Starting All Over Again

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  Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Thursday, November 8, 2007

Good friends recently told us that they've put a five minute limit on discussing health concerns. Sounds good to us, so we'll attempt to keep this epistle to a minimum.

During that first round of chemo the daily white blood cell count bounced around from an initial high of 390, down to 298 and then back up to 374. It wasn't supposed to happen that way. Three weeks later, the specialist unhappily informed us that it hadn't worked....at all!! Having just returned from a three week vacation, he needed more time to assess this somewhat bizarre turn of events and thus asked us to return a week later.

Hmmm....seems the next possible step is to try another drug that is not covered by our Ontario health insurance and is worth $40,000 - yikes! "Don't worry" he hastened to add, "I'll put together a proposal to the hospital pharmacology board and it's very likely that they'll agree to cover the costs of the treatment. And as the expected remission from this drug is likely to be short lived, we'll no doubt be looking at a bone marrow transplant sometime within the next six months". Bone marrow transplant?! Whew, that was somewhat of a bombshell to absorb, especially as we were simply prepped for a straightforward second round of chemo.

Was it just a coincidence that Gerry's brother Geoff arrived from Halifax the following day, after a two-day trip in his RoadTrek? Little did he know that his time would be partially spent in the hospital, being HLA-typed as a possible bone marrow donor. Nor was he aware that the hospital would become quite so familiar to him, as we all spent hours in the ER the following day when Gerry developed a sudden high fever from an unidentified infection and required intravenous antibiotics for another six days. That first round of chemo unfortunately didn't kill the cancerous white blood cells, but it did totally destroy what remained of Gerry's immune system.

Have we now become prisoners in our own home, hoping to avoid further complications before the next round of treatment is due to start? Last week we would have said a resounding "yes!", as Sharon was added to the patient list too. Last Monday marked the day for a long-awaited appointment with her retina specialist, after she had experienced considerable discomfort and blurring in her left eye. Expecting nothing more than a consultation, she was somewhat surprised to hear that she had three retinal tears that would require the insertion of a gas bubble in her eyeball as a possible remedy. Driving herself home after that was quite a feat!

After a week, everyone has finally stopped asking her when she's going to take off her Hallowe'en costume - yes, the gruesomely bloodied eye has more or less healed. Two nights of sitting upright to sleep wasn't exactly much fun, but the gas bubble apparently did the trick. This was followed up with successful laser surgery two days later. So that has put paid to the unfounded rumour that she was simply hankering after some of the attention that for the last little while has all centred around Gerry! She definitely appears to be back on the mend now. Just in time too, as we expect the hospital to call any day soon with the schedule for starting over with Gerry's new monoclonal antibody therapy.

Well, five minutes must be just about up, so enough of health issues! As you may imagine, our lives these days seem to revolve around endless appointments with doctors and specialists and innumerable visits to clinics and hospitals. Never mind, we realize that it's all a means to an end, so we're spending our "spare" time concentrating on more important things like reading up on and planning for our next travel adventures. Stay tuned!

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