Hello to everyone!

I want to extend my sincere gratitude to all who read my post and advised me to look further into mast cell disease as a diagnosis.

I saw Dr. Akin in Boston for a consultation. What a difference! He is so incredibly wonderful. He changed my daily medication regimen and I am feeling MUCH better! SO much so, I am entertaining the thought of going back to work in a few short weeks!

I had a bone marrow biospy done 2 weeks ago this past Monday. I was anticipating this to be the worst 15 minutes of my life and was pleasantly surprised with the mild discomfort! It wasn't bad at all!

My results are still pending. Dr. Akin said that he wanted to review the slides himself after the studies are completed and estimated it'll be another week or so.

My question is this...is it common for BMB results to take this long?

Good health to all!

Lisa

Oh this is really GREAT NEWS!!!   YAHOOOO FOR LISA!!!!!!!!!


I'm so glad you saw Dr. Akin!  He's a wonderful doctor, isn't he?!!   I'm glad that he went over you and it will be good to hear how the BMB goes.


As to the time it takes, yes, it does take several weeks, Lisa.  The immunohistochemical testing is a process of staining the mast cells and other cells and I believe that they can't just dump the whole stuff into one batch but have to do each stain one at a time.  I'm not sure about this, but I suspect that this is what it is.  Then once they've got them all stained they take a look at the results and they they must analyze them.  The analyzation is done by hand and not by machine and each slide must be studied carefully to take a look not only at the mast cell but at the other cells involved as well - leucocytes, monocytes, basophils, eosinophils, lymphocytes, etc.  With the MCs they not only look at whether or not they are grouped, but also as to how the cell itself is, if it's properly shaped or not and also if it is full of granules or empty.  

So, you must be patient, as hard as that is, and try to distract yourself with some other activity instead!    


I hope this helps!

Lisa