Day 343--Changing of the Guard

We had a good meeting with Torger's new doctor, Peter McSweeney, this morning, and Torger thinks they'll get along just fine. We'll have to go down to his clinic at Presbyterian-St. Luke's in Denver in the next week or so to meet with his team and get a full patient work-up, but after that, Dr. McSweeney will be able to see Torger when he's in Fort Collins for his monthly rounds. In the meantime, he wants to take the catheter out of Torger's chest as soon as possible (HOORAY!!). After being in for a year, it could be doing more harm than good at this point. He also wants to start scaling back Torger's drug regimen and said he can immediately stop the Ursodiol (which he's been taking 3x a day) and the Nexium (which he's been taking once a day). He's also leaning toward stopping the antifungal medication, Vfend, in the next few weeks, which our insurance company will love--this is the pill that costs $3,500 for a monthly supply. He does want Torg to start taking some medication for the GVHD in his eyes, which creates granular crystals that seem like a more intense, sharp and glassy version of the "sandman" crud that we all wake up with in our eyes once in awhile--and he wants him to see an eye doctor in the near future. Last but not least, he ordered him to take extra Vitamin D and calcium and to get a flu shot. This was a surprise because we didn't think he could do that until he gets all his other vaccines, but Dr. McSweeney says "Now." (I got mine weeks ago because of concerns about infecting Torger. Since I work on a college campus where H1N1 is expected to spread pretty broadly this fall, I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of that vaccine.) Overall, he seemed impressed with Torger's progress, and we feel he'll handle this next year of care in a very straightforward, no-nonsense manner, which works well for us. I sent Dr. Tse an e-mail to let him know the appointment went well, and he seemed pleased to be able to transfer Torger to a doctor whom he knows and respects. It really feels like we're nearing the end of Part I (first year after transplant) and heading on to Part II (second year and beyond).