19th Infusion

Finally! Something interesting to write about. My 19th infusion or at least my hospital stay didn’t start out as I planned it to be. However things did turn out well in the end. That’s always good.

Monday was a busy day. Apart from work, I had participated in a call for a conference that Genzyme was doing in Japan. I gave one of the patient testimonials. The hard part was that I was talking on the phone but could not hear the reactions of the crowd. So I had to give the testimonial blindly or I should say deafly. Is there such a word?

After the call we got ready for the hospital. As I was riding the car, I started coughing again. I had a bit of a cough the day before. But not so much to warrant a doctor’s visit. The thing is, if I sit up the cough gets worse cause the phlegm goes down to the lungs. I have a technique to expel it but it doesn’t work in the car. I had to recline my chair and try to keep as leveled as I could so I wouldn’t cough much. We got to the hospital and waited a long time for the room. Really, sometimes the hospital tests your patience. First they said we had a room already. Next thing they say there’s still someone occupying the room. They gave us another but it still has to be cleaned. So it took an hour and a half for us to get a room.

In order for my cough not to get worse, they wheeled me into the room on a stretcher. Ha! It was quite a trip going through the usual route looking up at the ceiling. A whole new way of looking at the same old route.

The rest of the night went quietly. A dinner of cheese burger came after my being able to expel the phlegm. Not a good way of painting a picture of my dinner but hey, that’s how it happened.

Infusion day went better. I was up at 730. We ordered breakfast, did some stretching, ate and did all my morning rituals. By 10 am I was ready for the infusion. The enzyme was prepared early. We usually start at 11 and this time the enzyme was in the room by 10. We got a little sidelined from a visit of another doctor. My regular doctor could not make it since her son is sick. Another doctor dropped by to assure me that if I had any problem that she was just there in the hospital. One thing that reassured me though was that my other regular doctor was there. I trust her completely so I felt good.

What made the this infusion day different was a guest. A special guest. Chris, my ex girlfriend a good friend was in town for a visit. She lives in NY and she’s here for a short vacation. She decided to spend the day with me. She wanted to see how an infusion goes. She came by the hospital at around 11am and spent the day there. She also saw my mom for the first time since she arrived. My mom and Chris have always gotten along well and I’m sure both of them were glad to see each other.

The infusion went well. We finished on time. No difficulties whatsoever. I’m glad that Chris was able to share that experience with me. It’s a big thing for me.

Chris wanted to go to the Chapter Assembly of the Singles For Christ Chapter I belong to. She said it was important that she went. I told her if I felt well enough I’d go with her. I did feel well enough to go and so I did.

The evening went well. She had a good time at the assembly and I was just really glad I could be there to accompany her.

It was a long day but a good day nonetheless.

One Reply to “19th Infusion”

  1. A lot of greetings to you Juan, i came from Czech republic, so i am going to your site since your first infusion, because i am very interested how the threatment help you. I have best friend from Germany with same sickness as you, so therefore i am very interested if it could help or not. Sorry for my bad english. I would be very happy if you could me write something more about results and progress during your treatment. Thank you very much

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