Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh My!

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 12.2 13-17 Platelets 29 140-375 ANC 200 1800-8300 Did you ever toss and turn in the night, even though you were dog tired when you went to bed? I sometimes do, and last night was one when I did. There is, of course, always a reason for not sleeping well. In the case of last night, it was multi-factorial. It was not helpful that both of my shoulders have recently been assaulted with vaccine injections; Saturday was Covid19 booster, and yesterday was the annual flu shot. So, both of my shoulders are currently tender...and I'm a side sleeper. I also developed a headache in the middle of the night, just the way I did Saturday night. I conclude that both were associated with the vaccinations. 

 If you read yesterday's post you will know that I was concerned about my low platelet count of 23...and now for the rest of the story.  After lunch I called the advice nurse, because oncology doesn't man their phones on weekends. The advice nurse took copious notes and then called the doctor on call, whom she described as an "ER" doctor. I was told I needed to go to Salem ER. Good thing we have the same car that knows its way to practically every medical joint in the area.  To our delight, the waiting room was lightly populated when we arrived around 1:30pm, and within moments of sitting down, I was called in for "vital signs." It was about 30-40 minutes later that we were ushered to the Palace Suite (well, actually it was about 10X10 feet with a lot of dials and gauges, a couple of sharp things, and an iron maiden), where we were attended shortly by Dr. Karlen, who ordered (wait for it) a blood draw.  (Just as an aside here: it never stops amusing me that,

  BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 11.5 13-17 Platelets 23 140-375 ANC 750 1800-8300 Sometimes, when I take medicine, I can't really tell that it is working. A case in point is Tylenol. Some people swear by this most popular of pain relievers. I take it for, say, a headache, and I find my pain doesn't decrease. Now, for me this is a problem. "Why not take aspirin or ibuprofen?" I hear you saying. Well, here's the thing. Part of my blood problems, aside from leukemia, is that I  have been diagnosed with Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT). In other words, my blood clots too easily and causes clots in my lower legs. For this, I take a "blood thinner" (anticoagulant) to prevent a clot from forming and then

  BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 12.5 13-17 Platelets 93 140-375 ANC 790 1800-8300 Oh, my, what a week this has been. Sunday morning, I had a blood draw, because I was scheduled to have my second cataract surgery on Thursday at 6:45AM. Ordinarily that would be the time we leave the house for my second blood draw of the week...Monday and Thursday: blood draws at 7:15AM. Kind of a gruesome routine, but it's our routine, and well, routine is good, right? Anyway, we moved the Monday draw to Sunday and the Thursday draw to Wednesday.  I was glad we had made the switch, when I woke up Monday morning and heard voices in the house. I got up and wandered into the living room, where I found Jill watching the broadcast of the funer

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 12.1 13-17 Platelets 137 140-375 ANC 840 1800-8300   Our dear friend, who has two little children, texted me yesterday asking for wisdom about explaining God to her six year old daughter, who has a hard time understanding Who God is. Wow! How do you answer that? I think we all have trouble from time to time answering that question. Jill and I put our heads together and came up with this:  "Regarding the concept of God, this is difficult for any of us to understand, because we can’t see God. One way to approach that might be this: You can’t see the wind, but you can see what the wind does, and we can’t see God, but we can see what He does. For example, He made everything, and we can know what He is lik

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 11.8 13-17 Platelets 142 140-375 ANC 840 1800-8300 In the words of the immortal Yogi Berra, catcher, manager, and philosopher, "It's déjà vu all over again."  Today, I begin cycle three of my chemotherapy regimen. We started the day with a trip to Kaiser North Lancaster medical office for a blood draw. My heart goes out to the phlebotomists who are becoming harder and harder pressed to find a vein that isn't so full of scar tissue that they can actually get a needle into it to withdraw the teaspoon or two of blood the lab needs to do my blood counts.  At this time of year, we have had many mornings when the rising sun was directly in our eyes as we headed east into Salem. To

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 11.5      13-17 Platelets 117 140-375 ANC 1380 1800-8300 Today is a big one for me. If you are a follower of this blog, you may recall that the Cytarabine chemotherapy that I had last year made a mess out of the corneas of my eyes. Fortunately, I have a wonderful ophthalmologist who has been working diligently to help. Dr O has been so supportive and professional, not to mention knowledgeable and capable.  After I finished all of my chemotherapy cycles last year, I made an appointment to see Dr. O, because my vision had significantly changed. It turns out that Cytarabine is very hard on the eyes. That explains why I was always given prednisolone eye drops while I was receiving that chemotherapy. Nevertheless, my corneas were damaged, and one of the first things that Dr. O said was that this is the year I will

  BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Hemoglobin 11.5 13-17 Platelets 122 140-375 ANC 2060 1800-8300   One of our  current favorites on the Telly is Escape to the Country. You can find it on ROKU Channel. The show is like a combination of HGTV's House Hunters and a UK travelogue. The host shows the guests three homes in the rural parts of England, Scotland and Wales. They are typically older (like 17th to 19th century older) buildings that may have always been homes, or they may be conversions of old stone barns or factory spaces. What we like about the show is that it is not filled with all of the manufactured drama of House Hunters.    Instead, at an hour long, Escape provides breathtaking photography of the rural counties in the UK accompan