Hematology Appt Fri, April 4, 2008

The appointment went very well. He answered a few other questions that I had about this whole thing. He said that I did seem to have a very severe case of this warm body autoimmune hemolytic anemia and wanted to give me the chemo drug yesterday. However, since my hemoglobin did increase from 6.7 to 7.1 just from taking my prednisone he have me a 2 day course of decadron, another steroid to maybe suppress my white blood cells more over the weekend and then get 2 blood draws next week and see how that works. If this doesn't work significantly they want to give me this chemo drug Rituxan which does have a good outcome rate but is VERY expensive. It is an IV infusion you get once weekly for 4 weeks. The drug company does offer a potential free course of treatment for certain incomes and uninsured so I am checking into that, so please pray that we would be eligible for that because this drug is not really made yet for my diagnosis, just RA and Lymphoma so far. Then, if the Rituxan doesn't work terribly well, a spleenectomy may need to be done. Hopefully, it won't get that far but that is the potential course of action. I am continuing to feel a little better, not great, but better; maybe I am just getting used to the illness, who knows! Hopefully I will be able to adjust well to school starting again on Monday! I have been out of work essentially for a month since I was admitted to the hospital for 1 week on March 10. Pray for strength! Thank you ALL for your prayers and caring notes!