Day +348 : Follow-up

My Blood Count Today:
Red Blood Count (HB) = 141 (Normal 130-180)
Platelet = 120(Normal 150-450)
White Blood Count (WBC) = 8.0(Normal 4 - 11)
Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) = 6.24 (Normal 1.5 - 8.0)

I am fine today, with dry eyes and mouth, running nose, cough, Candida (fungus) infection at genital area :-(

I went to UH to do my follow-up today. The HB and WBC are within the normal range now. The platelet is still ‘working hard’ to attain normal range.

Doctor said the Candida infection is a very common fungus infection. Nystatin ointment was prescribed to treat the infection. In addition to this, Doctor said that my wife has to be treated even though there is no symptom for Candida infection. So he prescribed a single dose of Fluconazole for my wife.

The hospital pharmacy suddenly asked me to pay for Ciclosporin – a drug used to prevent or treat GVHD. I was quite confused as I have been given this drug free of charge for almost one year. The pharmacist told me that the person in charge earlier did not follow procedure. He said I should buy the drug first and then claim back from the government. This is fine with me because I will get my money back eventually, but when I think about how "efficient" our government processes this type of claim, I acquired another symptom - "headache". Based on my wife’s colleague experience, we need to wait at least one year to get back the money upon submission of claim document. “Malaysia Boleh!” :-(

Fortunately, I stopped to take the antivirus drug, Valtrex, a month ago. This drug would cost me RM1000.00 per month. Ciclosporin is not so expensive, it costs RM3.3 per capsule only. I need to take 2 capsules per day, and as my next follow-up would be 6 weeks later, I had to purchase 84 capsules. This cost me RM277.2 only.

I am still happy because I had been enjoying free medication for so long before they discover it :-) Furthermore, I would be able to claim back the money that I spend on the medication one day. With this type of "Panadoic" thinking, my "headache" is cured.

See you next post :-)