Saturday, October 11th, 2008

Good morning everyone and happy Saturday. Even though I haven't worked in quite some time, Saturday morning for some reason always has a great feeling. I know, I know, it's amazing this is the second message this week. Trying to pick it up from my end.

This week has been a struggle as you could tell from my last message, but I'm happy to say the mucositis has started to subside and I am feeling much better again. I was in the hospital on Friday and all looked good. The culture they took off of my tongue came back negative to there is nothing funky going on there. Kind of expected that but it's always good to hear. I can only hope and pray that my time with mucositis is done.

As I said, I was down in San Diego on Friday. I am actually down there 3 days a week getting my counts checked. By counts I mean blood counts. they look at roughly 60 different measurements in my blood ranging from sodium levels to white and red cells. The main ones I keep track of are WBC (White blood cells), HGB (Hemoglobin) and Platelets.

WBC (White Blood Cells) - Important because they are what enable your body to fight infection. If your white blood cells are low, you're immune system is at risk. A healthy WBC is in the range of 4,000 - 10,000.

HGB (Hemoglobin) - Transports oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. One of the reasons I went to the doctor in the first place is because I was getting extremely fatigued when I would exercise. I went from running 7-8 miles at a time to a point where I couldn't even go a mile without stopping. That is because my hemoglobin was pretty much gone. A healthy HGB is in the range of 14 - 17.

Platelets - Allow your blood to clot and scab up when you have a cut. A healthy platelet count is above 140,000.

So these are the big ones I keep track of myself and get tested on three days a week. After chemo, it’s perfectly normal that all of these counts drop to pretty much nothing. The chemo is a poison that throws the baby out with the bath water so everything gets killed. That is why you pretty much feel dead during and after chemo. Here is what my counts looked like this week so you have an example of what I’m talking about:

Monday, Oct 6th:
WBC was 0 so that means no immune system. This is a very dangerous and risky position to be in.
HGB count was 6 so my body was receiving less than half of its normal oxygen supply. Because this number is so low, they infused two bags of blood into my body which drives up the HGB count.
Platelets were 4,000...well below the 140,000 mark. Again, because this number is so low, they infused a bag of platelets into my body as well. All of this is done via IV so it is painless but makes for a long day. There is nothing they can do for WBC except wait for my marrow to wake up and go to work.

Wednesday, Oct 8th:
WBC started to grow and came in at 1,300, so my marrow got to it.
HGB was still very low at 7.7 so I had to get another two bags of blood infused. Platelets were very low again at 12,000 so I again had to get a bag of platelets infused.

Friday, Oct 10th:
WBC grew to 4,700 so things are doing great there. This basically means that I have a normal immune system. Don't worry, chemo and radiation next week will take care of that.
HGB measured at 10.3 which is above the infusion threshold so I didn't have to take any blood.
Platelets were 31,000. This is also above the infusion threshold so I didn't have to take any platelets.

So there you have it. I bet you didn't think you were in store for a science class huh. I wanted to give you an idea of what the key blood markers are I get tested for, what the numbers look like and how they affect me. I am officially in my last week of freedom before I go back to the hospital full time. This next week will be full of poking, prodding and testing so it should be a good one. I'll keep you all updated on how those tests turn out.

Take care everyone and be well.