By that I mean I have blood, blood of my own. Sometime over the past day or so I started to produce my own platelets! Two days ago my blood levels were hemoglobin/red cells = 73 and platelets = 23, yesterday we improved to hemo/red cells = 74 and platelets of 32. Today my platelets are 49!
Now to put this in perspective, my levels are still way below that of normal levels (hemo ~ 140-160 and platelets = 150-450) but they are on the move. No official white cell count, as of yesterday I still didn’t have any, which means I don’t have an immune system yet, but all in good time.
The Doc’s informed me that platelets are usually the first to recover, as we have seen, then the white cells should start to turn around, with the hemoglobin being the last to return, usually but this situation is customized and differs from patient to patient. I have been told that this should all happen fairly quickly, meaning we should see some real movement in the next few days.
Still no word on my check-out time from Suite 217 at the Eaton Complex, but hopefully it will be later this week. We are still in the dark on that, but I will keep you posted.
A Pain in my Ass: Turning back the clock a little, 3 days ago, in the afternoon, just after I wrote you all, I happened to mention to one of my Nurses that my second bone marrow test site, which is on my right hip (lower back), was a little tender. She promptly found a Doctor to have a look at my bum, who confirmed that I did in deed have a “pain in the ass”. Which in medical terms would be called an infection! This “pain” caused just that, a pain in my butt, nothing really serious but it was an inconvenience to say the least. It did bring some muscle cramping and the like, which I’m beginning to wish I was immune to, but that was as bad as it got. It swelled up for a while but appears to be under control as another run of drugs was added to my schedule. Nothing major but significant enough to mention, if not for the pain at least for the location of the pain.
Aside from that gang I am out of things to report, I may have forgotten things if so I will write as I remember. Writing that reminds me of one element I haven’t discussed yet my memory, sucks! At the moment I’m content to blame it on the chemo, which is supported by my mother who has been here before, but I have a lot of trouble remembering a wide variety of events and occurrences. Not the least of which are the top quality emails you all send! I don’t have much trouble with major things or most minor things, but the timing and the day are usually a little in question. The fact that I sleep all hours anytime with no real pattern may also contribute to my somewhat delirious state. I guess what I’m saying is that I can’t be held responsible for anything, as if I fail to deliver I probably forgot I was supposed to be delivering.
That’s all for today, I will touch base with other significant news as I receive it. I used to mention encouraging anyone who is interested to read, I assume you know that I would like you to do that for any message, past, present or future. The Challenge is open to anyone! Have a great day!
The S&G XMAS Countdown = 18 days (The S represents my cousin Scott who is my countdown partner.)
Take Care,
Geoff
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