Yesterday I ran across a book called Bald in the Land of Big Hair. It was written by a woman name Joni Rodgers. She was diagnosed with the same kind of nonHodgkins lymphoma that I had. I don't usually like reading books about people who have cancer. But that changed when I got it myself. This woman was married and raising young children when she got the disease. She is a great writer with a great sense of humor. She made me smile in recognition as she described her journey. But here is the interesting thing: Her experience with chemo therapy was vastly afferent from mine. She had cancer in 1996. She was given the same CHOP treatment I got and to that was added another drug called Bleomycin that I haven't heard of. She was fitted with a catheter that snaked from her arm all the way to her heart. This was used to administer the chemotherapy. Another difference is that she was given a pump connected to the port that administered the adriamycin over a three day period. It needed constant attention. I got the adriamycin in my day long chemo session and left with nothing more than a dressing over the IV site.She was sick as a dog, throwing up, weak, tired. Her blood counts went way down and the chemo had to be postponed once. This was so very different from my experience with chemo. I think this is because they have refined the treatment. Or it could be just one of God's little miracles. Yet, why should I get the miracle and she didn't????? While she was being treated two people who started chemo with the same diagnosis on the same day as her, died!
I have been told that the Rutuxin is the drug that pushed the survival rate to 90%. And the Nuelesta is keeping my blood counts normal.
Again Im reminded of the ordeal that my fellow cancer patients have suffered compared to me!!!! It is sobering.
In which I take a journey, searching for the me I want to be. My previous Blog, Michael My Son http://danielmyson.blogspot.com/ chronicles the death of my beloved son Michael in June 2011. What followed was grief that found no peace. In October of 2011 I diagnosed with Lymphoma. I believe that it was the result of my grief over Michael.This blog is about my journey through cancer and beyond. / Older posts on right.
Showing posts with label Neulesta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Neulesta. Show all posts
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Last chemo
Kind of an anticlimax. The day wore on and I became kind of sleepy. The last drug they shoot into my body causes the most reaction. I just don't feel so swell. I no longer can focus on books or iPads or iPhones. So I lay back, close my eyes and my mind wanders.
Today my wandering mind found it's way to Mike. I found myself thinking of his death, those sad and tragic moments when he was slipping away from me. That moment when we looked into each other's eyes for the last time. No words were spoken. But a world of love was exchanged. Soon after that he passed from excruciating pain to welcome unconsciousness from which he never returned. The tears were rolling down my cheeks as I thought about that time in my life.
Earlier in the day the nurse asked me how many children I had. I told her, one. I didn't want to talk about Mike. So I subtracted him from the equation. But he was there with me all the same. One lie led to another as the nurse talked with me about my one child. Perhaps that is why the sadness over Mike surfaced. Whether you tell people you have one child or two. That lost child is there.
On the way home, I was thinking about Dr Saven, my oncologist. He is probably in his 50's. He spent his entire career researching cancer drugs and fine tuning treatment. They have developed protocols for different kinds of cancer treatment. In my case they gave me a chemo cocktail called R-CHOP, four very powerful drugs. They know what side effects they can cause, so they give certain medications to prevent the side effects. And for me it is pretty effective. They start with an anti nausea medication into the IV before any thing else starts. They give me Bendryl and Tylenol. Im not sure what they prevent cause they WORK. So I don't have whatever it is they prevent.
But the best of all side effect preventers is the $6000 shot that I get the next day called Neulesta. Before this drug came on the scene people getting this kind of chemotherapy would experience serious drops in their white blood cell count which led to infections which let to hospitalizations which threw the chemotherapy schedule off. And that is BAD. If this drug can prevent just one hospitalization, it is worth it.
I have literally sailed through this treatment regime because of what they have learned over the years. My blood counts have been normal each time. I was thinking about all the cancer patients that went before me, the ones who suffered with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea low blood counts, infections, hospitalizations. Some died because they couldn't tolerate the chemotherapy. I stand on their shoulders. The doctors learned from them, changed their protocols, added and subtracted drugs and procedures, fine tuning a life saving process.
And so I take my hat off (revealing my bald head ;-) )to all who went before me, whose lives were cut short by cancer. You left a legacy. And I am the one who is benefiting from your suffering. To your family and friends, please know that I am grateful for your loved one who died, but left bits of knowledge behind. It is because of them that I have tolerated this whole experience so well. I will try to honor them with each day that I live.
Today my wandering mind found it's way to Mike. I found myself thinking of his death, those sad and tragic moments when he was slipping away from me. That moment when we looked into each other's eyes for the last time. No words were spoken. But a world of love was exchanged. Soon after that he passed from excruciating pain to welcome unconsciousness from which he never returned. The tears were rolling down my cheeks as I thought about that time in my life.
Earlier in the day the nurse asked me how many children I had. I told her, one. I didn't want to talk about Mike. So I subtracted him from the equation. But he was there with me all the same. One lie led to another as the nurse talked with me about my one child. Perhaps that is why the sadness over Mike surfaced. Whether you tell people you have one child or two. That lost child is there.
On the way home, I was thinking about Dr Saven, my oncologist. He is probably in his 50's. He spent his entire career researching cancer drugs and fine tuning treatment. They have developed protocols for different kinds of cancer treatment. In my case they gave me a chemo cocktail called R-CHOP, four very powerful drugs. They know what side effects they can cause, so they give certain medications to prevent the side effects. And for me it is pretty effective. They start with an anti nausea medication into the IV before any thing else starts. They give me Bendryl and Tylenol. Im not sure what they prevent cause they WORK. So I don't have whatever it is they prevent.
But the best of all side effect preventers is the $6000 shot that I get the next day called Neulesta. Before this drug came on the scene people getting this kind of chemotherapy would experience serious drops in their white blood cell count which led to infections which let to hospitalizations which threw the chemotherapy schedule off. And that is BAD. If this drug can prevent just one hospitalization, it is worth it.
I have literally sailed through this treatment regime because of what they have learned over the years. My blood counts have been normal each time. I was thinking about all the cancer patients that went before me, the ones who suffered with nausea, vomiting, diarrhea low blood counts, infections, hospitalizations. Some died because they couldn't tolerate the chemotherapy. I stand on their shoulders. The doctors learned from them, changed their protocols, added and subtracted drugs and procedures, fine tuning a life saving process.
And so I take my hat off (revealing my bald head ;-) )to all who went before me, whose lives were cut short by cancer. You left a legacy. And I am the one who is benefiting from your suffering. To your family and friends, please know that I am grateful for your loved one who died, but left bits of knowledge behind. It is because of them that I have tolerated this whole experience so well. I will try to honor them with each day that I live.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Chemo day plus 2
Im on my second post chemo day. Yesterday was good. I had lots of energy. I organized my closets, went to the Wild Animal Park, groomed the dogs and then went down for my Neulesta shot at Scripps Clinic. (The nurse told me that the prednisone is energizing me.)The Neulesta costs $6,000 per dose. I get it 24 hours after my chemo.I was shocked when I saw the bill. I don't have to pay for it, Thank God. But this is the miracle drug that keeps the chemo from killing off my white blood cells by stimulating my bone marrow to make new cells faster. The nurse said that it keeps my immune system up so I don't end up in the hospital with an infection and get my chemo schedule off. So, in the long run this $6000 drug is keeping the cost of my treatment down. Ive been getting the bills for the treatment. Medicare pays part. And Tricare, the US Military insurance pays part. And the clinic eats the rest. I don't pay a thing. Little did we know, when Frank was doing his Reserve Duty each summer that we would reap such benefits.
Others have to do battle with their insurance and wait for authorization for each test and procedure. While I have just sailed on through. Tricare may very well have saved my life by allowing this process to proceed as fast as it did. I was in stage three. The cancer had not yet gotten to my bone marrow when it was discovered. That would have been stage 4.
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