Originally written yesterday – posting today
I sit here this afternoon with a sore and bandaged hip, but my three month appointment to MD Anderson is in the books. For that, I’m thankful. The cost of gas is making the 8.5 hour round trip to Houston a little costly, but the met out-of-pocket deductible for the year makes things a lot more worry free. I don’t really have any information regarding the effectiveness of my medication yet.
The lab takes about ten days to get all of the information back to the Dr. Initial, on the surface, results of the blood test look really good and all of my levels are where they need to be. Now it’s just a matter of looking at deeper, under the microscope kind of stuff. They need to see an effective change in the non-mature cells that are formed in the bone marrow. That’s why, every three months at the beginning of treatment, some marrow and fluid are taken from my bone marrow. Those samples are the Saved By The Bell high school years, where awkward encounters with sleeping pill addictions reflect the elements of real life teen issues. The blood tests from my arm are the Saved By the Bell: The College Years, although initially interesting, it’s just the final stop in a realization that the series cannot be salvaged, one way or another. I fell into a coma trying to make that make sense.
Katie was able to meet me in Houston, which makes me very grateful. It’s a six hour round trip for her, just to be there for support. MD Anderson is a pretty lonely place to be when you’re waiting amongst all of the other patients who are there with their families/support system. I know my parents and siblings would like to make the trip, but it’s a lot more difficult for them to make arrangements when all I’m doing is routine tests. They’ve come along before, when the appointments were not so routine.
Thank you kindly for all of the well wishes, prayers, thoughts, and words. At the end of the day, those will be forever etched into this process I’ve been called to endure and those actions are truly precious to me. I’m still overly optimistic about the prognosis, but I’m still constantly reminded that this kind of treatment is not one for instant gratification. It’s kind of like credit. Things can get really bad, really fast, but the process of paying off your debts and rebuilding your score is slow and lethargic. I’ve never been good at waiting for results. Hopefully, I’ll be able to post an update soon.