Day Plus One-Hundred-Sixty-Three

IT IS FRIDAY!

Well... I am sorry to keep you all hanging for so long. I wanted to tell you more about the "Cancer Etiquette" book ,but something came up. Jody's father (Joe) as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, has a blood disease and he has to have a CBC every two-weeks to monitor his HCT. When his CBC comes back at a certain level he gets a shot, which stimulates his bone marrow to make more red blood cells. Occasionally Joe will drop too low, which requires him to get an infusion. So off we went...

We have the infusion process down pretty good and it is no big deal. We finally got Papa Joe scheduled and to the hospital Centennial Hospital on Tuesday January the 4th. All went well with a just a few incidents.

On Wednesday January the 5th Jody had her appointment with Doctor Metzdorff; the surgeon who removed a part of her lung, all went well. He was very pleased with Jody's recovery and felt she could return to her normal routine. Later that afternoon we met with Jody's BMT doctor, Doctor Mark Brunvand. We had not seen him since the first week of December. Upon entering the exam room Doctor Brunvand inquisitively asked Jody if she was trying to scare him; referring to her partial lungectomy. After the exam Doctor Brunvand proclaimed she was doing great. All of her blood counts have returned to normal (Jody's normal) and she continues to make progress. He cautioned Jody to continue to be diligent and these types of setbacks, while not pleasant, are a part of the process.

Since the transplant Jody was on a azole antifungal called Vfend, which treats and helps prevent fungal infections. Its ingredient name is Voriconazole. The reason Jody needed the lungectomy was because she had a specific fungal infection in her lung. The Vfend evidently was not strong enough to prevent the infection. Jody now is taking another azole antifungal called Noxafil and its ingredient name is Posaconazole. Noxafil treats and prevents a specific type of fungal infection in severely weakened immune systems. The medication is on national allocation due to short supply. After a great number of phone calls we were able to secure a two-month supply and hopefully by March the supply issue will be resolved. The drug cost $800 per bottle and Jody needs six bottles a month. Thank goodness our monthly co-pay is $50. Unfortunately, Jody will be on this drug the rest of her life.

I will speak to the "Cancer Etiquette" book in a latter post...

I am back... sorry I did not post this earlier... I finished it up corrected the grammar and spelling, so here it is... I will update you in the next post