I'm glad your BM aspiration went well. We all have different levels of pain tolerance. Mine is fairly high and my anxiety level is low, so I opted for only local anesthetic during mine with no IV or oral sedatives. I was surprised that I felt more pressure than pain during the relatively quick aspiration. The radiologist who performed the procedure said the finer needles now used make it far less painful than it used to be.

I'm a wuss, I always choose conscious sedation. It knocks me out long enough to not really experience the procedure. I salute you and those who do this with a local. It is very helpful to read about your experiences with a local.

I have alerted my surgeon for cataract surgery that the sedation scares me far more than the surgery as I have never had anything stronger than Novocain/lidocaine and don't know how I will react. The surgery will be done in a hospital with minimum or no twilight sedation. No surgical centers for me.

Ask Joan River's family about the consequences of treating sedation so cavalierly, even by the staff, that indications of complications are ignored and immediate action not taken to address that.

I am in the club!!BMB was not too painful, but there was a lot of pressure. I did concentrated on my breath like nobody’s business to ease my anxiety. However, the bruising and pain following were a wee bit much. I survived though with the results being ET with JAK 2 mutation. That was almost 4 years ago.

So interesting, I have a high tolerance for pain (according to my dentist) so I went with local, lying on my stomach (that was worse-hard to breath)......As a side sleeper, having bmb on my upper butt was not a problem. No after effects....Not my favorite test, but not worst......wishing everyone all the best....

BMB Club!! I had my first (and hopefully only?) BMB in early December last year. I was happy to have sedation ordered, being new to the process, but then shortly beforehand I learned I couldn't have sedation due to having contracted COVID 9 days earlier. (I'd had all the vaccinations possible up to that point, so had a relatively mild case.) It seemed that, being less than 10 days from my COVID onset meant that they'd have to do the procedure in a negative-pressure room, lest the anesthetic went wrong and I had to be intubated.

Sigh... I requested and received a very light dose of Ativan, which helped a little. The process wasn't bad, really, except for my surprise at hearing a drill start up. 😂 The only part I felt much was the aspiration, and that was over quickly.

In future I'd ask for sedation because I'd just as soon float through it, but if I couldn't get that, I'd do the BMB with just a local again. In a heartbeat! It would be easier next time, knowing to expect the drill sound. 😃

My experience was much like yours. For all the talk leading up to it, it was really nothing. Nurse was right there, said I could squeeze her hands if it got to painful. There was no pain other than the poke from the lidocaine shot. Some pressure but nothing that was uncomfortable.

My experience was like Legacyrock. I think sedation would be overdoing it and unnecessary. The whole procedure is much less than its reputation.

I think those of us who will be having a BMB should demand that the person doing it is very skilled. A less skilled person might rely on the patient being sedated to mask being overly rough. The doctor who did mine when I was 14 did not traumatize me. I believe only a topical anesthetic was used. I do not remember any injections other than the penicillin shot I had had the previous day in the back of my hip for an anterior BMB.