There’s an old saying that goes something like this: "Sometimes, you have to kiss a lot of toads, before you find your prince.” Now, this doesn’t apply directly to me, since A) I was never looking for a prince in the first place, although if you replace “prince” with “princess” I have already scored in that category, even though Jill is more like a queen than a princess; and B) my reason for bringing this whole topic up has nothing to do with princes or princesses, it has to do with leukemia and stem cell transplants and lab tests, and stuff like that. Still, there is some truth in that old saying that was engendered of fairy tales. The following is not a fairy tale. When we last left our story, I had just had a Bone Marrow Biopsy (BMBx) and a nice long nap. Today, I received the second of two reports of the results of that BMBx. The first report came a couple of days ago. That report addressed something called Chimerism. " Chimerism is a rare condition where a person or an...
BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 7.1 13-17 ^ Platelets 10 140-375 v ANC 50 1800-8300 ^ How time flies, when you're having fun at the hospital. Say what? It has been five days since I posted. Jill and I have developed a routine, which addresses a few challenges. First, she arrives, usually, between 8:30 and 9:00am, and brings me coffee. Have I mentioned that the food service is nothing like I remember from my previous visits to Club Sunnyside? I have ordered food that was never delivered. Most of the dishes on the menu are quite unappetizing, but the medical team keeps telling me, "Eat, eat. Food is medicine." Following several disappointments from t...
On the day before yesterday I wrote: " I don't know if I was more disappointed that my platelet level is going down, or that, although I was just at the threshold for another platelet transfusion, my HemOnc wanted to wait until tomorrow for a new blood draw to decide on transfusion." Today I am here to say, "Always listen to your HemOnc!" I had a blood draw yesterday, and my blood counts are rebounding! Hemoglobin is up a bit; platelets are up to the point that I will need to be back on blood thinners because of my deep vein thrombosis (DVT), and my neutrophils are coming back! Neutrophils mean immunity, and their presence is tracked by a datum dubbed Absolute Neutorphil Count (ANC). And mine is on the rise!! And that makes me feel better physically and emotionally. Typically, when my blood counts begin to rebound, the numbers come up pretty quickly. So, I anticipate that platelets and ANC will be into the normal ranges by Monday, just in time for my return...
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