BuddhistDruidChristianHumanist

March 28, 2020 I am familiar with ICUs. As the hospital chaplain at one of the busiest hospitals on the night of the Aurora movie theater shootings, I am also familiar with how quickly life can shift from joy to uncertainty. Covid-19 is creating a new normal even for me. To be honest, I never fully bought the whole “young, healthy people are safe” and “at risk, immunocompromised people are at greater danger” take on this pandemic. Yes, I get that people who are already medically fragile ARE, in fact, at greater risk. But the extremes to which it was being repeated gave the impression that young, healthy people would experience nothing more troublesome than a common cold. We are starting to learn that Covid-19 doesn’t care how healthy you are. If it can find a foothold in your lungs and progress far enough before treatment begins, it will take down a young healthy person just as easily as elderly person with a history of lung disease. Still, there’s nothing reassuring about the...

I went in for my final infusion this morning. My labs were all good. My platelets dropped below 100 but only to 98 so that’s practically stable. My white blood cells actually went up (by 1/10 of a point). The doctor was very encouraging about my blood labs. She noted that a lot of people don’t get past the third or fourth infusion before their blood chemistry is significantly impacted. Meanwhile, not only have ALL of my different blood cells stayed in a safe range for most of these treatments, my other blood chemistry results (sodium, potassium, other things that I can’t pronounce) have all been incredibly stable throughout these treatments. She made me feel like the Arnold Schwarzenegger of chemotherapy patients. So, I got my infusion this morning and, when I was done, I got to ring the bell that you get to ring after your last infusion. I will still be going in on Wednesday since my protocol involves a slower infusion through a pump that I’m attached to for 44 hours. Then, ...