Archive for January, 2010

Day 34

Another day without my tests completed – I got the impression that it was Sunday and no one felt like going through the motions of actually doing the procedure. Being a weekend the people I need to actually process my marrow are no where to be found so whats the rush? At this point I’m just [ READ MORE ]

Delay

So after all that I never had my procedures done yesterday – My numbers are right on the cusp for meeting the criterion for remission and they don’t want to have to redo painful procedures if my blood counts dip a little (which they often do) before the bone marrow results come back. In the [ READ MORE ]

Dr. B

Because Beth Israel is a Harvard Medical School (HMS) teaching hospital the doctors on the HEMONC unit rotate each week. There are five rotations of different ‘attendings’ (head honchos) and even more fellows (doctors receiving specialized training in Hematology/Oncology), lastly there is an intern who has a 6-week rotation on the unit. The attendings specialize in Hematology/Oncology [ READ MORE ]

Leukocytes

My usual blood draw at midnight showed my white blood cell count hit exactly 1000 – the last thing I needed to be able to move forward with my tests and treatment. For all the discussion about waiting a few extra days to let my counts recover it turns out all you had to do [ READ MORE ]

Busy Day

I’ve been waiting on a bone marrow aspirate/biopsy scheduled for day 29 of my treatment (tomorrow) which determines whether or not the chemotherapy has driven my Leukemia into remission. There are a few options for what path my treatment could take depending on this test but the scale and scope of each is determined be [ READ MORE ]

Chimera

The eventual goal of my treatment to is to beat the Leukemia into remission in order to prepare my body for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. I’m extremely fortunate to have a full 10-point chromosomal match (~sub 10% chance) in my little brother Dylan (He’s already been born but I still consider him a savior sibling) [ READ MORE ]

Infectious Disease

I’m minding my own business, eating an omelet for dinner, and in walks a doctor I haven’t met before “Hi, Mr. Castaldi? I’m from Infectious Diseases, I’ve read over your history since your admittance on December 30th, do you have a minute to talk?” My gut reaction ever since being diagnosed and meeting the nice [ READ MORE ]

Teaching Moment

While I don’t have any other significant hospital experiences to compare it to – there are many, many pluses to being in a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital. The doctors (and staff) are numerous, attentive, talented and focused. Almost without exception those providing my care are present and working well past their appointed shifts, most [ READ MORE ]

Updates

I’ve added a page which explains how I came to be diagnosed with ALL. It seemed appropriate. My good friend Stephanie is participating in the Mooseman Triathlon, a 32 mile swim/bike/run, on June 5 (her birthday!) as a member of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s (LLS) Team In Training. She became involved after my diagnosis [ READ MORE ]

Withdrawal

One of the stranger symptoms I experienced from Leukemia before I began treatment was night sweats. I never really understood how or why my body would choose to sweat so profusely and only when I was trying to get some sleep. After my diagnosis I found out it’s a big red flag that can indicate blood [ READ MORE ]

My old view from 765 Feldberg at BIDMC


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Links:
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- My Reddit Bump: Redux

Blogs:
- Road to Remission