Came to have the work-up day. It was a full day with various tests to give the doctors a baseline to my body's performance prior to the operation so that they could compare me six months later to see how well they wrecked it during the bone marrow transplant (BMT). The radiotherapy is a sledgehammer approach to eliminating my bone marrow. There is no other way other then to expose the totally body to radiation. This not only kills off the bone marrow but affects the lungs liver and bones amongst others.

First off was the lung function test. I had to blow several times very hard into mouthpiece connected to a device that determines my lung capacity, max flow rate and the size of my trachea. The test went well and I exceeded all the expected results for someone my age height and weight.

Next was the ECG, electrocardiograph to measure the heart beats to check for any irregularities. You just lay there for 5 minutes with electrodes attached all over your body. That went well.

The following test took several hours. I was injected with radioactive dye which would find its way to my heart. After some waiting I spent 40 mins under a MRI machine that picked up the radiation emitted from the dye and gave a 3-D image of my heart pumping away. The long wait was for a heart movie to be taken so they could have some pumping action for their records.

We had to return back to Haematology to have my bloods taken in addition to the bone marrow aspirate. I'd only had this done once before in Epsom hospital when I was first diagnosed, and should remind readers that this consisted of inserting a needle aprrox. 6 inches long and 2-3 mm in diameter into the back of my pelvis. Bone marrow is then sucked out and also a core sample of marrow is taken. I can still remember how painful this was (only a local anaesthetic) and opted this time to be sedated. However by the time all the tests had finished it was too late to be given the sedative, so the nurses tried to persuade me into having the aspirate under local. Eventually I was sold!?@ on the idea, after being convinced that Marco 'The man with the butterfly touch' is soo good no-one ever complains. Amazingly enough it wasn't very painful at all, apart from some tenderness in the pelvis. This is what bone marrow donors have to go through, but they have several samples of bone marrow taken by syringe from their pelvis, hence they are given a general anaesthetic.

I had one last consultantion with the doctors, who gave me the date of Jan 20th for the BMT. I also had to sign the medical consent form which details every possible risk involved with the BMT. The list is like a who's who of seriously unwanted complications, and you realise why not all points are discussed when you are first diagnosed, as no-one would want to go through a procedure with so many potential risks. However you need to bear in mind that these are all potential risks that have been known to occur along with the 'standard' set of risks that I knew about like the graft vs. host disease (GVHD).

With the work-up day complete all that was required were some final checks with a dermatologist and also to check where my pilonidal sinus was removed to ensure there were no signs of it recurring.