My friend Susan sent me the blog site of Jane Curran, a chaplain in Asheville who needs a bone marrow transplant to combat her bone marrow diseases. You know if you look around just a little you will always find people worse off than you. Jane has 3 different bone marrow diseases all smoldering along. She needs the definitive treatment that a bone marrow transplant can provide, but her insurance is denying it at present. They say she is not sick enough. I cannot imagine how hard it must be to be fighting fibrosis, anemia, leukemia and lymphoma. She is being treated by the transplant team at Wake Forest but came to Duke for a second opinion. Her doctor here, Dr Rizzieri who took care of me in the hospital, also agreed that she needed a transplant. Maybe the second opinion will convince her insurance company to do the right thing.
Reading her blog gives me much insight and perspective. I realize how lucky I am that I only have 1 bone marrow disease and that I am already on a treatment path. I am lucky to have a timetable for my treatments. I am lucky that I am not waiting for insurance to agree with my doctor's plan. I am grateful for many things.
My counts have continued to climb. My platelets are 309,000, HgB is 9.9, and the white cell count is 3200. They are checking to make sure I don't need to be seen Monday (Labor Day) before I go into the hospital Tuesday to start the next round of chemo. So we will likely head off to Asheville this afternoon for the long w-e. We plan to do some hiking, eating out, enjoying friends, etc.
Jill, Holly's sister, flew in yesterday and will stay with us for the week. Happy to have the help and company.
1 comment:
You can always find others who are not as lucky as you are. We are very happy for all your good reports Lynn & Dad
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