Chemo#3
November 9, 2001

I had an appointment with my doctor on Wednesday the 7th and had a blood test. They called that afternoon to say my levels were a little low and I'd have to go in early today to get another blood test. So that I did. I waited around for 2 hours and then they told me that my white blood cell count was even lower than it was on Wednesday. Today, it was at 2.4. The normal range for WBCs is 4-10. My Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC - neutrophils are white blood cells that are very important in fighting infection) is at 0.4 and the normal range for that is 2.5-4.5. So, as you can see, there's work to be done. My ANC has to be at at least 1.5 for them to give me chemo. So, there are 2 options: giving me drugs to help my white blood cell count go up (Neupogen), or reducing my doses of chemo. My doctor decided against using Neupogen immediately so I'm to wait until next Wednesday and I'll see him and my levels should be up again by then so I can get chemo next Thursday or Friday. Usually low levels at one point indicates that they'll be low for most other chemos so I'm not sure what will be done for that. If it's Neupogen, I'll have to give myself injections of the drug for a few days before each chemo. Gross.

It's frustrating to have my schedule all rearranged but it's not like I've got anything better to do. Plus I get an extra week of feeling good. So there's more to come about chemo #3.

November 15, 2001

I went on Wednesday the 14th (2 months after diagnosis) to get blood tests. My neutrophils were back up to 1.7 (still low but good enough for chemo). So I went for chemo on the 15th. Everything went very smoothly. I got to take benadryl in the pill format rather than the IV since it doesn't knock me out as much. I still got wonky though. I find I get very annoyed and restless during chemo. I can't get comfortable and there's too much going on and it's too bright to sleep but I'm too tired to do much of anything else. So I just get annoyed.

The whole process took only 3 hours today. The last big bag only took an hour! Impressive. But when there was about 10 minutes left, I needed new flush (saline water to dilute), so the nurse came and switched bags. But she ended up switching the drug bag with a saline bag. I kinda looked around on the bags to find the prescription sticker but couldn't see it. She left the old bag on my bed so I picked that up (and accidently spilled a bit) and noticed it had the prescription sticker on it. So my mom got another nurse and she hooked me back up. And I didn't end up losing any time since I spilled about 3 minutes worth on my bed. We told the original nurse when she came back what had happened. She felt really bad. I don't even need a nurse when I'm around.

I felt sort of gross on the car ride home and then got really hungry when I got to my house. I decided that I would fix that by having some left over pizza. By the time supper came around, I felt too gross to eat it. I went to bed. I woke up to take some Zofran and Maxaran and then went to bed again. I feel gross this morning but nothing out of the ordinary.

I'm getting set up with Neupogen to take for 5 days starting 3 days after each chemo. A home care nurse is coming over today to explain things to me and she'll come back on sunday to give me my first shot. After that I'll give myself the shots into my stomach. Woo!

My doctor also gave me the maxaran (anti-nausea med) in injection form this time. I really don't know why. It's an intramuscular injection too. I hope he doesn't expect me to do that myself. Last time I got an injection like that my arm was sore for 2 days. I still have some of the maxaran pills left over from last time so I'll stick to those.

My hair loss slowed down before chemo #3 but I expect it to pick up again tomorrow or so.

In total there were THREE days of nausea this time with day #3 (sunday bloody sunday) being the worst. I'd like to get another drug to add to my collection. I take Zofran once in the morning and once at night. I need something besides maxaran for the in between time. I'll work on it. Hair loss is still moving slowly but there's definitely not a lot on top. I'm used to it though. I enjoy it. I'm not so careful with it now but showering does still frighten me.

I started my Neupogen on Sunday.

Three down, nine to go. 1.5 cycles down, 4.5 to go. I'm a quarter of the way done. I can't wait til it's over.