Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Fifth Day of Rest (Sabbath): New Connections

Just as a reminder to new folks coming on, here is a review of my health status and the basis for this blog. I was diagnosed a few years back with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL), a condition that is often not treated but observed to see if it or the symptoms become serious.  Because I was out of work and had no health care for a lot of that time, I stopped getting the monitoring that it required.  In the meantime (most of life, after all, is lived "in the meantime") I started to experience some disturbing symptoms.  I eventually went to the Health Center in my neighborhood and received some good treatment there.  As one  nurse told me at the time, "Not having health insurance is not a reason to go without treatment," as I discovered to my relief.  I was treated with dignity and efficiency at the center, and I have only good things to say about it. 
After seeing an Oncologist at Mercy Hospital, he decided that a course of treatment should be taken to reduce the swelling of lymph nodes in my body and bring down my soaring white blood cell count.  Since I have virtually no income, I applied for Medicaid and was granted it - thanks to the hospital administration - in what must have been record time. 
The course of treatment is 5 days of treatment - mostly chemo - followed by 23 days of rest, to be repeated 4 to 6 times (months).  As of this date I am in my 5th day of rest or what I call the sabbath or sabbatical, following my first round of treatment. 
Prognosis after treatment is  3-5 years of remission, accompanied by regular monitoring to ensure it is not taking over again.

Further Information about CLL

2 comments:

  1. You forgot one important derivative of Joseph ---
    Roy!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Joe,your in our thoughts and prayers. Love Gar & cin

    ReplyDelete

Hey Everyone, Feel free to comment. If you are a spammer, I'll edit you out. Otherwise I invite your comments and further thoughts. Joe