[tytd]

Carolyn,
I'm hoping that you will be among one of the many patients for which the procedure is not extremely painful. Everybody is different and I think it depends on everybody's individual tolerance for pain and also somewhat on your individual bone marrow and whether your doctor is good at it. But just to reassure you , I too , was extremely anxious about my first bone marrow. The anticipation I think was worse than the procedure itself which lasts less than 15 minutes. I took a Valium the night before and the morning of the procedure and I think this helped me relax a lot more. It was not as bad as I was anticipating. It feels somewhat like a steady pressure in the bone with occasional twinges of pain when they aspirate and when they get the bone core biopsy. It doesn't lasts long. Good luck. tytd