Hello Everyone,
I apologize for the long delay between updates. I started school again in August and have been overwhelmed with work ever since. Kim and his family would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to all who have written and visited recently. Kim loves hearing from his friends, so please keep it up!
Kim was still fighting off some sort of infection in his lungs as of a few months ago. His lungs now seem almost completely healed and he rarely needs extra oxygen. But his condition has become extremely fickle nowadays, shifting from states of vivacious mental and physical fortitude on one day to states of complete exhaustion on the next. Recently, he has been experiencing a sharp increase in pain, and, coupled with increased weakness, he has been stripped of his ability to walk. The pain is concentrated mainly in the joints of his arms and legs, making most sorts of movement extremely difficult for him. We've had to increase his pain medicine rather drastically to compensate for this new dilemma, so he has been more confused and has been having more hallucinations lately. Surprisingly, between the stints of delirium, he not only ostensibly functions at a normal intellectual level, but his wits seem to be even sharper than a few months ago (or even a few years ago!). He's come up with some very insightful jokes and observations lately, and he's still quite astute in a strange, deranged kind of way. He's been writing down his impulsive ruminations in a jumbled mess of loose, folded papers, as well as sketching some inventions that will purportedly both help mankind and make us a lot of money. He even came up with a fairly humorous anti-Bush political cartoon that he insisted I type up and send to various cartoonists (which I did) in hopes that it will help topple the despot.
Kim is still receiving weekly infusions of a chemotherapy drug called Erbitux. It hasn't had any obvious positive effects since he started the regimen, but, at this point, it's a good choice because of the relatively few negative side effects. In fact, he personally has experienced virtually no side effects with this drug so far. In actuality, it's the act of simply getting to the hospital every week that is becoming the problem. Because movement of any type has become so painful for him, even such mundane activities as getting out bed or getting into the car take a hefty toll on Kim's energy level and severely test his tolerance for pain. If his condition degrades much further, we may be forced to stop treatment and forego any more hospital visits unless absolutely necessary.
We're still battling the system over various issues concerning his Medi-CAL eligibility and benefits. Unfortunately, due to inane (but typical) governmental red tape, Medi-CAL will not pay for any home health care at this point, among other shortcomings. His insurance covers a bit, but not sufficiently so. If anyone has any insightful suggestions as to how to acquire low-cost (or ideally free or paid-for) home health care, please, please let me know!
That's all for now. Please continue to send your love and well-wishes towards Kim's way. I'll update everyone on any changes in Kim's condition and I'll see if he's up for dictating another letter for the blog.
posted at: 21:42 | path: | permanent link to this entry