Bone marrow biopsies are a necessary evil and their results were always eagerly awaited. They left a tender region for several days which only caused trauma if knocked. Later, I was to discover that many of the other outpatients were taking quite strong pain¬killers to make the exercise more bearable. In the majority of cases, they had the rest of the day for recovery from the drugs, so I do not blame them at all.
But the way that I viewed these painful biopsies was that they were not really doing me any harm. They were taking something out that would soon be replaced, and not putting something toxic in! This thought made me feel much better about the whole exercise.

I would return to the waiting room for around 30 minutes to gather my strength and allowing the sweat to dry. I was surrounded by obviously ill patients and several haemophiliacs awaiting their regular transfusions. I was not like them. I was lucky and feeling OK. This would be over soon. Then it was a tram to University.

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