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Some people feel more pain than others and I don't know if that's because of the choice of painkillers, the skill of the surgeon, the thickness of a patient's bone, or an individual's pain threshold.
After a number of bone marrow biopsies, my wife and I learned an important lesson: always ask for conscious sedation for bone marrow biopsies. With conscious sedation they use a drug like propofol (alias Diprivan) to knock you out just enough for the procedure. This method requires an anesthesiologist so it's more trouble to schedule but it avoids the pain and the anticipation of pain. I don't know for sure, but maybe having a properly sedated patient will help the doctor get a better biopsy sample since the patient isn't tensing muscles or "fighting back" during the procedure.
Being anesthetized carries a small risk so it's an individual decision (assuming you have the choice). In our case, it was definitely worth it.
Only some treatment centers offer conscious sedation and only some insurance plans cover it, but I would take the trouble to find out, and then tell them what you want. I recently asked a doctor if conscious sedation is available for bone marrow biopsies at his treatment center. He said it is but only if you know to ask for it.
I think this is an area where pain management and anxiety management should be taken more seriously by treatment centers. Under they do, I recommend that patients be their own advocate and let their treatment centers know they want this option to be available, for them and for other patients.
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