We went to see Jana's hematologist/oncologist today and got good news on her blood cell count. When Jana began treatment her white cell count was 186,000 where 10,000 is considered normal. After one week the count dropped to 162,000, and yesterday it was down to 80,000--a drop of 50% in one week. It will probably take several months for the count to be normal because the rate of decline will slow down, but the doctor was very happy with the results. Gleevec does appear to be a magic bullet for this cancer.
I can also tell that Jana is feeling better. She has much less shortness of breath and has more energy.
David
Yay, great news!
ReplyDeleteDavid, that's great news! Your blog is extraordinary. Hospitals, medical tests, surgery, etc. are all very scary.
ReplyDeleteYour observations about hospitals ring true for me based on my 2006 hip replacement surgery. I couldn't agree more about the performance measures. Even though I've been dealing with performance metrics for years, it's disappointing that they usually deal with superficial behaviors rather than root issues. While with the City, I fought for a measure of effectiveness of the City/County clinics, rather than the nebulous "access to care" metric. I will say, though, that there were times while I was hospitalized that I was acutely uncomfortable (too hot, too cold, strapped to a device and couldn't move), so I don't mind if hospitals try to capture patient perceptions along those lines.
I hope you'll be a candidate for the surgery, if that's the best medical course for you.
Take care, and don't visit that refrigerator too often!
David W.
Thanks for your comments, David. I had hoped that readers would share their thoughts. I think we are on the same page with regards to metrics. Capturing patient's perceptions should be done so there is sufficient specificity to identify conditions that can be improved.
ReplyDeleteDavid