October 2007

Good morning everyone!

We arrived in San Diego two days ago. I’m sure some wondered whether we were in the mist the recent fires in San Diego. We were neither in San Diego nor our home affected by the fires. While in route to San Diego my mother called informing me of the situation in San Diego. Her call preceded our EFMP housing coordinator, Nancy, who advised us to wait a week before coming to San Diego because the air quality was very bad. Steven and I decided to stop in route, in Arizona until things were better. We rented a cabin, went hiking, visited the Grand Canyon, explored the town and had some quality family time without distractions (TV< PHONE ETC).








I am very sorry I did not give an update to follow up on Gabe after he experienced Neutropenia. After two weeks of low counts, Gabe’s ANC jumped from 66 to 1666. Gabe continued his chemo the week of October 10 with his IVIG. The rash I mentioned in the last email had gotten worst and presently is still spreading. I noticed, after his last dose of Dexamethazone (steroid he takes once a month for five days); his rash had gotten a little better. Now the rash is seen all over his body including his scalp. In Michigan, the rash on the palm of his hands with low counts may have been a sign of a viral infection, with some eczema.

As of the week, his doctor in San Diego is concerned about the length of time the rash has been present and he is going to be looking into three other possibilities. First, Gabe is being taken off Dapsone, a daily antibiotic Gabe takes to prevent pneumonia which replaced Septra. He would like to see if Gabe has developed an allergy to the Dapsone. He is replacing this antibiotic with another, which will be given to him once per month in nebulizer form in the pulmanology clinic. Second, He has referred us to a dermatologist. Third, a possible unlikely, Gabe could be allergic 6MP, a chemo he takes by mouth daily.


All in all Gabe is doing great! His counts this week were good. While in Arizona we took Gabriel on a train ride to the Grand Canyon. He was thrilled, he loves Thomas the train and the tank engines. He tells us he rode on Thomas. We met a family on the train who live in San Diego. Last night they invited us to a Halloween safe night at a church. The kids played bible games like matching the animals two by two on Noah’s ark, throwing bean bags at Goliath, throwing bread in the five basic, finding the lost sheep, climbing Jacobs ladder…The children had lots of fun. We thank God we’ve met a Christian family, who’ve also given us insight on church, are both navy brats, Sarah works with children who have special needs from ages 3 – 5. They have two children who love kids, their oldest is in college and their son is ten.

We are waiting for our furniture to be moved in. Our prayer requests are Steve is able to contact his new command today. He has been having trouble with his command returning his phone calls. We learned after moving into to housing he had three days to report to his command to get our BAH transferred, cutting his leave by one week. Or we will have to pay $600 difference to housing if they are unable to allow him his leave time. Second we are having trouble with our insurance. There is a policy which states TriWest has the right to delay a person treatments to reevaluate the patients care. In exercising their “right,” the insurance company did not authorize Gabriel for his chemotherapy, labs or procedures. They gave him three office visits and did not find any error with refusing Gabe’s authorization Gabe’s new PCM requested. After contacting Gabe’s PCM and Pediatrics’ office manager, they have requested priority authorization again. Gabe is due for a procedure next week. At this point I really need God to intervene. Another funny story, our district housing office, after signing our lease and receiving keys told us they thought we broke into to one of their homes and were going to question us because they didn’t expect us to move in until November 9. We were scheduled to move in on October 22. I am being taught to have more patience.

Thank you for your prayers. I have attached a picture of the children at the Grand Canyon.

Angela