BMB difficulty

[Bakerloo73]

Hi everyone, I’m trying to get a little bit of insight regarding what might make a bone marrow sample hard to get. Can anyone point me to a medical site or give me their knowledge if they have any insight into this please? I’m trying to get hold of my doctor but in the meantime thought I’d ask here. Obviously it’s just our own experience so I’ll not be quoting anyone to my doctor? 😂Thanks

[Chaz1]

We were told with hubby it was due to the density of his bones, they are particularly hard so it made it very difficult. They had to call in another Dr to attempt it after about an hour. Moved to the side for another attempt & eventually got it but it was a very long, drawn out process to get a viable sample. They were going to abort but he said he'd probably not return if they didn't get it done so everyone gritted their teeth & kept going.

[Arty16 in reply to Chaz1]

Bone density. Took lots of tries eventually got a sample. But the results were inconclusive. Haven't had another

[Bakerloo73 in reply to Arty16]

Thanks. Mine was harder than before and I’m not sure why. I’ll read about bone density. X

[Bakerloo73 in reply to Chaz1]

Thanks. Mine was harder than before and I’m not sure why. X

[cheeks1]

Mine was difficult due to my bone density and took multiple attempts and different positions. They eventually got a small sample at 4th attempt x

[Bakerloo73 in reply to cheeks1]

Thanks. Mine was harder than before and I’m not sure why. I’m glad they eventually managed it in one site though. X

[Cja1956 in reply to Bakerloo73]

Not sure if it’s age related or not. My first one was at age 52 and it was quick and easy. I was diagnosed with ET Jak 2. My second one was last year at age 63 and it was much more difficult and took longer than the first even though I was mildly sedated. I was diagnosed with post ET MF. The site was painful for the next couple of days. I probably should have asked why the experience was so different from the first.

[Bakerloo73 in reply to Cja1956]

I tried to but I didn’t really get anywhere

[hunter5582]

My doc told me there are different levels of skill at BMBs and some docs are simply not as skilled as others. As others suggested, some people are just harder to get samples from. Skill matters!

[clubdino]

Something to keep in mind is if there is fibrosis in the bone then the doctor may get what is called a dry tap. I assisted with many BMB in the veterinary field and sometimes it was a 30 second procedure because the doctor had absolutely no difficulty and sometimes it took a few attempts. Also, if someone is moderately overweight it can be more difficult. A lot of times when someone is overweight the doctor will do the BMB with the help of CT machine. (I'm not suggesting you're overweight.) And yeah, as Hunter said skill matters. My doctor had a difficult time and he even said at one point "well that didn't feel right." He eventually got a sample but not a normal sized sample. At the time I was about 30 pounds overweight.

*I just saw that you have MF...I'm guessing your doctor was in your bone but having difficulty due to the fibrosis.

[Bakerloo73 in reply to clubdino]

I’m worried it’s my marrow tbh so I was just trying to see if there were other factors that commonly affect the ease of the procedure. X

[clubdino in reply to Bakerloo73]

I think dry taps with myelofibrosis is fairly common. It doesn't mean the whole bone has fibrosis but maybe just the part the doctor was in.

[Bakerloo73 in reply to clubdino]

Thanks. Never heard that before.

[Timjonze]

Last time I had one nurse mentioned a drill they were trialling - sounds terrifying but apparently although it still caused discomfort it did the job in a minute. Might be worth looking into?

[Bakerloo73 in reply to Timjonze]

Might ask about that for next time. I'm sure there will be a next time sadly.

[Timjonze in reply to Bakerloo73]

Wishing you all the best with it