Update........the latest!

This is the reason I took down my poll. The day we were messing around at work my dad was headed to Tulsa for his next treatment ... which didnt go so well (see quoted email below). So the kidding around didnt seem so funny that night when he called me. I may put it back up soon; I may not?

The reason this is such big news, other than the fact that the doctors and nurses totally screwed up, is that in ministry the summer is a very big time and my dad was doing the crash course in chemo (treatments all at once every 3 weeks vs. in stages at 4+ weeks btwn treatments) so that he could get ready for VBS, teen/youth camp, etc... But now he will likely be in treatment well into the summer.

Here is an email from my dad explaining more on what happened:

I want to share an update on my cancer treatment so that you all may know how things are going. On March 15 I went back for my third treatment of the six that I was told would be necessary. When I went to the infusion lab I noticed that they had different chemo than what I had taken before, and I questioned that fact. They pulled the Drs. orders and sure enough they had the right medicine according to that order, so it was administered. I had done fine through my first treatments, but following that one I crashed, and was sick for almost two weeks. The Dr. here in Harrison wanted to put me in the hospital, but I refused so they sent me home with meds to take. When we went back to Tulsa last Tues. I asked the Dr. why my chemo was changed, and he assured me it had not been changed. I assured him that I was given different chemo than my first two, and after further checking they did discover that I had been in fact given the wrong chemo. I was given chemo that is given for leukemia and advanced prostrate cancer, and not the chemo that I was taking for my lymphoma. That is the reason that I got so sick, and my white cell count still has not come back up so I have not been able continue my treatments. I will not be able to start treatments again until the first of May. They will be doing a Muga Scan and a complete CT Scan to determine if there was any heart damage and other results of the wrong treatment. The bill by the way for the wrong treatment was over $62,000, with the one bag of chemo being $39,445.05. I contacted the insurance company and informed them of the mistake so that they would not have to pay for that, and I also am in contact with the hospital about what they are going to do to make sure that I receive proper treatment. I am not and never have been one to run to the Dr. for drug treatment, now I am forced to do that and with this mistake it sure does shake my confidence in them. The Dr. called last night with appologies and said that the drug I was given was five times more powerful than what I had been taking. So he said that is why I got so sick, but he said that it also could have a beneficial effect on my cancer treatment in hitting the cancer harder than we planned. Hope he is right??????? And I have not forgotten that God is in control -- even when man makes mistakes!!!!!!!!!

Ways to pray for our family:

Pray that my Dad's white blood cell count rebounds in time for his next treatment
that the doctors and nurses dont screw up again
that my Dad wont have to retake the third treatment (that he can start back up at #4, where he should have been last week, and not at #3)
that we can be confident in his treatment given the circumstances

As I posted in my last update ... I have a google group setup for this blog, so if you'd like to get an email when I post; just leave a comment to this post w/ your email address and I'll add you to the group. Since most people are uncomfortable posting their email addresses, I will add you to my list and replace your comment/email address with an add confirmation. I did this once before (see http://iwanttokeepanon.blogspot.com/2005/03/spring-do_21.html#comments). Or send me an email directly and I will add you that way ... like you I am security conscience and dont want my personal addr listed :-).

posted by iWantToKeepAnon at 9:03 PM |