Yesterday I had a bone marrow biopsy (BMB) to assess the development of my blood cancer, and as usual I thought of recording (photographing) the procedure for my art however typically this idea only came to me as a flash of inspiration in the car on the way home from the hospital. I guess that the apprehension caused by the thought and recollection of previous BMB’s overwhelms me, preventing any helpful thoughts. When I recall the operation the dominant image is that of a tray full of slides containing my bone marrow fluid, which is aspirated (sucked) through an apple corer screwed into the back of my hip whilst I assume the foetal position. The tray holds about 12 slides all prepped with my details prior to my arrival in the clinic, the fluid on an intact slide looks like a smear of bloody oil. The whole process of extracting the aspirate and BMB is enormously uncomfortable, the anaesthetic is not totally effective in the bone and the pressure required to penetrate the calcified surface in a 40 year old patient such as myself (with scar tissue from previous BMB’s) is considerable, causing the young Registrar to get out of breath and sweaty.
The last part of the operation is the most unpleasant part, the apple corer is pushed in further in order to take a core sample of my marrow, approximately 1 inch long by 1-2mm in diameter but it feels like a Bramley apple sized core.
All this and in the background I’m processing the knowledge I learnt with everyone else in the UK since it was all over the news this morning, there could be a cure for blood cancer through the genetic engineering of the patients T-cells. Might this work for my form of leukaemia? It is not part of one of the reported trials but then it is one of the rarer forms, but surely the science is the same? I’m scribbling these notes at 04:30 (using a nightlight) since I’ve woke up thinking about it (that and my pain killers had worn off), the possibilities, could there be a biological cure which would supersede the need for me to have a bone marrow transplant? Will it be developed in time?
Anyway I’m thinking about making a Mary Kelly style piece to document the procedure, similar to her ‘Post-Partum Document’ (1973-79) which she created as a response to the birth of her child. This work was a collection of objects which demonstrated her boy’s development and the surpassing of certain milestones such as speaking. My early thoughts on this would be to create a series of aspirated slides, using non-biohazard materials focusing on the presentation of the documents. The slides would also be inspired by Marc Quinn’s ‘DNA portrait of Sir John Sulston’ (2001) – the Nobel Laureate who sequenced the human genome. I might use glass as a substrate or paper which has had a wax resist applied to it. The paper would need to be stretched and I’d add an oily transparent ink to the surface the compression of a second layer of glass would cause the smear effect.
Maybe I can even reference Goya’s ‘Disasters of War’ here, amongst the desolation and the horrors of war he brings a suggestion of hope. In the last plate in his series ‘Si resucitará?’, he created a scene depicting the possible resurrection of a beautiful maiden, a metaphor for the spirit of Spain, even with a continued threat from the monsters surrounding her the allegorical phoenix rises from the ashes, it is hopeful and full of optimism.
