Year: 2006

Cowchip Crusaders 2006

Katy and I are raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society again this year with the Light The Night walk this fall on the SMU campus. For more information or to make a donation click the link on the right. The walk is Sunday, October 29th 5:00 – 8:00 PM. If you would like to walk with me and the Cowchip Crusaders, send me an email, leave a comment or contact me somehow.

Chromosomes

Hey! Per my doctor all my chromosomes are still normal!

Looks like my blood counts are stabilizing at around:

White Blood Cells: 5.0 10^3/uL
Hemoglobin: 15.7 g/dL
Platelets: 282 10^3/uL
Neutrophils: 3.5 10^3/uL

All very respectable!

Also, I am doing the Light the Night walk again in October. If you would like to walk with my team let me know. For donations, I will put a link on my site again this year. Soon.

White Blood Cells

I found out a few months ago that your blood counts are easily affected. You could say, run up a flight of stairs and affect your red blood cells/hemoglobin counts. Or if you are fighting an infection your white blood cell count and neutrophil count may increase. Since about mid-May I have been fighting allergies on and off and my white blood cell and neutrophils counts have been higher. I guess that’s bad and good news. Bad news is I have been fighting allergies, good news is my immune system responds!

For old times sake, here’s my counts on July 12, 2006 :

White Blood Cells: 5.5 10^3/uL
Hemoglobin: 15.4 g/dL
Platelets: 257 10^3/uL
Neutrophils: 3.7 10^3/uL

Really good counts. The side note is I finally started taking my allergy medications again (I do not like taking anything unless it absolutely necessary). Funny, I feel a lot better…

Clean!

I got the call on my bone marrow aspiration results on Friday. They sure are getting these things turned around quickly these days. The result is I am still clean. The nurse said my doctor was “especially pleased”. Nice. I really could not ask for more 🙂

Aspiration and Counts

My sixth bone marrow aspiration was by far the easiest. I have a great doctor. We talked and joked the whole time. I am by no means “tough”. In fact, I am kind of wimpy. I guess I am just lucky enough to get the right lidocaine mixture each time. Only 10 or 11 more to go!

I also learned just how inaccurate complete blood counts are. Well at least in regard to neutrophils. Apparently if I had an active infection I might get a high count because they would be out and about. Conversely, if I had a localized infection the neutrophil count might be low because the neutrophils would be to busy to show up for roll call. Or the low counts could be neutropenia. A condition I became all to familiar with in 2005. And you can add to that the fact that a neutrophil’s life cycle is very short. As in, measured in hours. Anyhow for what it is worth, my counts this week:

White Blood Cells: 4.5 10^3/uL
Hemoglobin: 14.7 g/dL
Platelets: 271 10^3/uL
Neutrophils: 3.1 10^3/uL

The average range for neutrophils is 1.5 – 6.5. I do not think I have ever gone up 4.0. I guess I don’t have an infection!

One year ago today…

I went to the doctor because I had:

– 103 degree fever that would not go away
– I was out of breath if I walked up or down half a flight of stairs
– I could hear my heartbeat when I walked
– I had a rash through my mid-section

You all know the rest of the story. A year ago today, I was diagnosed with Acute Promyeloctic Leukemia. So far, this April Fool’s Day is much, much better!

Complete Blood Counts

I have been maintaining good counts for a while now. I am really happy about that. Unfortunately the maintenance medication still has it’s rough spots. The weekly Methatrexiate shot gives me a 36 hour headache and the daily Mercaptopurine still gives me the occasional mouth sore. Last week was filled with both headache and mouth sores. This week, much better. This week’s counts:

White Blood Cells: 4.7
Hemoglobin: 15.3
Platelets: 287,000
Neutrophils: 2,900

Last week:

White Blood Cells: 5.8
Hemoglobin: 15.0
Platelets: 267,000
Neutrophils: 3,700

I wonder about the fluctuations. I may have to read up on that sometime. Nah. I’ll just ask my Oncologist/Hematologist. You know, I don’t know anyone else who openly shares their blood counts with the world. Makes me pretty darn personable, don’t you think???

Good and Ouch!!!

Wow my counts continue to climb. Amazing:

White Blood Cells: 6.0!!!
Hemoglobin: 16.2!!!
Platelets: 278,000
Neutrophils: 3,800!!!

However, while today’s bone marrow aspirate was not the most painful (the first one was the worst), it was up there. For those of you who have not had a bone marrow aspirate, the pain is two-fold and works like this: 1) the initial puncture – when the needle is pushed into the pelvis; they basically “hammer” it in, it takes a bit and it hurts, but the pain stays in that area 2) when the marrow is drawn into the syringe, it creates a vacuum, this is quick, but it creates an unbelievable flash or jolt of pain, I usually feel this through every single bone in my body..toes to fingers to skull. This time the first part was rough, I should have a pretty good bruise. The second part was not as bad as normal, i.e. I did not feel it through my entire body.

Ah well that’s five of those since April 1, 2005. No more until late April, 2006 :/

No 5

No, not Chanel.

In fact, other than the number five, my fifth bone marrow aspirate will probably bear no resemblance to the classic parfum.

Yes it is that time again. At this point I do not worry about going through the procedure. I just want the results.