No Immunity
I have labs once a week now. I usually go to the hospital early Thursday morning for a blood draw, and the results are posted on the portal in a couple of hours. They have their own internal lab, and the people are nice there, so it makes up for the longer drive. This Thursday I got home from the hospital, turned on the TV, and fell asleep. A call from a nurse at the hospital woke me up. The system must have automatically flagged me, because I didn’t know this nurse, and she wasn’t one of my contacts in the group. My immune system was overly-suppressed, she said calmly, and my white blood cell count was extremely low. How did I feel? Any cuts or infections? How did my stomach feel? When the nurses are this nice it usually means they’re feeling you out for a possible hospital stay.
My WBC dropped to 1.2 (normal is 4-10.9) and my ANC is .63 (normal is 1.9-8.6). The doctors decided that I needed Neupogen, a drug that stimulates bone marrow to produce more white blood cells. They give it to people undergoing bone marrow transplants and chemotherapy. The injection doesn’t hurt more than any other shot, but they give you Claritin and extra strength Tylenol with it, because of the delayed side effects. I’ve had it twice before, last summer and fall. It hurts your bones and makes them feel brittle and achy. It makes your muscles sore, too. Kind of like you have the flu. This time my back is in a lot of pain, and I feel wiped out. Not like I could fall asleep, but tired enough that I can’t keep my eyes open for a TV show without a few minutes of almost falling asleep. It’s hard to focus on much, and I just hope I feel better soon.
There was a lot of nonsense from my insurance company about the treatment. My previous rounds of the drug were simple: my liver transplant coordinator called in a prescription to the infusion floor of the hospital, and I’d go up there and get one shot and that was it. Now my kidney doctor wanted the pharmacy to give me three preloaded syringes for me to inject myself at home. So I asked if I could do it like before, and I was able to get one shot yesterday afternoon at the hospital like before. I’ve never given myself a shot of anything, and while I’ve given other people and animals shots, I feel like having a trained person inject it is part of the process, unless it’s a last resort.
My kidney coordinator was able to get me an appointment on the infusion floor like before, but they’re closed on the weekend, and it’s a three-day series of shots. But my insurer wouldn’t give me approval to get the remaining shots to give myself until later next week, which is too long of an interval between shots, so I am visiting the cancer hospital this weekend to receive the last two shots. Why my insurance would approve an injection by someone else, which must cost them much more, and wouldn’t just give me the syringes, I can’t figure out. After the nurse showed me how she gave me the first shot I could have handled the last two. I supposedly have a contact at my insurer who can help with issues like this, and I’m going to call her next week. She was away on Friday, and the people I did reach were not helpful at all.
Third and last shot is tomorrow, and then hopefully we’ll see my numbers come back up.
I’ve been told by several people over the phone now that I need to be very careful about being around other people, washing my hands, and making sure my food is fully-cooked. I never know if these recommendations are for people who might actually be tempted to never wash their hands, for example, so I don’t know if my normal is good enough, or if I need to ratchet it up a bit. A good part of me thinks my current neuroticism about germs fits the bill for the situation I’m in now.