A cold sweat began to break out on my brow as my heart beat violently in my chest. The lump that was forming inside my throat triggered a feeling of dread inside the depths of my soul.
Yes, there was no mistaking the sound of the ominous bone marrow procedure cart traveling towards my exam room. As the wheels click-clacked against the cold tile floor of the hallway, I could hear the tiny instruments jostling on the shiny steel tray.
My first instinct was to run and hide. Running, however, was not an option because a small group of nurses on
standby were blocking the door. In my panicked state of mind, I reasoned that if I crawled underneath the exam table, the doctor would never find me. Yeah, that’s the ticket. I would become invisible, camouflaged among the wooden legs of the structure!
Of course, I was very visible to the naked eye.
As the door creaked open and the doctor’s shadows darkened the entrance to the room, I contorted my body in a last ditch effort to become one with the table. The hairs on my neck stood straight on end as I was pulled screaming from my make-shift hiding place and maneuvered onto the table, as the wax-like paper crinkled against my struggle. Resistance was futile. I was merely delaying the inevitable.
In an attempt to neutralize me, a team of nurses wrestled me into a modified bear hug. I felt like I was suffocating underneath the weight. Sobs racked my heaving chest as the tears began to flow uncontrollably down my cheeks. I could sense the sheer agony in my parents as my cries of resistance shattered their hearts.
“Mommy! Daddy! Why are you letting them do this to me?”
Gradually, a sense of impending doom grew inside my stomach. I knew precisely what was coming next.
An unmistakable odor of sterile alcohol filled my nostrils as I felt the damp swab run down my spine as the doctor prepped the target area.
The pressure bearing down on me was almost unbearable now, and my parched tongue panted for oxygen. My mind began to drift away to happier times as the 22-gauge needle plunged deep into my cartilage.
