Hi All!
After I mentioned the "drill" earlier, a helpful consultant from the company that makes it dropped me an email with a link to a website about it. I don't think my posting the link here would constitute advertising, since, after all, they don't sell a do-your-own-BMB kit. I found the animation of the procedure pretty interesting.
Here's the
link.
Frankly, I'm not sure why more docs aren't using this thing. Even for my regular hematologist, a very fit 40-something, with a background in the military, grinding the awl into my very hard bones is a pretty good workout. This little device looks way easier -- and apt to produce a better biopsy sample.
As for having my spouse present at the event, she sat in on a couple of BMBs, and I think that was enough for her. She found it pretty gruesome. They don't encourage other folks to be in the room during the procedure at NIH. One of my regular nurses at the local same day surgery told me that one of her fellow nursing students fainted when the class was observing a BMB.
I tend not to mind the pain of a BMB (one NIH doc called me "stoic") as much as the after-effects of sedatives. I've never been much on painkillers, sedatives, or anesthesia, so I think I have a pretty low tolerance for fuzzyheadedness and a pretty high tolerance for pain.
However, if the prospect of a BMB made me anxious or filled me with dread, I'd ask for the drugs in a heartbeat.
Take care!
Greg