HOLY RIP!!!

OK.....Here is an update that just blows my mind.......

The tx team at Pinnacle had told me that they wanted me to self-inject another shot of this Neupogen tomorrow at home and so they were going to call it in and have it overnighted to my house.
Well, as is often the case, several insurance entities got involved and although I agreed to the copay of $95.00 there was still some insurance problems as to whether this was "medically necessary" ..blah..blah..blah.
When I asked the folks at Pinnacle just how much the complete price of the injection was, I was told that each injection cost  $6,000.00

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaah.

So the final outcome, and to work around the insurance conundrum, the transplant team is going to have me travel back to Harrisburg tomorrow morning give me the injection in the hospital and all will be settled and all will be good.

And I damn well better be $12,000.00 better by Monday!

I will light a match this morning......

This morning, after all the required check-in work, they took me to a section of the Harrisburg Hospital that I haven't been in before called Transitional Care. After a few minutes a very nice phlebotomist named Margarita (I like that name) came in and said "Oh I remember you! I told you when you were upstairs that you have great veins! And you said that I probably say that to all the guys.

That's how I remember you."

Uhhhhhhh. I'm getting a reputation here.

So........I got the neupogen injection and now the bloodwork results are back and my WBC has fallen to .6 this morning. 

In effect - this means that right now I have very little immune system function.

Ugh.

But after the use of some of my strongest persuasion skills Steph, my tx coordinator, said I could go home IF  I get rest, IF I'm super diligent about staying out of crowds, IF I'm diligent about sanitizing my hands, and IF I'll give myself another shot of the neupogen tomorrow.

Sounded like a deal to me, so me and the Purell are staying pretty tight and thankfully I'm headed home for the weekend.

Thanks for caring enough to check here.

Then as it was.....

So I've heard from a couple people who think that maybe the thrill is gone after four months since the anniversary of my transplant came and went on Monday without me publicly making mention of it here.
Rest assured, the second of each month still gives me reason to pause to reflect on what was going on at certain hours of that day and to appreciate all the progress that I've made since.

I didn't forget to post on the 2nd, it was just that I was waiting to see what I was told at clinic today.
I had my usual blood labs drawn at 7:30 am on Monday and by noon the transplant center was on the phone telling me that my white blood cell count (WBC) had really tanked.
The normal range is 4 - 11
Two weeks ago mine was 3.1
Monday it was 1.6
Today it is .8

This has them a bit concerned and so they have completely stopped two of my meds, started me on another antibiotic, and are having me return to Harrisburg again tomorrow for another round of stat blood labs to see if it has fallen any further and also to get an injection of  a drug called neupogen.
Low white blood counts leave the body open for all sorts of infection and my transplant coordinator warned me that if the bloodlabs tomorrow show that my WBC has continued to fall that I will be admitted
on-the-spot for more intensive treatment.

Argh.

I seriously hope I'm not posting from the sixth floor at Pinnacle tomorrow at this time.

Thanks for checking here.