Last night I had to stop eating solid food at midnight. It wasn’t that bad—I actually had to force some food down. My appetite hasn’t been great these past few days.
This morning I slept in a little bit. Someone explained how the procedure was going to go and answered any questions I had.
They would start by putting some numbing cream on the sites that would be involved in the operation, back in my room before the operation. Then, they inject a drug through my IV to preemptively combat any nausea. After about an hour, they wheel me down in a stretcher to be anesthetized.
The operation that I needed to have was a bone marrow biopsy and a spinal tap. There’s two types of acute lymphoblastic leukemia—T-cell and B-cell. My bone marrow would be able to tell them which type I have, letting them fine-tune the chemo drugs. They also needed to do a lumbar puncture to access some spinal fluid—and inject my first dose of chemotherapy.
The major side effect from that would be nausea and vomiting. Fortunately, I would have already had a drug to prevent that. I would have to lie flat for an hour after the procedure.
At about 12:30 PM everything started. I donned the hospital gown, they numbed my back, and I received the anti-nausea drug. A porter took me down and they put an oxygen mask on me, a bunch of electrodes on my chest, and a pulse oximeter. The anesthesiologist put some drugs through my IV and I was out in a few seconds.
The next thing I remember was waking up in another room. Apparently the first thing I did was thank the anesthesiologist and the oncologist. My memory’s a little fuzzy on that, but it was recorded so I guess I did.
I had some juice and went for an echocardiogram. They put some gel on my chest and used ultrasound to measure my heart activity.
My back was a little sore, but I was still feeling pretty good after the procedure.
My grandparents came to visit me that night, bringing my favourite food! I wasn’t hungry all week, I’d just had an operation, and there was some hints of nausea, but I couldn’t turn down fried dumplings. I ended up eating more than ten—probably comparable to my food intake over the entire weekend.
The local missionaries visited too, which was nice. The hospital has not been boring by any means!
My next operation is Thursday, where I’ll be getting an implant next to my heart called a “port” that will reduce the frequency of needles in my veins.