I had an appointment this morning with my Doctor's nurse and there is good news and bad news. The good news is my blood counts came back very well (considering they are in the toilet). My white blood cells dropped from 33,000 to 13,000. Most people with my disease have very low white blood cells however I have very high ones even though none of them are any good. Hopefully the Vidaza killed all the bad ones. Normal is between 4,300 and 10,800. My Red Blood cells increased from 2.03 to 2.75 (normal is 4.2 - 5.9). My Hemoglobin, (this is the protein molecule within red blood cells that carries oxygen) went down from 8.79 to 8.16 (normal is 12-16). Even though it went down a little bit, at least it is not dropping drastically. My Hematocrit went down from 28.9% to 28.3% (not too bad and the average is 37%-48%). And last but not least, my beautiful platelets, vital for blood clotting in case Sam tries to kill me, increased from 43,000 to 45,000 (normal range is 150,000 - 400,000). Now that I have given you a lesson on my blood and what they are looking for, I hope you can see why this is pretty good news and there will NOT be a blood transfusion this week!!!
Now, for the bad news. If you remember from last week, I told you about "angry" injection sites. Well, one of them went into a rage (as in raging infection) and I had to have a 30 minute IV of antibiotics this morning. I also need to return to the doctor's office tomorrow so they can look at the progress (or lack of progress) and they will either give me another 30 minute IV of antibiotics and/or put me on something oral. And just for everyone's information this antibiotic that I received today is also used to treat gonorrhea, meningitis, and urinary tract infections, among other things. Isn't that swell that this antibiotic can treat everything I might have? Sam is so excited! Anyway, I will live through this infection and the nurse told me it is nothing to be overly concerned about. However, the next time one of these "angry" sites bothers me, I will call the nurse immediately which Sam told me to do two days ago!
Hope everyone is well!! Love you all and thanks so much for your support! It means the world to me!
Denise
Denise forgot to mention they sent her home with IV still in her arm. She is such a "nervous Nellie" she decided she can't go to work the rest of the day, so we are going to lunch with my brother David!
ReplyDeleteNow that sounds like a plan!
ReplyDeleteI will never have your strength but you have my love. Your Mercedes shines like you.
ReplyDeleteBetter late than never (or pregnant)! Sorry this has taken so long, Denise, as you know I do be technikly challenged so it has taken me a while (and a shit load of swearing) to get on to this blog. Anyway, now I'm on I can bore you from afar, hee hee, bet you're really chuffed about that, eh? Am glad that you are making progress, a bit concerned about the angry sites, but hope all is well with them now and they have just calmed down a bit. No great news to report from here, I will send a few pics of Flossie the dog when I have spent more time swearing and working out how it is done! We currently have hot weather here and lots of dust and pollen. Fortunately I suffer no allergies (must be all the fags I smoke) so it has been nice. Keep us posted, what happened at lunch you all seem to have gone quiet. Must have been a very good lunch! Bye for now, lots of love, Doro xxx
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