Enough's Enough.

Last week, I finally hit the end of my chain as I found out the earliest I could get in to see a doc at Oregon Health and Science University would be October 23rd. As you've been reading my blog over the past several weeks, my LyP hasn't gotten any better. Finally, my friend Linda gave me the wisest piece of advice: go down to OHSU's emergency room and park yourself until you are helped. So that is what I did, with good friend Chris Gamboa driving me down, we entered the ER at OHSU on Sunday.

They were most helpful in admitting me into the ER. We were able to see a doctor in a decent amount of time. The doctor (just like all the doctors I have seen previously) didn't know what was going on with my foot, except it was a bad looking blister surrounded in a new crop of red bumps. She told us "I had better get my supervising doctor to come see this." So about a half hour later Dr. Harper poked his head in for about five seconds and came to the conclusion that we had better get dermatology to look at this. About two hours later they arrived. Dr. Rachel Moore was the first to arrive, and I was instantly amazed with her brilliance. She had actually heard the condition Lymphomatoid Papulosis! I told her I had an appointment to see Dr. Eric Simpson on October 23rd, but I had rushed into the ER because I was fearing my condition was crossing over into lymphoma. She said "Oh, well Dr. Simpson is coming in right behind me." I was impressed to see him just a few seconds later. What an intelligent doctor I had the privilege in being in the presence of. Within minutes he knew I had LyP, and was fairly confident that it was just that and not lymphoma -- at least not yet. He actually has another patient who suffers from this condition, and she has it all over her body. I suppose my situation could get worse, couldn't it?

He immediately suggested I get on the medication Methotrexate, which I had read a lot about. I shared my concerns about how it lowers the immune system. He told me with some close monitoring of my blood count, this should work great. In fact, it melted the LyP right off the other patent's body! I was amazed.

I didn't get out of the ER unharmed, however as they took a biopsy to make sure the LyP wasn't really lymphoma. I should find out in a week or two the results. Also, on Monday I will get my blood tested to make sure I can start full doses of Methotrexate, and hopefully it will only be a matter of time before I'm LyP free.

Another amazing occurrence is that one of the nurses in the ER, Carolyn Thompson -- use to live in Joseph! She even referred to me as the 'infamous Levi Bobbitt' when she saw my chart. Chris and I had a great time visiting with her, as well as our other nurse Alisha.

What turned out to be a pretty nerve-racking experience quickly turned into a pleasurable one as the staff of OHSU impressed me and finally got me some answers that I have been desperately been waiting for over two months now.

I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to the caring doctors and nurses at OHSU who took time to figure out what was going on with me this past Sunday. Just a few minutes of time saved me a world of hurt, which could have eventually cost me my life.

-LB

P.S. I have a HUGE announcement, look for it next week!