I went back to the hospital again today for an appointment. It was the first time I've done so on my own. Previously I've had a Korean go with me. But, today I put on my big-boy pants and did it on my own.
My appointment was for 9am. The hospital is just outside Gwangju and isn't accessible directly by bus. I had to take a 45 minute bus ride to a hospital in downtown Gwangju, then take a hospital shuttle bus from there to my hospital. All told it took about 90 minutes.
So, that's the prologue to the "Sim went to the Hospital" story.
The good news I heard today was that my marrow looks fine and definitely has no leukemia cells. Cross that one off. My platelets, which if you'll remember were once in the triple-digits, now sit strong at 279,000, thanks to the continued corticosteroid treatment.
About that steroid treatment though. Apparently today my blood showed some signs of liver damage. This is the frustrating part of a language barrier between a doctor and patient. She can convey that there is an issue with my liver, however I'm unable to determine if it is a problem yet, or if it's going to be, or how serious of a problem it is, or might become, or whatever. All I know is that it's something to keep an eye on now, and that she kept saying the word "worried" about it.
Because of the liver thing, I'm going on a new corticosteroid, the name of which I've forgotten. It's weaker than what I've been on, and will hopefully have reduced side effects. I've been hoping that pretty soon I'd be off meds altogether, but that dream was crushed today. Looks like for the next 3 to 6 months I'm gonna have to be on something. It seems the relapse rate for this disease is quite high, so the only way to prevent my body from trying to kill itself without telling me again is to take a dozen pills a day.
I told her about my recently voracious appetite. She laughed, but said to restrain myself as much as possible so that my blood sugar doesn't do anything crazy. I'm healthy enough to exercise, though. I'm going to join a gym. If I'm going to be eating like a fully grown human male for the first time in my life, and if I'm strictly forbidden from intaking alcohol and tobacco, I don't want to waste it. Just wait and see, this whole ordeal is gonna result in me being a brick shithouse. Well, maybe at least a normal sized human male.
Doctor wants to see me back in ten days. At least it's not twice a week anymore.
Well I'm relieved. From the second i heard about your illness I was kinda fearing the day you were gonna post one of these things with the headline "leukemia". I'm glad you're not riddled with cancer. Hope your liver isn't too shitty. I don't drink either and I'm super hot again so it's not the worst thing in the world. Keep us posted here. Pulling for you man. Glad things are looking up. I hope soon you can just write about some weird Korean fruit no one cares about and not about pissing blood.
ReplyDeleteLove always, Matty Tannman