What a long strange trip its been!

1985 bruising from setting in lawn chair. Go to small clinic in S Calif town where they cut inner arm to time clotting time. After 20 min decide to refer me to hemo in bigger city. Initial visit, usual tests except for dr striking a tuning fork and placing on each ankle reason unknown to me (anyone else had this?) Moved to Montana new hemo does BMB not on hip rather in the chest,again I not seen anyone else post this/ was told it was less painful. Maybe an 80s thing. After three month of high doses of prednisone on to spleenectomy, Which led to 24yrs of remission. 2009 relapse and the grocery list of treatments. Now on promacta. still on the rollercoaster of platlet counts. I know pretty boring stuff but I must say for me, it gives one a greater appreciation for the beauty of life and how fragile it can be.

Strange trip indeed. I have Never heard of purposely cutting to determine clotting time!! Tuning fork on your ankles?! Were your ankles out of tune? :laugh: BMB on the chest is one I have not heard of either. I always thought it was normally done on the hip. It usually takes a wake up call to realize the beauty of life and how fragile it can be. Not boring stuff. Is good to hear other experiences.

Dean - yes, they sometimes do cut the skin to measure clotting time. It used to be more common than it is now...I don't see too many people having it done these days. I always thought it was a bit barbaric.

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003656.htm

I've also known some people who have had the BMB done in the breast bone. Not done very often and I wouldn't want it done that way!

Barbaric indeed. I do not think I could do a BMB on the breastbone!!

They usually only do an aspiration in the sternum because it's too fragile to cope with a biopsy. Knowing how much effort it took them to get into my bone I can understand that.