it is said that a second opinion is very important in matters of serious health conditions. i concur. bud and i met with a second oncologist this morning. upon leaving, we decided that we would feel good about choosing either oncologist but our gut is moved towards the first clinic as a whole.
a point of interest that i will mention here is that we learned that the key thing that is looked for with this type of leukemia is the quantity of "blast cells". these are the cells that the mutation has attached itself to. they are the cells that are mass producing but can't grow past their "birth" (so to speak) due to the mutation. they aren't able to grow to a mature white cell. so....i have a bunch of these young cells mass producing in my bone marrow...if that makes sense. not every cell has the mutation attached to it, so the important thing to learn at this point is how many "blast cells" i have in ratio to my white count as a whole. so...
today's doc is requesting my bone marrow slides to run through her pathology group to put a measurement on the blast cells. i'm not sure why the first pathology group didn't report that but all's well. today's doc will call me with that measurement some time this week.
bud and i will then make our official care team decision. the next step after that is (thank you GOD) using the financial services of the care team to figure out how we're going to pay for this danged but blessed once-a-day pill. it's VERY expensive. it will, of course, run through my insurance first to find out the dollar amount we'd have to pay out-of-pocket on a monthly basis. that amount will then be run through the drug company to see if they have any discount programs available, and lastly, the OOP cost will be run through foundations that are set up to help people like us pay for life-saving drugs. the financial counselor at the first group mentioned that she can usually find a way for folks to pay little to nothing.
in other news:
- i have the most amazing husband ever
- a HUGE thank you to friend, Mark K. i am so grateful that you and bud are friends...brothers. yours words to him today and therefore, his to me, were a balm to my soul. i love you, brother.
- i'm looking for a kick ass halloween party to go to...as a mutant...so hook me up with the deets if you've got them :)
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