Wednesday May 6 - Sunday May 10. Blood transfusions, visitors and a fun bone marrow test.

Look at dem bad boiz

Wednesday was a day of shopping, seeing as I will no longer be going to a festival this summer my parents kindly got me some belated 21st birthday presents.


Thursday was a busy day. Arriving at King's Hospital around 10:00, I was met by a doctor who proceeded to discuss the bone marrow test that I would be having shortly. I previously had a bone marrow test the day after I was admitted to Lincoln County Hospital, but King's wanted to perform their own tests and be in full control. The process would be a needle punching through my bone and taking samples from inside, as well as taking a physical part of my bone marrow too. I was then asked if I would allow for extra samples to be taken from me for research purposes, including a sample of my skin. I of course accepted. If there's any chance I can help others in a similar position and help doctors learn more about illnesses then I want to do it,

Some of the blood from the test

I was then taken into a room and had to lie on my side with my knees to my chest. This time the biopsy would be taken from the left side of my hip as the bone marrow test at Lincoln was taken from my right side. They began with applying a hell of a lot of anesthetic, sadly I wouldn't be getting any Gas&Air this time. After the anesthetic, I had the skin/tissue sample taken. This involved the doctor using a scalpel and carving out a small part of skin. It's a bizarre sensation as I could feel the scalpel cutting into me, and I could even hear it, like when you can hear yourself chewing but no one else can, Then came the bone marrow test, it takes a lot to get a needle through bone, and its really strange having someone applying so much pressure to yourself and eventually suddenly breaking through, which was slightly painful. It then vacuums up the liquid within your bone which was a really uncomfortable feeling, I could also feel blood running down my back during the test which is strange as it takes a moment to click before you realise what it is. For the part where a piece of my marrow had to be removed, it had to be twisted 360 degrees in both directions by a straining nurse before it was finally yanked out of me.

Get your samples out.

I'm pretty sure my mum who was in the room with me was in a lot more pain than I was, and I don't think she found me making jokes and laughing during the biopsy that funny.

Following the test, I had several more blood samples taken and a long wait for a blood transfusions, which was made more bearable by having a visitor from university. Cheers Jui for sitting around in extreme boredom with me while I waited for blood.
Soon after Jui left I finally had a unit of blood provided for me and eventually left the hospital at 7pm, meaning that I had been at King's for 9 hours.


Friday was a bad day for lots of reasons, I was struggling to sit properly due to the ache in my hip, but like a lot of people I woke up to the disappointing news of 5 more years of Tory government. Hopefully this won't affect my treatment at the wonderful NHS.
I was back at hospital by 11am to receive my 7th unit of blood and was then allowed to go home for the weekend. I wont be back at hospital again till Monday.

7th unit.

On Saturday Freddie and Olly from university came down to visit me at home which was great to see them again. We played some table tennis and headed down to the local pub for a few drinks (I'm allowed to have the odd drink, just can't get drunk). A couple of other lads from home met us there and we all sat in the sun in the beer garden. After that the three of us went back to mine for a curry before we said our goodbyes.


Today has been a lazy day, spent watching football and having a roast dinner. I'm back to hospital tomorrow.

Ooooo table tennis fwends