I always seem to leave things for a while and then I have to blab on and on about what's going on... so, I guess this is going to be another one of those posts.
Last week when I saw Dr. Maged he was looking at my CBC and was wondering if I was getting sick. What a smart man!! He noticed that some of my counts were off and possibly indicating that I was fighting something - and with the kids being sick, he had good reason. I was feeling alright, I was in the throws of a healing reaction so it was hard to gauge if I was "sick" or not. He decided to give me a prescription anyways to see if it cleared me up.
That was on the Thursday afternoon. I was supposed to take it for 5 days. I saw Dr. Maged again on Tuesday and was feeling a lot better by then... finally more like myself. I continued through my week as normal feeling ok.
I did chemo on Monday, again feeling ok, did my immune therapy on Tuesday and went in on Wednesday to do my last chemo and they said my counts were WAY off and that it was probably due to heparin ("Heparin is a naturally occurring anticoagulant produced by basophils and mast cells. Heparin acts as an anticoagulant, preventing the formation of clots and extension of existing clots within the blood. While heparin does not break down clots that have already formed (unlike tissue plasminogen activator), it allows the body's natural clot lysis mechanisms to work normally to break down clots that have formed." They use heparin to flush my port line and keep it clean and from getting clots, like it said above.) being left in the port line. Not really a big deal. They re-drew my blood and were going to check my CBC's again to see if it came out normal so I could do my last chemo on my last day.
I saw Dr. M again that day, I think it must have been Wednesday. He wasn't in the room and ready for me so I snuck out really quickly to go pee. When I came back in he looked at me and asked me how I was feeling. From this we started talking about my blood counts and he said that when I walked in the room he thought that "I looked to good to be feeling the way" that my blood counts were showing. He said that it must be due to the heparin being left in my line and diluting the reading of the CBC.
When I came in on Thursday, my last day!!, I was informed that my counts were still off and that I would have to talk to the doctor about doing chemo. Talk about frustration. We had spent the entire day before cleaning up the trailer and packing and getting ready to head out on the Thursday. We were planning on leaving and had our route home all planned out. Waiting another day would just push it all back BUT if we had to do it we would.
We waited patiently to see Dr. Forsythe. He finally came in and we started talking. Of course we asked about not being able to finish up with the chemo and how that would effect treatment and such. He said it would be fine because I was going to be coming home on a pill form chemo for three months. He told me to take off about 10 days, get my counts back up and then I could start up again. He said I should be ok and that I probably won't loose my hair.
I asked him why my counts would be so off when I felt alright. He explained that he didn't think that my body would be able to handle full dose chemo again. With my counts depleting so badly on a 10% dose, it just showed how hard it really was on my bone marrow. It is just crazy for me to think about how far I have come since I finished up chemo, but how deeply my body was effected by it all. It just made me realize that I really have to take it easy still and rest and not overload my life. Getting better is the most important thing. As much as I want to be "normal" again and do all the wife, mommy, sister, daughter, friend things, the most important person in my life has to be me. And I need to take care of her so that I can be here for a long, long time.
I have more to write, but I am good for tonight. I just wanted to let you know what was happening and such. We are home safe and sound. Many thanks to all your prayers and thoughts. Again we are so blessed for having you in our lives and can't thank you enough for all you have done.
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