Sibs,
Well, folks, you can pretty much forget the nice, orderly, compact plan I described in my Chemo Update #5 for the Bone Marrow Transplant process to begin with a disability leave from Burton Group on September 17th. {sigh}
Thursday morning I got a call from an “appointment scheduler” from UofM, advising me that she had 9 appointments to schedule for me over the next _2_ weeks, beginning with an appointment TODAY. These 9 appointments did not include the regularly scheduled Tuesday/Friday chemo infusions, nor the new referral to an Orthopedic Surgeon regarding the hip/pelvis pain, nor the week of self-injected Nuepogen, nor the week of harvesting my stem cells. Obviously, this is a huge yank for a guy who is still working full time and trying to tell his employer when he is going to “go dark” on them, and a wife who is trying to keep her employer apprised of when she will begin a family medical leave.
Here’s the news since Wednesday’s official update – I cannot even gather them into good news/bad news categories:
– Have scheduled the 9 appointments into the next few weeks. Moderate disruption some weeks but the week of Labor Day and the week of 9/17 are pretty much wiped out (all out-patient stuff)
– Today’s last-minute-added appointments changed a “routine chemo day” into an all-day event at UofM. Irene and I were in the hospital from 8:00am to 4:00pm
– Had my Pulmonary Function Test (lung capacity and efficiency) today, passed with flying colors
– Met with the Orthopedic Surgeon today and decided to proceed with kyphoplasty surgery which will insert cement into my L3 vertebrae and prevent further collapse of my spine, and perhaps {educated guess} solve the hip/pelvis pain problem. Kyphoplasty to be accomplished within the next 3 weeks (another calendar disruption)
– Today’s chemo went well. I got the Neupogen injection they forgot on Tuesday.
– Today marks the end of 17 weeks of chemo. Only one chemo week left!!
– Learned that my Bone Marrow Transplant admission has slipped from 9/24 to 10/1
I am now dealing with 8 different medical departments for tests and procedures! I have an assigned BMT Coordinator – whom I had not heard from in 2 months – who is supposed to lead me through all this… but yesterday’s scheduler call should have been preceded with some education as to what’s happening and how soon. Do I sound a little frustrated?
Pollyanna has left the building!
-larry