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January 2, 2007 , Day 77
Friends,
Happy New Year everyone! Another busy day for us. The week has also been active. Through the week, my appetite went down to almost nothing, but has been recovering in the last couple of days. I have actually felt hungry yesterday and today. Friday we went to the hospital for lab work and ended up seeing the Doctor anyway. All of the lab results from the previous week had come back negative, so the doctor determined that I have GVHD on my tongue and probably through my digestive system. Interestingly, the treatment for this is a reformulation of asthma drug. A special pharmacist called a Compounding Pharmacist has to turn the inhaler drug into an oral drug. A Compounding Pharmacist has a special license which allows them to take an FDA approved drug and change the delivery method or other details to use in a non-FDA approve manner. Unfortunately we couldn't find one Friday until after they were all closed, so we had to wait until today to order the medicine. It will be ready in a couple of days. Also on Friday, we were able to pick up a walker that includes a chair, so that I can sit down if I go a little too far. Our visit to the doctor today was very positive. The doctor is very happy with my progress, although I remain pretty frustrated. He said that the hemoglobin is always the last to recover. We also squeezed in a Pulmonary Function Test, which turned out fine. I am not progressing physically as fast as I would like, but we are working hard. I almost made it up two flights of steps and back, and have done some fairly long walks. Unfortunately these efforts are maximal efforts and usually require me to go to bed for the rest of the day.
On the medical front, no new changes. We are adding the new medicine for GVHD as soon as we get it. We will be going in Friday for lab work again. My next real appointment is next Tuesday, January 9.
Blood levels: Things are pretty static right now. Some of the items not shown - Creatinine is down a little, albumin is up a little, both good news. Both reflect improvement in my digestive system functioning. Hopefully that will continue.
Lab Results |
Blood Cell Type |
Normal Low |
12/18 |
12/26 |
12/29 |
1/02 |
| WBC |
4.5 |
14.4 |
9.4 |
7.1 |
6.6 |
| RBC |
4.3 |
2.63 |
2.66 |
2.51 |
2.66 |
| HGB |
13.9 |
9.0 |
9.0 |
8.6 |
9.1 |
| PLT |
130 |
72 |
86 |
82 |
79 |
Happy New Year again!
Ted and Menchie
tw@wilcoxent.com
mench@wilcoxent.com
www.wilcoxent.com
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