Well yesterday was a great easy day of Chemo at the Edwards Cancer Center. My mom attended as my partner in crime and it was a nice day. I had my blood work done on Thursday during lunch, but they never called with the results. I decided not to panic that no news was good news! When we arrived on Friday, I learned from my conservative nurse that my hemoglobin was a 7.9 (under 8 is considered transfusion) and my WBC was 2.2. Both I was extremely happy with considering they are still rising. Her not so much. She does the typical cancer nurse thing....We have a call in to Dr. Hantel, but it looks like maybe treatment today and then a transfusion on Monday. I have decided to try to let this go in one ear and out the other because Dr. Hantel always over-rides their decision and I tend to know trust him over the nurses. I know they are only giving the black and white information and this is probably what they are trained to do, but I am more of a gray person these days and if Dr. Hantel says jump, I'm asking how high and I'm leaving the nurses behind!
Next the nurse asked for my symptoms from the week. I informed her I had a cold and that while I get a runny nose every week, I felt this was an actual cold because I passed it to Ryan and Whitney. She listened to me breath through my back and chest and then asked about temperature, which I reminded her I carry a thermometer and I do random checks and no temp. She then calls in the Nurse Practitioner who listens as well. The nurse practitioner says to me, sorry, but we still do chemo when you have a cold so if Dr. Hantel is okay with it, you will need treatment today. I NEVER said I didn't want treatment today, but thanks for asking! I didn't quite understand what my first nurse might have relayed to the Nurse practitioner. All I was trying to do is make sure I listed that as a symptom so they knew, they haven't figured me out yet that I will do anything for my weekly drug fix.
Finally Dr. Hantel called and to the nurses surprise, he still wanted to do treatment and even felt good with doing the Carbo platinum as well! YAY!! So off we went, pre-meds for the first hour, Taxol the next hour and Carbo the last 1/2 hour. Remember, they lowered the dose on the Carbo. Even though I have strong kidneys, Dr. Hantel feels that the higher dose was what caused my counts to fall so hard. So hopefully the smaller dose will not cause lower levels and I will not be in the transfusion zone by next week. I do know what to look for though and will have my levels checked on Thursday to be prepared for Friday. Assuming all goes well this week, it should just be Taxol on Friday.
Next mom and I left and had a great lunch and did some shopping. Quality time together was wonderful. Dad and Whitney took the boys for a special play date since there was no afternoon Kindergarten yesterday. Justin had a blast and Ryan did a good job taking everything in. Don worked. We were all home around dinner time and I was in bed by 8:00, but up early due to the steroids. I love steroid residual because I can cram in some house or work stuff before the house wakes up. But I do wish I could sleep. I will want to sleep later today (and will) and will want to sleep in tomorrow when we have to be at church at 8 for Ryan's special day! Oh well, there is always time for naps, especially with all my extra hands this weekend.
Well, I will try to update tomorrow with pictures of Ryan's special day! Hope all goes well and he doesn't decide to try to jump in the holy water! He is one strong boy! I do not doubt he will behave like an angel though!
Lots of Love!
Amber
Thanks for your awesome update, Amber. Speaking of awesome, you are awesome, especially in how you are handling this crisis. Have fun with Marge and Stan and Whitney. We will look for those pictures of Ryan's special day. Love and Blessings, Brian and Rose Ann
ReplyDelete