Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Price of Good Health


Another day at the outpatient clinic.  I drove downtown and got blood work done at the Kaiser oncology clinic this morning.  While I was waiting for my results, Dr. Liel stopped by to say that the final results of my bone marrow biopsy last week were in and that everything looked good!  I told her that Kyle is a preliminary 6/6 match for transplant (still waiting on high-res tests) and she literally high-fived me and said how excited she was for me.  I like that I got to give her some good news since I’m sure her days as an oncologist are not always filled with such good news!  She admitted to me that she hadn’t originally been too optimistic since its only a 25% chance for siblings to be matches, but she seemed genuinely thrilled for me that the likelihood of transplant is becoming much more tangible J

My counts today showed that I’m the downslope (exactly what we expect given the fact that I just finished chemo a few days ago).  Will probably be neutropenic again by Friday so will be wearing my Michael Jackson mask anywhere I go J (or just staying home and sending John out to do all of my errands).  I’ve got another dose of spinal chemo tomorrow (to be done on an outpatient basis at the downtown Kaiser clinic).  I picked up my self-injections from the pharmacy today on my way out of the office.  Thank goodness for good insurance through my employer!!!  My 10 days worth of injections without insurance cost $4603.45, but with my Kaiser insurance it was only $250.00 for this particular prescription.  I am SO grateful for this!! 

Should know by mid-week next week about the official results from the high-resolution tests.  Dr. Liel and my transplant coordinator made it sound as though as soon as we get the official word back that we should be able to start the “work-up” for transplant.  This is a process in and of itself, but still SUPER exciting to me because it may cut out an entire 2 rounds of additional chemo they had talked about (if a donor/match wasn’t found right away).  That means I might get to skip a month or two worth of chemo & go straight to transplant!!  We’ll know next week J
-Chellie

1 comment:

  1. Hi Chellie! Glad to hear things are going well for you! Your mother and father-in-law from Green Bay told me about you and I am sending healing vibes your way! We have a lot in common, as I am a leukemia and bone marrow transplant survivor myself! Would love to connect with you via email sometime! My address is emilydevillers@gmail.com ...keep up the good work of dropping those counts so you can get rid of the nasty cells and get ready for amazing gift of new cells and new life!

    ReplyDelete