Monday, August 25, 2008

The two new drugs

Today I picked up two special drugs for the transplant. They are Cyclosporine and MMF (Mycophenolate Mofetil). Both of these drugs help prevent transplant rejection.

These drugs aren't used to keep me from getting GVHD. They're used to prevent my body from destroying the newly transplanted cells before those cells can do their job. Essentially, the drugs suppress my immune system.

For what it's worth, my co-pay for these drugs was $377. Yeah, really..... and Ed and I have very good insurance.

Anyway, I start the cyclosporine tomorrow and the MMF about 4 hours after my transplant. Taking the cyclosporine is a strange process. The pills are HUGE and I take 5 of them twice a day. That's 3 each of the 100mg and 2 each of the 25mg. Here's the odd part - I'm supposed to open their sealed foil containers and "let them breathe" for a few minutes. They have been variously described as smelling like "skunk" and by one less gracious individual "the inside of an elephant's ass". I guess I can make my own determination at 9am tomorrow morning.

Breakfast will consist of 2 fried eggs on toast with a side of skunky elephant ass. Yippee. Can I have some apricot jam with that?

2 comments:

Roobeedoo said...

Do they also supply a peg for your nose?
Maybe you need to think of something really smelly to overpower it. Kippers?

Anonymous said...

Ahhh... there's nothing like a good piece of elephant ass in the morning! Just ask Dumbo.