The Next Day (a medical update)

My doctor’s appointment this morning quickly turned into a classic Good News / Bad News situation.

The Good News:

• The chemo worked very well. Most of my swollen lymph nodes (tumors) that can be felt have disappeared entirely or shrunken so much they are probably not a factor in my health anymore.

• It appears Dr. A was right all along that a swollen node in my left groin was preventing my shin wound from healing because since the chemo the wound has begun to close at an amazing rate.

• As the nodes are metabolized by my body, I continue to lose weight. Fully clothed, I weighed in today at NYU at a trim 218.1 lbs. Our home scale said 211 balls naked, but it's on the payroll. I’ve just celebrated the fact that nothing fits anymore by binging on a pint of Cherry Garcia! That's a first for 2009. It made me sick. But it tasted sooo great it was worth it..

• I’ve been trying to take it easy and I feel pretty good considering ...

The Bad News:

• My blood numbers suck. Red cell count today was less than Monday’s numbers despite Tuesday’s transfusion of two units of red blood cells. I’ll get another two units of RBCs tomorrow at the hospital. White cell count is also down to "critical" levels. The working theory is it’s not caused by an auto-immune anemia reaction but rather the continued effects of the chemo. I've already beat AIA twice but it required a drug that will compromise my immune system even more than it is. Stay tuned for updates.

• Dr. A wants to strike while the iron is hot and doesn’t want to wait to resume chemo treatments. I’m now scheduled to get a second round Tuesday. But Treanda is now out of the mix – at least for now. We’ll go with a dose of Rituxin, the old standby monoclonal antibody that I know and trust. (We might even repeat the mega-doses I got in 2007 if it's needed down the road.) One step at a time.
  

Actually, it's not a bad trade-off . If all goes well – and it will – I’ll have successfully managed an incurable leukemia, cured my diabetes, left obesity in the dust and healed a seriously infected wound that was just hours from unnecessary surgery. All in just a few concentrated, crazy, weeks. All I have to do is to get my balking bone marrow in line so it starts manufacturing red and white blood cells again. Hell, I’ve done that before. (Maybe it needs some federal stimulus money.)

But I promise I’ll get by this even if it turns out to be AIA. It’s just a matter of time.

Keep those prayers and good wishes coming in. Let's get on with it!

Gratuitous advice: Before you criticize a man you should walk a mile in his shoes. That way you'll be a mile away from him -- and he won't have any shoes!