Red Cells and White Cells and Platelets, Oh My!

BOX SCORE 6/27/2024 Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 11.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 152 140-375 v ANC 3660 1800-8300 ^ Back in the days when I was sailing, and practically every waking moment water and boats were on my mind, there was a craze for building one's own sail boat using a technique called Ferro-Cement construction. Essentially, the concept was to build an armature from re-bar and chicken wire to give the boat shape, and then pack concrete into the armature to provide substance and a waterproof hull. Sounds simple, right? Riiiggghhhttt!  If you have any experience with building something as complex as a boat, you may imagine that many of these craft wound up unfinished...

BOX SCORE 6/24/2024 Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 11.2 13-17 ^ Platelets 155 140-375 v ANC 3540 1800-8300 ^ Every now and then the Lord impresses a message on my mind, when I am least expecting it. One example of this happened when I was undergoing my very first round of chemotherapy at Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in July, 2021. See the post titled " Revelation in the Night ." That time the message was that the chemotherapy I was going through was a kind of baptism, intended to cleanse my body of the leukemia. Much like my water baptism as a follower of Jesus Christ was a symbol of dying to my old self and being buried with Christ, as I was immersed in ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.9 13-17 ^ Platelets 169 140-375 ^ ANC 3440 1800-8300 v 🎵 Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer;  Those days of soda and pretzels and beer [don't I wish!]. Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer;  And wish that summer could always be here! 🎵 Ahh! Summertime. Somehow we all seem to look forward to it, especially in January for those of us who live in the Pacific Northwest, where January with it's gray, wet, chilly days seems about twice as long as any other month. Well, say no more; say no more. Summer is here! Today is the Summer Solstice, the longest day of the year. If you have anything that n...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.6 13-17 v Platelets 153 140-375 v ANC 3490 1800-8300 ^ If a little bit is good, then a lot is better, right? I mean, I'm thinking about raises at work, and apple pie, and time with friends and family, and vacation times. But does this truism always hold true? Let's see if we can figure this out.  Yesterday at my clinic visit, I had to report that I have discovered a rash that involves my scalp and neck and back. There's not much of a rash, but it does involve some bumpy skin and redness. And Dr. Meyers has told us right along that it is normal to get rashes after bone marrow transplant (BMT). She said th...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 11.1 13-17 ^ Platelets 172 140-375 ^ ANC 3210 1800-8300 ^ Don't you just love good news? Yesterday we received a graduation announcement from a young man who not only attends our church but also serves on the tech team -- you know, the guys who make it possible for us to attend our church's services on Sunday mornings online, since we are a) out of town and b) quarantined. He is graduating from high school this month, and he plans to attend Chemeketa Community College and earn a degree in auto mechanics. He's already completed the first year or the two year Associate of Science degree while in high school! Such good news. ...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.5 13-17 v Platelets 163 140-375 ^ ANC 2540 1800-8300 v When I was a boy of about 7 to 10 years old, my pals and I used to go down the hill to "The Swamp." The Swamp was a kind of a mire down in a gully. I'm not sure what the source of the water was, perhaps just accumulated rainfall. This was, after all in suburban Portland, Oregon.  Anyway, as young boys are wont to do, we would go to The Swamp to explore. In the spring we would often find pollywogs. I don't know why, but whereas my friends often took home jars with pollywogs in them to watch them turn into frogs, I did not until much later in the season. I f...

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.5 13-17 v Platelets 163 140-375 ^ ANC 2540 1800-8300 v Sometimes everything happens at once. Take today, for instance. We had a leisurely start to the day, since our clinic appointment was at 11:40am. We decided to leave five minutes earlier than we normally would, in case parking was a challenge.  As Jill was backing the car out of our assigned space onto Gibbs Street, which is kind of busy, I told her to stop because a bus was coming. Oops, buses don't have flashing red and blue lights. Nope, it's a fire engine, but there is no siren. That seems odd. Once the fire engine passed by, we backed out and headed down to...

What do you do, when you are quarantined, living in a basement apartment, it's Saturday, and the temperature is 78 degrees? Under other circumstances, we might go on a road trip, or have a picnic, or drive to the beach. In our case, those things are mostly off limits.  So, what we did today, like most days, is drive down Marquam Hill, through the Veterans Hospital campus to Terwilliger Blvd. From there we found one of the parking turnouts that are thoughtfully sprinkled along this beautiful roadway. And then we went for a walk. We love to hike, but my stamina is not as great as it once was. I would say, when we do this sort of thing, which is several times a week we walk between half a mile and a mile or a little more.  Today from our car park area we walked up to the Chart House Restaurant and the adjacent Elk Point Viewpoint. Eons ago, this was one of my parents' favorite restaurants. In fact that time went back to the days when this establishment was known as the Hillvilla....

BOX SCORE Element Current Std. Range Trend Hemoglobin 10.7 13-17 ^ Platelets 156 140-375 ^ ANC 3140 1800-8300 ^ Zippadee Doo Dah! Today's labs are amazing! The last time my Hemoglobin was as high as 10.7 was on December 7, 2023. My platelets are back in the normal range, and my ANC shot up from 1340 on Monday to 3140, also well into the normal range. Once again, this is all John Dillinger's work. (See yesterday's post ) This morning's labs included a lot of research related draws. I believe the nurse drew ten or a dozen vials.  Following the blood draws, we had a visit from Tracey, NPF. She is part of Dr. Meyers' staff and has been covering for Dr. Meyers with us,...