Wednesday medical update - 01/21/09

My appointment this morning was at 10:00. I had to get labs, see the PA, and get a Dacogen treatment. I should have been done by shortly after noon. But no. We wound up waiting nearly an hour and a half between lab and seeing the PA. Then the nurses messed up and didn't realise they hadn't started my anti-nausea & steroid med. It drips in on gravity, not through a pump. Apparently the line got a kink and it wasn't dripping at all. Instead of 10 minutes that took nearly an hour. So it was after 3:00 before I ever got finished. I hate it when what should have been a short day turns into such a long one.

But the good news is that except for being exhausted, I am actually feeling pretty good right now. Tomorrow morning I go at 8:00a to just get the Dacogen treatment. Friday though will definitely be a long day. I am set up to be there at 7:30a to get Dacogen. Then as soon as that is done I go to the blood centre to get transfusions - one unit of platelets and 2 units of red cells. I'm expecting to be there until sometime around 3:00-ish.

The even better news is that this weekend I should have plenty of energy from the red cell transfusions and not have to worry about bleeding because of the platelet transfusion. I should be able to COOK! Abbey is going grocery shopping for me either tomorrow afternoon or Friday, so I am making my list. She will also pick up the veggie box for me tomorrow - our first one of the new year! YEA!

I also got the prescription for Exjade and turned it into the pharmacy. I'm supposed to start taking it next week to help get rid of the toxic levels of iron I've built up from the red cell transfusions. I also have to have my iron levels monitored monthly from now on. But you can't just go get this prescription filled. That would be way to easy. It's a horribly expensive drug that has to be ordered by the pharmacist in charge of ordering chemo drugs and all the others meds with the high tags. And it has to get pre-approved by the insurance company. To my knowledge that is not supposed to be a problem for us other than time consuming paperwork. I do hope that is all that's involved.

Please let me take this opportunity again to thank everyone who donates platelets and red blood cells. You do a wonderful thing and save peoples lives on a daily basis. You all really are heroes.