Levels still low: 1.15-1.18

The fact that I didn't have my next chemo session on Tuesday meant that I could go into work all week, and I felt that it was pretty productive. So that was good. This morning I went back into the Cancer Center to get my blood tested again. After a lunch seminar, I spoke to Brittney, who had just heard from the nurse that my levels were still low, at the same level as on Monday. So that was kind of a bummer. This means that we can't do chemo on Monday.

But, on the positive side, they decided that we should just go ahead and use the booster drug this time around. So I had to leave right away and walk over to the University hospital and get my prescription filled. This is the first cancer-treatment related expense we have had, thanks to Alberta's health care system. The nurse said that the booster drug is pretty expensive, but I really was still surprised by the actual price. For enough drug for 3 days of booster injections, at 1 ml per day, the cost was around $690! By my calculations that puts it at about $870,644 per gallon! Luckily we have supplemental health care coverage through my work that should cover %80 of the cost, but this will still add up over the whole treatment period. To be fair, when compared with how much this whole cancer treatment would have cost us somewhere else, I am sure that we still come out on top.

So, the plan is to inject this priceless liquid for the next 3 days, get my blood tested on Monday (hopefully my arms can survive all these pokings), and then do chemo on Tuesday. So this should only delay us by one day from the last plan, which was already a week delayed from the original plan. At 3pm we met with a Nurse at the Cancer who showed us a video of how to inject the drug, and helped walk Brittney through the first injection. Brittney had to quickly find someone to babysit the kids so that she could be there with me. I am glad that Brittney is comfortable doing the injections, because it isn't something that I like to think about, let alone do to myself. Brittney did great for this first time, and we had a great dinner and fun short movie night with the kids. It now sounds like they are finally asleep. Here's to the booster drug working and to a good night's sleep (we were up several times during the night with Charlie, and then the boys decided to wake up at 6:00, needless to say we are both a little tired).