Month: August 2005

14!

My blood counts have been great. And I guess you might say still improving. Today I had a 14 on hemoglobin. Which put me in the normal range. Non-anemic!

Today was also an appointment with my Oncologist/Hematologist. Interesting note. She is not considering me 100% in remission. She wants another molecular test. The last one was clear for one cell in 20. The one she wants to have run is one cell in a million. Hopefully the test can be run using the marrow obtained in the last aspirate. If not, I’ll be getting my next bone marrow aspirate a little early.

I guess that is all okay with me. At this point I think the proof is in the blood counts. They are consistently good. And obviously in some areas, still improving. And if I have to get a bone marrow aspirate early? Pfft, whatever. I have already proved to myself, I can get through those.

REMISSION!!!

I have been dreaming of making this entry for a while now…

I am in 100% remission. My bone marrow is normal for a person my age with no evidence of leukemia or any other blood cancer! You know, I knew I would cry when I got the results, regardless of what they were. I am so relived. I have so many feelings right now it is really hard to describe.

Yesterday’s counts:

White Blood Cells: 4.2
Neutrophils: 2400
Hemoglobin: 13.5
Platelets: 249,000

Light the Night

Light the Night

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On Sunday, Oct. 23, I will be participating in a Light the Night walk benefiting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I will keep a link to my fundraising page on the right side of this site until the walk is over. I would appreciate any support 🙂

I have to thank my mother-in-law for all her support through all of this. She is the one organizing this Light the Night team. She is the team captain. She named our team the Cowchip Crusaders. Why cowchip? Well my father-in-law has used that name for me rather than my Polish surname 🙂

When my hair started falling out after my first round of chemo and I shaved my head, a number of my male family and friends shaved their heads too. BUT my mother-in-law also shaved her head. Very impressive. One Sunday a number of them, including my mother-in-law, came and visited me in the hospital right after they had shaved their heads. That kind of support or just show of people thinking and caring about you was amazing. Getting teary eyed just writing this and remembering.

By the way, all the comments on this blog by “Katy”? That is my mother-in-law 🙂 Thank you for all of your great support Katy!

Bone Marrow Aspirate Number Three

Well, as I get these bone marrow aspirates, I get better at it. You can breath through pain and it really helps. That is not to say it was not painful. It was. I felt it from my toe tips to my finger tips, in my bones, all over. It’s quite an amazing jolt really. Anyhow I am glad to be past another one.

Good news. Between rounds three and four of chemotherapy my blood was sent off for molecular testing. It all came back negative. That is a good sign going into today’s bone marrow aspirate.

I also had my counts taken:

White Blood Count: 4.6
Neutrophils: 2600
Hemoglobin: 13.4
Platelets: 315,000

All pretty good. Getting close on the hemoglobin.

And I started maintenance today. Once a week a shot of methotrexate. Daily two pills of mercatopurine. And every three months a fifteen day round of ATRA. So today I got the methotrexate shot and started taking mercatopurine and ATRA (again).

Big Day

Today is the big day! Bone marrow aspirate number three. This will tell us how the ATRA and chemotherapy have done. Painful procedure but I am not too worried about that. I am thinking more about the results. It will take about two weeks to get all of the results back.

Will post more after today’s Doctor appointment.