A Wonderful Birthday

** update **

I got a call from Dr. Gaw's office a little bit ago and she said my blood work was normal.  Praise the LORD!  He wants me to restart the cellcept.  Darryl said that if it was the cellcept that was causing the issue, my white cells would have dropped even more.  All I know is I'm seriously confused, and I'm just going to have to go on faith and trust what they recommend.  I'll have my blood work done again on Thursday.


*****

There has been some confusion about whether or not I was actually supposed to see Dr. Gaw yesterday.  I didn't have an appointment with him.  I was just instructed to come by his office and pick up new orders for more blood work.  Unless he wants to see me earlier, I don't have an appointment to see him until October 17.  I see Dr. Peltier on October 14.  Seems like a long time away to me.  I did, however, get to have a long talk with Darryl about all of this yesterday afternoon when he came by the house.  I'm still scared, but I do feel much better about the situation.

My blood counts are off, but my white blood count isn't dangerously low.  There are multiple reasons why this could happen.  Since cellcept is so risky, Dr. Gaw is being cautious and trying to prevent things from getting critical.  If my white cells return to normal after being off the cellcept, then we will know that's probably the culprit.  That could be bad, but as Darryl, who happens to be an eternal optimist ... and a quite annoying one at times I might add ... pointed out, it could also be a good thing. (He knows I think his optimism is annoying at times.)

We think the cellcept is what is keeping me leveled out, but it could also be the disease has gone into remission.  The only way we can know is to stop the cellcept and see what happens.  I am fearful that we've had to stop it, and he doesn't think Dr. Gaw will restart it immediately after my counts go back to normal.  He thinks he'll wait to see if I start to regress again.  That scares me.  However, I do understand the only way we can know if it's the cellcept or remission is for me to stop taking it.  

What an answered prayer it would be if we discovered the disease is actually in remission!!

I asked him yesterday if I was still on house arrest.  I told him it was awful being homebound.  He laughed and said, "Aren't you anyway?"  Well, yes.  But there's a difference from being homebound and having the option of getting out from time to time, and being on house arrest.  As long as I have a fever, I'm supposed to me on house arrest.  After that I still have to be really careful though.

So, please keep your distance if you feel the least bit under the weather.  I'm seriously not trying to be rude, but a simple cold could turn into something much more serious for me.  I had strep throat 2 weeks ago, and I'm still running a fever today.  Dr. Gaw always recommends I wear a mask this time of year.  I told my friend Cheryl yesterday I just can't bring myself to do that.  People always look at you like you have some horrible disease you are going to give them.  She laughed and said, "Well, at least they'd stay away."  She has a point.  I am giving it some serious consideration this year, especially if my blood work doesn't return to normal soon.

Yesterday was my birthday, and I did break the rules.  If you really know me, you know I've not always been the most compliant patient.  I'm trying to do much better, but yesterday I was non-compliant.  After Nathan took me to get my blood work done, he took me to Ocha for lunch.  I love Ocha, but I hardly ever get to go there anymore.  I sent Robyn a picture of my plate and she replied, "That's just mean!"  She loves it as much as I do.  We did eat right at 11 a.m. and hardly anyone was there, so it's not like I was exposed to a lot of people.  Then we stopped at Verizon to get my gift.  He got me an iPhone ... and I got a PINK cover!  It's so awesome!  When we left there he stopped at Sonic to get another love of mine ... a lemon slush. : )  I asked Darryl if I could make an exception and go out for dinner last night.  He said I was a big girl and could make my own decision ... ha! ... but he didn't recommend it.  Like I said, I was non-compliant yesterday, so my in-laws took me to dinner.

I am paying for it this morning though.  My fever has spiked back up to 102.6.  I might should have followed doctor's orders.  It concerns me I've had a fever this long.  Homehealth comes Thursday and will be drawing more blood.  I don't know when I will get the results from yesterday's draw, but I can usually get the results from what homehealth draws no later than the next morning.  So I think I'll know at least by Friday if anything has improved.

Please continue to pray.

And thank you so, so much for all the birthday wishes.  I had almost two hundred Facebooks wishes, text and emails.  I had 3 people offer to bring me a Sonic drink and I have several rain checks for lunch.  I also had a friend bring me pansies.  It's very humbling to know so many people care and love me.  Very humbling.  I am very blessed and forever grateful.  I've said it before and I will say it again and again, I have the greatest friends I could ever imagine.