Day +1079 : Chest CT Scan and Influenza Vaccination

I am fine today.

I went to UH to do the CT scan of my lung this morning. This CT scan was scheduled about two months ago. The result of this CT scan is very important for the haematologist to determine whether I have BO/BOOP (Bronchiolitis Obliterans/Bronchiolities Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia), and to decide whether I should start to take Prednisolon(steroid) again.

As the CT scan was done on the chest only, no contrast needs to be administered. It is definitely not a pleasant thing to have contrast administered through the vein and also orally – fixing a Branula and drinking the yellowish solution. I had this experience recorded on my blog Day +111, and that was during my third chemotherapy.

The cost of the CT scan is RM350, but again due to the privilege of being a husband of a wife who is a government staff, I didn’t have to pay a single cent; a “collateral welfare” :-)

After the CT scan, I went to purchase an Influenza vaccine at the pharmacy. A dose of the vaccine cost RM47. But there was a problem - who is going to inject it for me? The pharmacist advised me to go back to the doctor who prescribed the vaccine, but I really didn’t know where to find him.

After asking around for a while, someone instructed me to go the baby clinic to get the vaccination done. I am very familiar with the clinic because all Aaron’s vaccinations were done there.

The parents in the kid’s clinic might be surprised to see such a big baby coming for vaccination. But if we were to think about it carefully, I am not too old after all. My transplant age is slightly less than 3 years old :-)

The composition of virus vaccines used was

1. an A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1)-like virus;
2. an A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus;
3. a B/Florida/4/2006-like virus.

But we need to bear in mind, according to Wikipedia, that

the A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1)-like virus used in the vaccine is a seasonal strain of influenza, it cannot create immunity to the new, non-seasonal strain of influenza A virus subtype H1N1 responsible for the 2009 swine flu outbreak.[99]

So I am not protected against Infuenza A(H1N1) with today’s vaccination.

The vaccine with box
The composition is labeled on the side
This is the syringe that carries the vaccine
See you next post :-)