July 26, 2003
Friends,
Today marks the one month anniversary of my admittance into the hospital. Sort of a dubious anniversary. Today is just another boring day of recovery here. In the last 24 hours almost nothing interesting happened. Earlier today I went for a short walk, my first in over a week. I walked a total of about 100 feet and returned to my bed with legs shaking, breathing hard and very tired. While this might seem a minimal effort for that kind of response from my body, a few days ago I felt the same way when I stood up and got weighed and sat down again. I guess my walk today is a huge improvement by comparison. The doctors are starting to dangle going home next week in front of me. They said there is one critical WBC level they were looking for that they expect me to reach tomorrow or the next day. I still have to wait for a bone marrow biopsy and they may want to put in a permanent catheter in my chest before discharging me.
On the medical front, they are still changing my antibiotics around. My Heparin dose has to be continually reduced to maintain the desired clotting levels. My INR is down to 4.6 from 6. My kidney functions are strong and improving. Blood cell counts continue to rise. They are switching many of my medications from IV to oral forms. All of my rashes are fading fast.
While all of this is good, please keep in mind that the next step in treatment will be multiple courses of continuation chemotherapy, so I will remain in touch!
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
|
|
|
|
| WBC | 4.5 | .3 | .4 | .7 |
| RBC | 4.30 | 2.63 | 2.61 | 2.56 |
| HGB | 13.9 | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.3 |
| PLT | 130 | 233 | 256 | 268 |
Hope your weekend is going well.
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com