Biopsy Success

I'm a little late with this post. Seth and I spent Thursday at the hospital with Salomae. At the pre-op area we were informed that we weren't as informed beforehand as we thought. If that makes any sense. Instead of the two procedures that we thought she was having, Sally was having four procedures. They did bone marrow biopsies, got a stomach juice sample, and biopsied the mass in her back. We thought they were going to do only the bone biopsy in her back, but the doctor told us that they would 'try' to get to the mass and get some of that instead. An hour after we left her in radiology, the doctor came out and (with a big smile) said, "We got a syringe full of pus."

Delightful. As nasty as that sounds, it's good news. We can hope that over the next few months some of the TB bacteria will grow so that we can be sure it isn't the strain that's resistant to medication. The hematologist called me Friday to let me know that the bone marrow came back fine. As far as she's concerned, Salomae is as healthy as can be (not even anemic!).

We started medication on Friday. The nurse came over as the kids were waking up and Seth was getting home. She made a big display of helping me to dispense the medications. It's not that difficult. Four suspensions, four gulps by the little girl, four times Mommy counts and coerces. With the nurse present, she called the pharmacy to make sure we were doing the right doses, all the kids came streaming out into the living room to watch, Seth had to pepper the nurse with questions (mostly related to whether she was required to be there), and the whole thing just seemed more complicated. We left town that afternoon and I've managed to give her the medicine (on vacation) without fanfare for three days now. She's getting smart about it and yesterday I had to give her a swallow of coke to help her get them down.

Thank you for all of your emails and comments before the procedure and since then. Sorry I've been so late in posting about the day.