A few folks have noticed the decline of my writing output this month, and reached out via other avenues to check in. I’m very appreciative of that, primarily because though I can see certain metrics for views, email opens, etc., unless folks are directly liking or commenting posts I don’t actually have a good sense of who’s reading what, and how far news is spreading. So, a little bit of an update as we’re now just over 8% through the calendar year.
January was primarily defined by recovering from various viruses—which is why there hasn’t been much for me to share regarding my cancer treatment recovery. I’m essentially coming off back-to-back-to-back viruses, which has been a bit of a doozy. But, despite their challenges, I’m still coming through them to the other side. The first virus was something probably small, but allowed to fester long enough to turn into pneumonia. The second was something again indeterminate, and thankfully went away fairly quickly. The third was somewhat unavoidable: RSV, which has been sweeping through Hamilton. And at some point, one of the viruses may have indirectly caused a small blood clot in my lungs (which is easily sorted by taking a blood thinner, thankfully!).
In fact, all sorts of bugs have been sweeping through this city. I don’t work in medicine, and my doctorate is more for the cure of souls than the cure of bodies, so speaking ex cathedra in this case means not from the throne of public health, but from the chair in my living room that, despite being quite beautiful, was just a parting gift from friends moving from Rochester to South Caroline as they no longer had use for it. But my suspicion is that we’re in a bit of a health crisis this month. A friend who’s a family physician told me that she’s never seen more cases of pneumonia in her practice than right now. And we’re at the point where it’s a dice roll as to whether zero kids or five kids and two educators will be sick in Edwin’s toddler room at daycare. All of that is to say, well, I don’t think I’ve actually been more sick than anyone else I know right now—with the exception that it does take me a little longer to fully recover than others.
The actual frustrating part of this past month is that it just slightly delayed further efforts meant to rebuild my immune system. One facet of that defence force is the white blood cell known as the neutrophil, which I think I’ve talked about before (and if you’re not familiar, you should really read that linked article; it’s incredible what they do!). In the vast majority of people, these white blood cells multiply from your bone marrow when illness is detected, and they go to work as the front line while other cells come in as artillery. In my body, as a result of the various treatments I’ve undergone, the neutrophils basically retreat when a threat is detected. The kicker here is that we (and by we I mean, my oncology team) aren’t sure how long that will last. My bone marrow still responds well to growth factor injections, so at the moment that’s what we’re using to great effect. I was told that some viruses actually impact the bone marrow’s production of white blood cells directly, so there may have been a sort of chicken-and-egg effect happening.
The second facet of the defence force in your body is, I suppose, all the other antibodies floating around inside you that help with immunities. When I underwent CAR-T therapy, these were basically all wiped out. It’s why I have to start from scratch when it comes to immunizations. So the COVID shot I got a few weeks ago, which would’ve been my fourth or fifth, actually counts as my first. All the childhood immunizations I received? Gotta get ‘em again. That’s a slightly slower plan that’ll be worked out with my family doctor, but one that we’ll be working on in the next couple months. I at least now have some natural immunity to RSV, for a silver lining!
Besides those immunities, how do I get all the other general antibodies back? Well, turns out my body doesn’t presently make (or re-make) those anymore. Thankfully, however, I can get them from other people! I feel like here my life has come full circle. When I was in seminary, to get some extra cash I’d go to the blood bank and donate plasma. Turns out, that plasma can be made into all sorts of fun stuff, including an injection called Cuvatru that I’ll be taking weekly for…probably a very long time. Cuvatru is an immunoglobulin product that will essentially replace the missing antibodies in my blood. So that’s pretty rad. While yes, it’s another “thing” to deal with, I’m all for dealing with “things” that help me be less afraid of my son’s runny nose, or the random person in Costco hacking up a lung. The infusion is a pretty simple process I’m being trained to do myself, will only take about an hour a week, and will go a long way to supporting my neutrophils as they hopefully grow some courage in the coming months.
So. That’s been the last month of my life! While I’m very much disheartened by everything happening in North America right now, and at some point soon will devote some attention to writing about it, at the moment I’m focusing my energy on reading things that challenge and encourage me, having conversations with family and friends that remind me of the good things happening in our lives and our churches, and being thankful that (by all accounts at this moment) I have been given a new lease on life. Mentally I’m looking toward the next scan, on February 20, that will reveal a bit more about the status of my disease. As I said, the bloodwork this past month is looking better and better, so we carry that hope forward!
Dude, I feel you on the you can’t avoid what’s happening. Noravirus just wrecked us and our pediatrician said she this has been the most she had seen.
Glad for a not negative update, keep it up buddy.
Thanks for the update, Charles! BTW, you write beautifully.