We have secured an apartment ten minutes away from the hospital. This is huge! I was sleepless thinking about Linda and David having to live in a hotel. Its a lovely little apartment with gorgeous views of the Bow river. And its cheaper than the hotels I had booked! I'm just working on getting them a parking spot but at least they will have a nice place to rest their heads!!!
A lovely lady from CPP Disability phoned me to let me know that I have been approved for just over a year of CPP support. YAY!!!! I have no idea what the payments will be but I'm so relieved to bring in some income.
Also we now have a chemo plan. This was an ongoing issue. I have severe allergies to medication. Enough that my nickname around hematology at the U of A is Ms.Allergy. One of the main drugs used to condition the body prior to transplant is ATG, a serum derived from horses or rabbits. It suppresses the immune system to prevent rejection of the donation and suppress Graft vs. Host Disease. It is also the front line treatment for Aplastic Anemia. When I had the ATG (ATGAM or horse variety) treatment, I broke out in hives the size of dinner plates and started to get itchy in the throat. Luckily my doctor was sitting there chatting with me as I decided, as she puts it, "misbehave". I was able to finish treatment with a tremendous amount of Benedryl and steroids but Dr. Larratt swore she would never do it again.
The transplant team was at a loss of how to deal with this. But after some pow wows down there and email back and forward with Dr. Larratt, David and I, we have decided to try the rabbit variety. We will run a test batch and hope that I will take it better. I've always preferred rabbits to horses anyways.
Its a relief to have a plan in place that we can all agree on. This new doctor is really trying to work with me rather than give me orders and I appreciate this hugely!
I completed a heart ultrasound yesterday. No news one way or another but the machine thought my heart rate was 200 beats per minute. I'm not sure I'm going to trust the results. I also did a chest x-ray and saw the ophthalmologist. All good on that front. I did take a picture (sorry about the poor quality) of one of the tests at the eye doctor. Its a very odd test for tear production. Freezing drops are put in and then strips of paper. Unfortunately, the freezing didn't work in one eye and I over produced tears,failing the test. I think my eyes did just fine....stick paper in my eye, I think I'm going to tear up!
This weekend, I'll post about some fun David and I got to have yesterday afternoon. It has to do with my hair....
Hugs and Love,
E
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