Health Update

I got a blood draw on Wed, April 23 and my hemoglobin count was 10.1! Praise the Lord! Thank you for ALL of your prayers! Because of my "rapid" increase the doctor wants another blood draw in 2 weeks and then they may start to taper my prednisone then! The hematologist said that they probably wouldn't be able to taper for about 8 weeks! Please continue to pray that once they do start to taper my dose that my count stays up so I won't have to have anymore treatment, BUT ultimately for God's will in all of this. He has taught me many things from this experience.

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!

My Recent (and continuing) Illness

I have been tired for a while but at the beginning of March it was really bad. I began to be pale and dizzy some and then I began to be yellow and almost non-functional. So, March 10 after school I went to urgent care and they admitted me because my hemoglobin level was at 5.5 and is supposed to be between 12-13. They were going to do a blood transfusion but found that I have hemolytic anemia which means that my body is still making red blood cells but my white blood cells are killing them so fast they can't accumulate. I was in the hospital for 1 week being treated with IV prednisone trying to suppress my white blood cells. (They don't know what is causing this) After a week my level went to 6.7 and they let me go home and rest but not work, which I really couldn't anyway. Since being at home, I have been on oral prednisone 80mg per day (a lot!) and after 3 days my levels still didn't go up. So, last week I had to go to the hospital Mon-Thu for a 3 hour IV treatment of hemoglobulin to try to suppress my white blood cells more. Well, I had a blood draw yesterday and my hemoglobin is still at 6.7! ugh! Now, I have an appointment on Friday with the hematologist that my doctor has been in contact with for a treatment with a new chemo-drug (not a full-chemo treatment) that will wipe out all of my bad white blood cells instead of the old drugs which would wipe out ALL of your bad white blood cells. Hopefully this will allow my body to begin to accumulate and keep the red blood cells that it is making. In a nutshell, that is it. I am doing better than I was but not great. This blood disorder with the prednisone is quite a combo of 'side effects'. Please continue to pray that they will figure out exactly what is causing this to occur, whether autoimmune disease or virus or whatever, but 50% of these cases they never figure out what is causing it. Lord TRULY only knows!