The Power of Prayer and a Medical Update

Thanks to all for the kind comments and good thoughts.

Thanks particularly to all those who included me in their prayers. If you wonder the effectiveness, or if you'd like know what a miracle looks like, it looks like this: sitting listening to your five-year-old son reading "Green Eggs and Ham" just three weeks after the ICU Lead Attending Physician told his team, "We're going to lose this one." I'll claim a small amount of credit for general cussedness (he didn't know who he was dealing with) but I know that the prayers and positive thoughts pouring in from all of you supported me in the times that were touch and go.

SHORT MEDICAL UPDATE: Went to Georgetown yesterday to have an electrocardiogram and to see Dr. Cheson. My heart appears to be in fine shape, I'm still in the clinical trial (although we may have to rethink the dosages), my kidney function is getting better as I flood the creatinine out of my kidneys, and the infectious disease people don't want to see me any more.

LONGER MEDICAL UPDATE: Unofficially (as interpreted by the tech performing the procedure, a great guy who is also a Navy Chief corpsman), my heart's in great shape, all valves firing, functioning at 100%. This is up from a low of 15% during the "bad week". As a aside, Dr. Cheson said he had never heard of a number that low. We got into see Dr. C. at 1:00 for our 11:30 appointment. Every person who had seen me at the ICU was visibly shocked when they first saw me in the exam room. All agreed my looks have improved. I have a several appointments in a couple of weeks--full body CT scan on the 13th, Dr. Cheson on the 15th, and working for an appointment with nephrology (kidney) folks on the 17th.

One slightly disquieting item. There was some fear that I might have a fungal infection in my central nervous system, so to combat that possibility, I was perscribed a two-month supply of a drug called VFEND. Without insurance, the VFEND would have cost $5200. I took it for five days and was then told, "Spinal fluid cultures came back negative, no need to take the VFEND." I'm going to work with my father-in-law, who's on the board of a Free Clinic around Appomattox, to try and find if something useful can be done with the rest. I understand the clinic may be able to swap the dispensed drugs for new drugs with the drug manufacturer. Gives you some insight into just how expensive drugs can be, and why some kind of health insurance/safety net is so important.

There's more, but one of the interesting side effects of fighting arm restraints while out of your head for several days is nerve damage in your wrists that runs up and makes all your fingertips numb. Great for typing. And I'm not fixing typos--figure it out in context.

Thanks again. Sometime soon we're going to have a "thank you" party/cookout here at the house. It will be driven by Liz's schedule, but we'll keep you posted.

Thanks again,

Tim