiotics failed, then we spent time in the hem/onc clinic getting x-rays to be sure it didn't spread to the bone and getting it cultured. The infection spread on the first two antibiotics. Started a new antibiotic Friday and it continued to get worse on Saturday. Our doctor in Cincy asked for the 24 hr culture report, which I forwarded right before we started driving, not thinking he would do anything until our appointment on Monday. Sunday was interesting! I checked my email on the road and had an email to call the doctor on his cell phone. He called in a script and I picked it up in Charleston, WV. He wanted me to pick it up and not wait until we got to Cincy. It is still infected today, but looking much better.
As hospital days go, yesterday was one of our worst ever. The only prayer I could pray was the name of Jesus. Being in the hospital is very surreal. The boys were in rooms that were far apart, I mean, who does that!? Oh, here is a mom with two boys having bone marrow biopsies, let's put them in rooms that are far apart and watch mom run. One nurse even laughed. Joseph went into the OR first. After an hour, I knew something was wrong. The first doctor messed up the biopsy site and they had to call in a second doctor to do a second biopsy. He is extra sore today. Sean is thankfully, doing okay today.
The stress hangovers are hard to deal with. Hard to explain, but anyone with chronically ill kids knows what I am talking about. It is a balancing act, really. Waiting for results and trying to forget the horrid days at the hospital. It is difficult trying to tuck it all away, pretending it doesn't exist and going about daily life as if everything is normal. Showing up at piano, football practice and even Mass is hard. It is difficult to conceal a heart that has been overloaded with stress and anxiety. Somehow, we (hopefully) manage to appear as a normal American family.
My mood today: on the outside everything appears to be normal..... On the inside, it all just sucks.
Joseph's anxiety and meltdowns affect our entire family. His OCD spikes before any of his procedures and it can make life really quite miserable. It hurts to say it, but it is an ugly truth of living a life with chronically ill kids. We don't live in that elusive land called perfect. Anticipating the stress overload may be just as bad as making it through the stressful hospital days.
For the last three weeks, Joseph has been battling an infection on his toe and we've managed to avoid being admitted for IV antibiotics. Two different antibiotics failed, then we spent time in the hem/onc clinic getting x-rays to be sure it didn't spread to the bone and getting it cultured. The infection spread on the first two antibiotics. Started a new antibiotic Friday and it continued to get worse on Saturday. Our doctor in Cincy asked for the 24 hr culture report, which I forwarded right before we started driving, not thinking he would do anything until our appointment on Monday. Sunday was interesting! I checked my email on the road and had an email to call the doctor on his cell phone. He called in a script and I picked it up in Charleston, WV. He wanted me to pick it up and not wait until we got to Cincy. It is still infected today, but looking much better.
As hospital days go, yesterday was one of our worst ever. The only prayer I could pray was the name of Jesus. Being in the hospital is very surreal. The boys were in rooms that were far apart, I mean, who does that!? Oh, here is a mom with two boys having bone marrow biopsies, let's put them in rooms that are far apart and watch mom run. One nurse even laughed. Joseph went into the OR first. After an hour, I knew something was wrong. The first doctor messed up the biopsy site and they had to call in a second doctor to do a second biopsy. He is extra sore today. Sean is thankfully, doing okay today.
The stress hangovers are hard to deal with. Hard to explain, but anyone with chronically ill kids knows what I am talking about. It is a balancing act, really. Waiting for results and trying to forget the horrid days at the hospital. It is difficult trying to tuck it all away, pretending it doesn't exist and going about daily life as if everything is normal. Showing up at piano, football practice and even Mass is hard. It is difficult to conceal a heart that has been overloaded with stress and anxiety. Somehow, we (hopefully) manage to appear as a normal American family.
My mood today: on the outside everything appears to be normal..... On the inside, it all just sucks.