Ugh!! I have such a love-hate relationship with Western medicine!
As I wrote recently, I will be forever indebted to the Western medicine doctors who have treated me these past 6+ months. At the end of this journey, I will hopefully be forever cured of this dreadful disease and, if that is in fact what comes to pass, I will have these doctors to thank, in large part, for that accomplishment.
But I can't help but feel incredibly frustrated right now....I was just about to inject myself with one of my ridiculously-expensive Neupogen shots when I paused for a moment to read the label. Get this: the drug is made from a derivative of E-COLI!! How can this be possible?!? Isn't there any other more natural way for my white blood cells to be kicked into gear? Is a bacteria that -- in my mind at least -- is linked to cow feces my only hope?
I immediately called my doctor's office in a panic. "Do you have any idea what is IN this shot that you want me to take?!?" I demanded. The nurse assured me that they have been using Neupogen for years and have never had any e-coli related illnesses result from it (apparently, there are other not-so-fun side effects, but luckily, e-coli poisoning is not one of them). And she also persuaded me that the risk of NOT taking the shot can be quite high: serious infection, neutropenic fever, delay of future chemo treatments, etc.
And so, I just finished injecting myself with a very expensive shot of e-coli. Oh, the irony is too much!
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1 comment:
Don't stress the E Coli thing, Julie. Vaccines are very often made from derivatives of bacteria and viruses, and the number of lives they have saved could never be measured.
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