"No sedation during bone marrow biopsy"

At the East Surrey Hospital patients having a bone marrow biopsy are not offered the option of having sedation for this painful procedure.

Only local anaesthesia is used, so when the needle reaches the bone there is unaviodable severe pain.

I was very fortunate in having the procedure performed by a highly experienced consultant, but even so there were moments when the pain reached 8 on the 10 point scale.

If I had had it done by an inexperienced registrar I hate to think how painful it could have been.

I now dread having the procedure repeated, which, unfortunately, is likely to have to happen. I would welcome the views of the hospital managemet ( who presumably adopted this policy for financial reasons) and of the palliative care team, who are presumably the experts on pain relief.

They will understand that the apprehension and anxiety that of having the biopsy repeated will most likely increase the pain levels.

And I am unlikely to be so lucky as to have such an expert and experienced consultant do it next time..