Functional Hair Cuts and LDH Worries

1/29/07 Day 19

The Day started out rough for Ann, more nausea and vomiting in the morning before our trip to MDA. Its also cold now and that takes a lot out of her.

We had an appointment at MDA today to do a complete pulmenary work up on Ann. Basically she had to blow in a tube and pant like a dog for the nurse. Her energy level is so low right now that the exertion left her taxed. Occasionally a smoothie helps her manage the effects of fatigue. "Caribbean Way" seems to be her favorite so far.

She did have a few minutes and asked to go to the beauty shop to take preemptive action and shave off the rest of her hair. She turned down the offer of a wig in favor of baseball caps. I think that's probably smart, almost all of the wigs I've seen here have been more than noticeable and end up drawing more attention anyway.

After the beauty shop Ann got very cold and was having trouble keeping her head up. So we checked into the emergency room again just to be on the safe side. Her blood pressure was low 110/60, temperature normal and her heart rate was in the nineties. They drew some blood and gave her some anti-nausea medicine and saline through her IV.

Some bad news ~ I think. Testing on the blood showed that her WBC is back to the high end of normal. Saturday she was at 1.o K/uL and today she is at 10.4 K/uL. Also worry some is the LDH numbers - Saturday her LDH was 351 IU/L (in normal range) and today it is 2779 IU/L.

Lactate Dehydrogenase (LDH) is made when cells are under stress. I remember it being used as an indicator that my Father had, had several small heart attacks. When I asked the Emergency room Doctor about the jump in WBCs and the LDH numbers he said it was the chemo. I'm not sure I buy that because Ann's last chemo was on the 23rd almost a week ago and her numbers where suppressed on both values up until today.

We have another blood draw and lab work scheduled for tomorrow. I will ask about these numbers and I'm hoping she is just catching a bug, or maybe it is the chemo on delayed reaction. My greatest fear is that it's the cancer.