Round 6 Take 2

I'm sitting here trying to figure out how to start this blog entry. We teach kids that they need to start their writing with a sentence/paragraph that will grab the readers and draw them in - it's just not working for me tonight. If I start with the bad, does it sound pessimistic? If I start with the good, does it sound too Pollyanna-ish? The other thing we teach kids about writing is that you just start and somehow it gets you going and then you figure it out. Well, here we are a paragraph into this and you still don't have any information...

Let's start with the bad/frustrating. Marc's white count was lower today than it was last week. This is a major disappointment to him. Because he was 1.4 last time and needed to be 1.5, he fully expected to be able to have his chemo treatment today. I guess that's not how it works. I asked the nurses if it could be lower because the kids and I are back at school and are bringing germs home. They said definitely no. It is caused by the chemo. This was reassuring to me and frustrating to Marc. I feel better that I am not delaying his treatment and he wants to have a reason for the delay that we can do something about - although I'm not sure how we'd completely keep germs out of the house.

Yesterday Marc had a call from one of the nurses at OHSU. She told him that they want to start him on a new drug to help keep his white count up. We had talked about this drug in the past, but couldn't take it because of the study that Marc is in. We were both surprised that they were suggesting that he take it now. Dr. B debated about it, according to Paula, but decided it is what is best for Marc. The study would like to have patients not use this drug, but it doesn't stipulate that he has to drop out of the study if Dr. B decides he needs it. It is called Neupogen and is supposed to help his body make white cells. Marc felt yesterday that it was "going backward" to take more drugs. I think today he realizes that it could help him get through this process faster and get back to his regular life.

Now for the good news. Our co-pay for this prescription is $20. It is five syringes of medication. One a day for five days. He hates the fact that it is in a syringe and he has to poke himself again. Without insurance the five syringes of medication would have been $2081.75. We are ever thankful for medical insurance.

I had a dr. appointment myself today so was able to go with Marc to chemo - or not chemo as it turned out. Last week I had 5 nosebleeds. A couple years ago I had a very severe sinus infection and went to an ENT. Dr. Thomas is wonderful, but I hate going to him. It usually ends up being painful. Today was no exception. He put a scope up my nose and found the cause at least I hope this was the cause. It was the predictable blood vessel too close to the surface. (...and here I thought it might be stress - Dr. Thomas said the nose never bleeds from stress) It had healed fine between the last nosebleed on Saturday and today, but he cauterized it just to make sure. If you haven't had the lining of your nose cauterized before, thank your lucky stars. I'm sure it isn't in the league with chemo, but it hurts. Thankfully he was able to report there is nothing out of the ordinary up there. I've never been so thankful to be ordinary!

Oh, another good note. Marc has enough shared leave to cover through part of November. It just keeps trickling in as people fill out the paperwork to donate. This is fabulous since now it is looking like he won't be back to work until mid to late February.

Thanks for the notes of encouragement and prayers. They sustain us daily.

Betsy