Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh My!

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 7.3 13-17 ^ Platelets 10 140-375 v ANC 10 1800-8300 ^ Way back in 1969, a rock group by the name of Three Dog Night, recorded a song by Harry Nilsson, titled "One." "This was the first song on Three Dog Night's first album. It was one of 21 US Top 40 hits for the group..."* I have the song on their album "Joy to the World," which is not a Christmas album. If you are a geezer like me, you may remember the lyrics of the first verse: "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do Two can be as bad as one It's the loneliest number since the number one"** It's true, I think, tha...

 BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 7.2 13-17 v Platelets 3 140-375 v ANC 0 1800-8300 - BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 6.6 13-17 v Platelets 27 140-375 ^ ANC 0 1800-8300 - Whoa! Too many data, Tom; what's going on?  Oh, I'm glad you asked. The top Box Score shows lab results from yesterday. The lower Box Score shows today's lab results.  Y...

It's spring! Well, almost.  We trimmed the roses and blueberries today. That is, Jill trimmed, and I supervised...at her request, mind you. I'm supposed to be wary of garden soil, when my ANC  is low; and you can't get much lower than zero.  I felt so powerful. "Cut that branch down to the ground! Leave these strong ones. Hmmm, not sure about this one. Oh, what the heck. Roses are weeds; they'll do fine. Whack that one down to the ground!" We only missed George Washington's Birthday by a couple of days. That's when my dad taught me to trim the roses, and it has served me well for decades.  Since our blueberries are members of the rose family and took a severe beating in the summer heat last year, we cut out all the dead wood as one would do with roses. and left the healthy looking shoots. We can't hurt them. We got exactly 2 berries last year. These plants were mature when our neighbors Tom and Debbie gave them to us (unnecessarily) for helping wat...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.3      13-17 v Platelets 8 140-375 v ANC 250 1800-8300 v For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “ Abba ! Father "* Romans 8:15) It must be the week after chemo! Just look at those numbers. It's quarantine for me, until my ANC comes up. Now this is not a problem. Between the training of the pandemic, leukemia, the best wife in the world and Amazon, I do all right in quarantine. I've certainly had enough practice.  In addition, something else has been added. (I guess anything added would be in addition, come to ...

How could I not include this in my post? I actually don't get many comments on my posts. Maybe this will get the ball rolling.  If you are a regular follower of this blog, you may recall way back when I mentioned that at the time of my diagnosis, in June, 2021, we were told that, due to my age (74 at the time) bone marrow transplant was not an option for my treatment. That pronouncement, it seems, was based on statistical data that showed transplant treatment was just too risky in older individuals.  A lot has changed in thirty-two months. Due to the fact that I have tolerated three different regimens of chemotherapy so well, the oncology staffs at Kaiser and at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) agree that considering a bone marrow transplant is "a conversation we should be having." On Friday, we had a conversation with Dr. Meyers at OHSU. Gabrielle Meyers, M.D., is a charming woman who knows her stuff. She is a bone marrow transplant specialist with ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 8.7 13-17 v Platelets 32 140-375 v ANC 1680 1800-8300 v "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24) This is one of my favorite verses from Scripture. Every day is a good day, when we enter into the presence of the Lord. Each day is different, of course, but there is goodness in every day.  George Orwell, English writer and philosopher, famously wrote in his satirical novella "Animal Farm," that "all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others." The story, if you are not familiar with it, is essentially a warning to those who are not pay...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 153 140-375 ^ ANC 2398 1800-8300 - When I was practicing dentistry, it seemed like everyday there was new technology that I had to learn about. In fact, by the time I retired, a great deal of what I was taught in dental school in the late 1960s might have even been considered blasphemy by "modern" standards. And that was 21 years ago...before instant, digital x-rays and a number of other things that make me envious of today's dentists (although not envious enough to go back to practicing dentistry).  Jill and I just had a phone consultation with Dr. Cook who heads up the bone marrow transplant (BMT...

  Well wouldn't that just frost you? I just got a call from the oncology office. They want me to go back to the hospital on Thursday (the day after tomorrow) for "consolidation" chemotherapy. This will involve a 5-7 day stay, during which time I will receive several doses of Fludarabine and Cytarabine, two of the three drugs I had in my recent 5 week stay at Club Sunnyside.  What this DOES NOT mean is that I am not in remission. I AM in remission. They do this treatment to kind of nail the lid on the coffin after the cancer is in remission. The surprise here is that they have given us fewer than 48 hours' notice. I have done this consolidation before, but I usually had 3-4 weeks' notice. Apparently the Day of the Lord is not the only thing that will come like a thief in the night!! (1 Thessalonians 5:2) Oh, well. We can do this. Praise God for that. It's just that, with my blood counts doing so well, we scheduled a few social connections that will now have to ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 9.1 13-17 - Platelets 144 140-375 ^ ANC 2400 1800-8300 ^ Did you ever wonder what a karyotype is? I'm sure you have. Everybody does...I think. I mean, I believe it's a toss up whether more people ask that question or more people ask what is the area in hectares of Venezuela. Come on, be honest now. Wouldn't you agree? What do you mean you never heard of a karyotype? No it's nothing like a tintype. ["This guy is daft," I hear you saying.] Well, in case you are one of the few people who don't know what a karyotype is, let me give you a definition from Dictionary.com.  Karyotype* noun - genetics The chro...