Follow-Up Visit with Hematologist

Hi Everyone,

Yesterday, Eric had his first follow-up visit with the hematologist. We had a pretty nice ride down to Indy. The ambulance drivers were nice and joked around with Eric quite a bit, and we listened to Bob and Tom all the way down (which Eric hasn't heard in a while). When we were going down the hallway to get to the hematology center, we just happened to walk past one of Eric's old critical care residents. She saw Eric when he was going through his worst times, and the look on her face when she recognized Eric was amazing. :) She was so astounded by how good he looks compared to when she saw him last (the day he woke up for the first time, so Eric doesn't remember her at all).

We had a good visit with the hematologist. This was the first time that Eric met him. The hematologist wasn't NEARLY as depressing as the last time I saw him, so that was good for me, too. We were able to talk about the plan of action where chemo is concerned, and get some help from him for the insurance company as well. The doctor said that Eric will have to go through at least 2 more rounds of chemo, the first starting a month from now. If Eric is strong enough to walk into the office, then he'll get the same chemo he got before, but in a much lower dose. This is the best option, because we already know that this form of chemo is very effective at taking care of Eric's leukemia. However, if Eric is not strong enough, they will give him some chemo to take orally (via pill). This type of chemo is not as strong, but will provide him with something until he gets stronger. All in all, it is very important for Eric to get stronger as fast as possible. This leads us to our discussion about acute rehab. When we had talked to the insurance earlier this week about acute rehab (where they provide a very intense rehab schedule), they came back and said that he won't get approved for acute rehab due to his diagnoses of leukemia and acute respiratory failure. (For some reason, they don't typically approve those cases, so Eric won't get approved.) So we spoke with the hematologist about this, and decided that he would write a letter to the insurance company to outline exactly why it is so important for Eric to get stronger as fast as possible. So hopefully, this will solve that problem. The hematologist went on to say that Eric will have to get several more doses of the chemo to the cerebral spinal fluid given by spinal tap. All of these chemo treatments are given prophylatically, to help prevent relapse. Eric started out with an extremely high white blood cell count, which is not normal for this type of leukemia, so they are trying to be extra careful with him to prevent relapse. In between chemo rounds, I believe they will also give the ATRA drug again (which helps keep the gene transfer that occurs with APL from happening).

I think that sums up what we found out yesterday. His blood work came back completely normal, which is great. Also, around 1pm yesterday, they took out Eric's feeding tube! That was the last tube that was in him, so it was a very good feeling to have that taken out. Plus, I think it was very annoying to him, since it went up his nose to go down to his intestines. So, the end of the tube just hung from his nose all the time...not fun.

Love,
Melissa