I got my 7th chemotherapy yesterday…my liver enzymes (specifically my bilirubin) were finally back to normal…they want me to come back in for blood work next Monday to determine if I need ANOTHER blood transfusion…my red-blood cells are still not cooperating…I’ve never taken the time to look up exactly what all of the initials in the blood test results mean…so last night I googled all of them and most of the definitions I found come from Wikipedia…I am sharing the technical information so that I have a place where it is written down (and it is a lot easier to cut and paste)…and maybe some of you will understand it…so the following is an overview of things in my blood work that is abnormal, and selected parts of their definitions…after that I will talk a little more in non medical terms about what I understand to be happening…so you might want to just skip down (wink, wink)RBC is low 2.87 normal is 3.50-5.50A red blood cell, (the cells that Give blood its distinctive red colour). A red blood cell’s (erythrocyte) function is to carry haemoglobin around the body. Haemoglobin carries oxygen which is required for cellular respirationHBC is low 8.4 normal …Read more
Another morning spent waiting in the cancer center…I’ve been slow in writing this post so FYI this is about Friday…Blood work, a doctors appointment, and chemo was on the schedule…blood work, and the doctors appointment was accomplished…I finally got to see my REGULAR doctor (he was on vacation for a month) I missed him A LOT…he instills a lot more confidence than the other two doctors I saw while he was gone…I’m also not sure he would have done the same things they did…Dr. M also never makes me feel rushed…I feel like he would talk to me for an hour about things if that is what I needed and I REALLY appreciate that…He said that my liver enzymes were still too high and recommended postponing chemotherapy until Monday…I was a little disappointed…I mean I had already made arrangements for people to work for me this weekend…but I am thankful that my paycheck will reflect 6 days of work instead of 4…I decided to go ahead with taking Friday off because I’ve had a few late mornings with appointments and been tired and overwhelmed…it is hard keeping all these appointments and still being able to work full time…I’ve done it, …Read more
Hey!I am just hanging out at McDonald’s (with a big group of old men) killing some time before my MUGA heart scan at 9…I’m hoping to be home by 10 (since I am the first appointment of the day) and in bed by 11…I did not sleep well yesterday…I’ve already been to the cancer center to get some blood work done, and will be interested in what my red blood cell count is this week…Friday I get my 7th chemo treatment…this is a week I work so it is going to be a LONG day…no one wants to hang out at the hospital for 8 hours after having worked all night…it is hard to sleep sitting in the chairs no matter how comfortable they are and no matter how tired you are…This little box of apple juice just doesn’t have enough in it…I might have to grab another one on the way outta here back to the hospital…What do having a tight jaw and a to do list tell you about me? I’m stressed…my stress usually comes out in the form of my trying to have control over something…so I make lists…LONG ago stress effected me physically, I would get …Read more
Yesterday I got some unexpected news…Wednesday: I went to the cancer center to get blood work and my port accessed for my CT scan that afternoon and for an hour we had to work on getting blood from the port…it just was not cooperating, no matter how I laid, stood, or moved my arm…after my CT scan I went back up to the cancer center to get my blood work results…which showed that my red blood cell count was low and the doctor recommended getting a blood transfusion…so Wednesday night at 7:30 I started the transfusion and hung out at the hospital until 2:00 in the morning…Thursday: I had a doctors appointment at 2 p.m. I came at 1:45 and was told that the CT scan from the day before did not go high enough so it had to be redone…JOY…once that was over I waited for the doctor and was not prepared to hear what he had to say…apparently the PET scan I had last week showed “activity” in my spleen…which means two more chemotherapy treatments…followed by the radiation that WAS scheduled to start next week (it will have to wait until around a month after the 8th chemo, …Read more
