Prime Time Part Deux

Day +29 (Day 167)

Today has been yet another really long day. I started out at the diagnostic clinic at 7am for a blood draw and it was a zoo. We were filing into the rooms 6 at a time and as soon as a few people were processed, several more were called in to take their places. The phlebotomists didn't miss a beat. Between patients they teased each other in a friendly manner.

Chris and I were surprised at the results of my blood work. My white blood cell count was 5.9 and my absolute neutrophil count was 4.7. This is yet again in the normal range. Go figure. I did get one neupogen shot yesterday, but we didn't think that it would spur my new cells into action so quickly. The APN didn't seem to be phased by this. She reminded us that the numbers would continue to fluctuate. I know it's still too early for me to be able to manage this amount of growth without the help of neupogen. Since my ANC was over 2.5, I get to skip the neupogen tonight. I'm guessing that my numbers will start to decline tomorrow or the next day. My hemoglobin was 7.4, so I had to get red blood cells. I've been getting really tired very easily over the past two days, so this was no surprise. We were in clinic until after 4pm.

I continue to retain fluids, but my medical team doesn't seem too worried. I got a small dose of lasiks two days ago, but this didn't help. They monitor my weight daily to gauge my fluid retention. Because Chris and I are both science nerds, we figured out that I'm retaining a little over a gallon of fluid. This makes my fat pants very uncomfortable and my face is very round. My doctor once let me go until I had retained over 10 pounds of fluid, before giving me lasiks. I sincerely hope that this won't be the case this time. I am pretty close to 10 pounds over weight, though.

Laren left for New York this morning. I really loved having her here. It was nice to have another girl to chat with and it doesn't hurt that she has a wicked sense of humor. She also kept me on the straight and narrow with exercise and hydration. Chris has his work cut out for him now that Laren has raised the bar. :) (In defense of my wonderful husband, he has been amazing during this entire ordeal and I couldn't be luckier to have him to love.)

I have another really long day tomorrow including a bone marrow biopsy. You'll hear all about it.