22/03/20

00:36 on the 22nd and this is Post #282 of what started as my Myeloma Blog and is rapidly turning into my Journal of the Plague Year.

Dr.Chowdhury replied to my email, saying:

"I feared we might arrive at this point given world events.
I will be in touch again soon, hopefully by phone."

No phone call yesterday, but hoping to hear from him later today (Sunday). Then, if necessary,  I can talk to my insurers on Monday morning.

Despite earlier leanings towards going ahead with transplant on the 25th, Sue and I have both independently moved in the other direction, towards postponing the transplant for several weeks at least by which time I hope we should know whether the country - and London in particular - is over the peak of the coronavirus epidemic, or whether there will still be worse to come. Certainly yesterday it was looking increasingly like the Italian scenario, with COVID-19 infections and deaths still increasing exponentially. Too many people are still ignoring the government's requests for self-isolation etc., no doubt believing that "it can't happen to me". Well, it can and with that attitude it probably will. Darwin will be vindicated yet again.

It's customary for a new myeloma patient to have four to six cycles of first-line chemo (DVT for me and most others), and I only had four. So I could argue with the insurers that I actually have two cycles "credit" - at five weeks each. That would take me to the beginning of June and still be within Prof.Gribben's three months (I must find out what he thinks would 'expire' by the end of that). But would that be long enough to make a better decision than we could make now? Quite possibly not, in which case the insurers would have to take on  more...

In some ways the best outcome would be a phone call from the London Clinic on Monday saying "Sorry, we're going to have to postpone your transplant." Decision out of our hands, and a fait accompli to present to the insurers.

Whatever happens, we're agreed that the final decision has to be made on Monday. Tuesday - the day before admission day - is too late. But as things change every day, even that might have to change...