Mary, Are You Okay?

Hey, You Guys! 
Thanks for checking in on me.  I am feeling much better.  So sorry we had to cancel... with such short notice, last weekend.  Thank you for being so understanding & kind. 

I'd been doing pretty well & hadn't had a fever/infection in January (despite my number of infection-fighting cells being critically low).  I had a fever/infection in Sept/Oct that landed me in the hospital, one in November & another in December.  We were able to treat the Nov/Dec ones w/out-patient, prescription antibiotics.  Same thing is working with this one, but my fever really spiked Friday night & was scary high on Saturday.  I was crying about it & we had to wonder if we were supposed to go to the hospital or not.  No fun.

Good news is that the doctor I saw, in early December, at the University of Washington Medical Center, in Seattle, thinks he knows what's up.  The director of hematology at UCSF (who I've only seen twice) is now in agreement.  I have an appointment back at UCSF, on Monday, with the big shot doctor, who it seems will be my new treating physician. 

We will discuss a new treatment we are all sort of in agreement about.  This one shouldn't require hospitalization or surgery (hooray) & might just involve what they've tried to call a "gentle/not bad medication" that I might only have to take once a week.  I may be able to stop giving myself shots in the stomach, of another medication, on a daily basis.  I've been having to do that lately just to keep my number of infection-fighting cells above zero. (They bottomed out w/o it, last October).  A healthy person is supposed to have a Neutrophil count of 1500.  (I have been hovering between 200-500 lately.)

I'm going to try working with some 3rd-5th graders on Friday, but I just cancelled four days of work I had lined up for next week, to focus on Monday's appointment & starting the new treatment.  I figured I should take it easy as it lists fun things like, "bloody vomit" & "seizures" as potential side effects

Wish me luck as we see how it goes.

With Warm Regards,
Mary

P.S. I guess Dr. Damon's actual title is: Clinical Professor, Department of Medicine, UCSF; Director, Hematologic Malignancies and Bone Marrow Transplant, UCSF.  (Here's a link to his profile.)