January 5, 2004 DAY #69
Friends,
Good day to you all! We are back safe and sound in our little appartment at City of Hope after a very eventful weekend. The car broke down about five miles from home. It was that same transmission hose again. So in addition to all the stuff we originally planned to do at home, we had to find a way to get the Jeep fixed on New Years weekend. We accomplished that and lots of other stuff! It was good to see the dogs and sleep in our own bed for a change. Today we found out the bread from the breadmaker is even better if the yeast is alive! I am feeling pretty good generally, and am trying to keep expanding my physical activities. It is hard some times. We brought up our hiking shoes and sticks, so we hope to start doing some hiking soon too.
On the medical front, things are going well. Blood counts we are reporting are ALL in the normal range for the first time!!!!! The rash is gone!!!!! Potassium and magnesium levels are back to normal. The doctor dropped my prednisone and magnesium dose. The only negative thing is that pesky Creatinine, which crept back up to 1.4. I have quite a few new readers, so I thought I would give a quick explanation of the numbers below for those interested. WBC is the White Blood Cell Count. During chemotherapy it got as low as .2. This means no immune system. RBC is Red Blood Cell Count. These got pretty low at times. The HGB is the hemoglobine. If hemoglobin went below 8, they would give me a transfusion. The transfusions raised my RBC and my HGB simultaneously to a life sustaining level. I have had many many transfusions. PLT is Platelets, a cell that assists in blood clotting. When platelets go below 50, I can't brush my teeth any more. I get a platelet transfusion if they drop below 25. At one point my platelets dropped to 2. I was experiencing some minor internal bleeding at that point. I have also had lots of platelet transfusions. Hope that helps! My next regular update will be Thursday.
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 9.6 | 10.5 | 7.9 | 11.2 |
| RBC | 4.20 | 3.56 | 4.08 | 4.05 | 4.31 |
| HGB | 13.0 | 12.4 | 13.8 | 13.5 | 14.7 |
| PLT | 130 | 187 | 188 | 172 | 222 |
Have a great evening!!!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com