The real counts are better than my guesses (except the hemoglobin):
White Blood Count: 5.7
Neutrophils: 3400
Hemoglobin: 12.4
Platelets: 361,000
Will I ever break 14 for hemoglobin? And woah on the platelets, don’t want to risk Thrombosis. These are really good counts 🙂
Today I am going to SWAG my CBC before I have it done:
White Blood Count: 4.7
Neutrophils: 2700
Hemoglobin: 12.6
Platelets: 170,000
We will see how close I am in a few hours (I’ll post the actuals later today). If I am real close, I am going to start calling in my counts and skip the weekly blood draws.
Note: For those of you not in the finance world, SWAG essentially means “guess estimate”. I will leave it to you to decipher the acronym 🙂
The most common blood test for me is one tube, called a ‘CBC’. I did not know what CBC stood for but assumed blood was the B and one of the Cs was count. Well I asked today. CBC is “Complete Blood Count”. So with no further adieu…
Today’s CBC:
White Blood Cells: 4.0
Neutrophils: 1700
Hemoglobin: 12.2
Platelets: 77,000 (a little low but expected to bounce back)
Yesterday, I had this dang nosebleed at work. Took forever for it to stop, so I knew I was low on platelets anyhow. The doctor expects them to come back soon based on my CBC history.
My maintenance plan calls for a weekly shot for the next two years. And it is not the kind of shot I can give myself. So I was concerned that I will not be able to leave town for more than six or seven days for the next two years. So I asked about that too. I can leave for 10 or 12 days no problem, schedule around it. Great! I am off to Scandinavia in October or November. Light travel just me and a bag. Oh and maybe a big coat. Scandinavia. Brrr.
Next question for the Oncologist: “Can I get a piercing with the same risk as anyone else?” Answer: “Maybe in the next two years. Let’s talk the next time you come in.” Hmm…maybe I should have mentioned I was thinking nose. Like it did not bleed enough yesterday…
I felt really good all weekend. Still do. My taste still has not returned. So, early June is the last time anything really tasted right. Hopefully in time.
Tomorrow is a another good test of how I am actually doing. Regular blood test. Hopefully that machine won’t give me any more grief!
You know, I have really only heard the term “false positive” in regards to pregnancy tests. Well yesterday I had a false positive on my blood test. When I got my machine read blood counts the basic counts were as expected: White Blood Cells at 1.3, neutrophils at 600, hemoglobin at 12 and platelets at 140,000. At the bottom of the of the read out are descriptions or warnings if any of the counts are out of an expected range. An example is the normal range for a male’s hemoglobin is 14 – 18 anything below that is considered anemic. I have been at 12 or 13 all through chemotherapy. So my count sheet usually reports anemic. Yesterday’s showed anemic and neutropenic and a new one for me, “blast”. If you have acute leukemia, blast is not a good word. It is not taken as “having a blast”, it means blast cells were detected. What are blast cells? They are immature (malformed) white blood cells. Basically, they are leukemia. So, I panic. First thoughts are “I went through four miserable rounds of chemotherapy for what???” Then I talk to my nurse in the infusion room. She tells me things happen with the machine, they will do a manual check in the lab. My oncologist/hematologist’s nurse tells me the same thing and that she will call me with the results.
Two hours passed between leaving the oncology office and getting her call. I will be honest with you. I was scared. I cried. I panicked. I have a pretty good sense of how much I want 100% remission now.
In the manual test, under the microscope, no blast cells were found. Whew.
Like all my other outpatient rounds of chemotherapy, we end with a white blood cell booster shot. Neulasta. I guess it is good. My counts came back nice and quick after round two. Obviously not so well after round three. Let’s hope we do well this time 🙂 Had the Neulasta shot today. Basically that means bone aches tomorrow. Ugh. Along with being tired from chemotherapy. This soon shall pass.
Come on bone marrow! Come on hair follicles!
I have gotten used to chemotherapy…
First I feel tired. Then everything taste wrong. Then I have to go to the bathroom more than usual. Then I have an appetite or craving for something and by the time I get it, I don’t want it. Mostly just tired. At the worst it is mouth sores.
Sound like being pregnant? Seems to me any symptom one can dream up while going through pregnancy or chemotherapy will be attributed to pregnancy and chemotherapy. Thus, signs of pregnancy, everything. Signs of chemotherapy, everything.
Nothing new to report health-wise. Today’s counts are looking good:
White Blood Cells: 7.6
Neutrophils: 4700
Hemoglobin: 12.6
Platelets: 67500
Guess that means it is close to time for round four…the sooner we get done with chemo, the better!
I think I am finally coming out of my round three chemo daze!
Today’s counts:
White Blood Cells: 4.3 (good)
Neutrophils: 2100 (good enough for now)
Hemoglobin: 10.7 (12 – 16 would be nice, but 10 is safe)
Platelets: 182,000 (200,000 – 400,000 is ideal)
Other than two mouth sores, I think I am finally done with round three!
Came home from the hospital today. Neutrophils were up to 990. A little immune system goes a long way 🙂
Yea me!
I have 460 neutrophils today! I need about 1500 to get out of the hospital, but hey 460 is loads better than the zero I have had since Wednesday!
Second day with no fever.
The bad news? Mouth sores. Ugh. Chemo sucks.
F/N = Fever and neutropenic. Apparently it is a pretty common reaction to the chemotherapy… I just did not want it to be my reaction! Good news though. No fever this morning. Let’s hope those white blood cells and neutrophils are chugging along too.
Someone once told me, “if you want to get some rest, don’t come to the hospital.” True words. I certainly remember the drill: vitals every four hours, blood draws as six in the morning. And every time a nurse comes in, “When was your last bowel movement?”
Well counts are not coming back like we had hoped. I am going to spend Father’s Day weekend in the hospital getting IV antibotics and of course my vitals taken.
Last night I ran a temperature. I hit 103 but mostly stuck around 101. Guess the hospital is where I need to go. Yuck.
Ugh…five days since my last chemo infusion and my counts are not good.
My white blood cell count (WBC) is 0.7. Hardly an immune system. Very neutropenic.
So, I am on a preventative antibiotic (Levaquin) for the next seven days. And we will check counts again on Friday.
Today was the fourth of five infusions for round three of chemotherapy. The drug the time is Mitoxantrone. I started getting pretty low on energy yesterday. Today I am pretty much zapped.
So last infusion for this round is tomorrow and then the white blood cell booster shot on Saturday. Since the Oncology office is closed Saturday, I get to go back to the Oncology floor where I did my 30 day stint in the hospital for the shot. It will be nice to see the nurses and PCTs again.
Just for grins here is a picture of me holding the packaging for the Mitozantrone concentrate.
I am also back on another 15 day cycle of ATRA. Being off all drugs for a couple of weeks sure was nice. Looking forward to getting back that 🙂
Okay this is pretty wild…
Looks like I am going to go to Burning Man this year after all.
I feel as strong as I ever have right now. And I suspect that at the beginning of September I will still feel this way or better being that much further removed from the chemotherapy treatments.
I also found out that I will be taking ATRA for 15 days every three months. Thus I will be “light sensitive” only in those months. The way it falls out, I will not be light sensitive during Burning Man.
Believe me I will be extra cautious and limit my sun exposure time as much as possible. If things do not seem right, I will get out of there ASAP.
So, I got an extra ticket. Any friends of mine daring enough to go along???
I had a regular doctor’s appointment with my oncologist/hematologist today. First I went to the lab to have my blood drawn for cell counts. then to the nurse’s desk for vitals to be checked. Then to the examination room to wait for the doctor.
When she came in she announced, “You’re blood counts are better than mine!” Wow. Just wow… All of my cell counts were normal for a male of my size. I have been off of all cancer treatment related medication now for over 48 hours. No blood transfusions since the second half of April. Last chemotherapy infusion was May 12th. And here I am 56 days after diagnosis, walking around like a normal guy. Amazing.
In a couple of weeks I start my third round of chemotherapy. It will be five days in a row. This time it is not Idarubicin. It is Mitoxantrone. Same family as Idarubicin. Idarubicin is orange and when you take it your pee looks something like Tang. Apparently Mitoxantrone is blue and I will be peeing pea-green pee.
A couple of weeks ago I had a bunch of Lovenox injection needles to dispose of. So I took them in an mayonnaise jar to my oncologist office to get rid of. They threw the whole jar out. They gave me this chemotherapy waste bucket for my future needle disposal.
Later that day I found out my blood counts were better so the Lovenox injections were no longer needed. So I got this nifty waste bucket to keep. Kind of a cool souvenir.
Been wondering what neutrophils are lately? Well this page is cool. Totally cool.
Warning: This page may be offensive to some due to language.
Today I had my blood drawn for cell counts. When I called into the nurse to get the results, she asked if I “wanted the good news first, or the good news?”
Wow. My platelets are down to 280,000. That is human range again! No more aspirin and no more dang Lovenox shots in the stomach twice a day.
My white blood cell counts are low but respectable. My neutrophils are enough to to take care of myself. And my red blood cells are anemic but high enough!
All counts are coming back up from the consolidation round of chemotherapy. Already!
That means I did it! I went through chemotherapy as an outpatient!!! No easy feat for those fighting leukemia, in my humble opinion.
In fact, the counts were so good, they canceled next week’s blood draw. I do have a full doctor’s appointment late next week. That will include a blood draw for cell counts. And knowing my Oncologist/Hematologist, she will want to do a bone marrow aspirate. Ouch!!!