Things Happen For A Reason!

Friday, June 21 - Connie picked me up for my Chemo #2 on Wednesday, June 19.  After accessing my port and getting my blood, Laura, my nurse for the day came and told me that my white blood count (WBC) was 2.1 which is pretty low.  They took a look at another important number but the name of it eludes me.  She said they like to see that number at least 1000 and mine was 700.  Evidently a healthy body has thousands of white blood cells.   This particular number are the white blood cells that are in the process of maturing but not quite there yet.

Since white blood cells help the body fight off infection by destroying bacteria, viruses, etc. and the fact that I have a very important wedding to attend on the 29th, they said they would feel better if I skipped Chemo for the week.  I was already taking off next week, so this will give me almost 2 1/2 weeks off for those cells to recover.  I was disappointed that I had to skip, but grateful that they were thinking about the wedding and being in a crowd of people.  I decided to look at it as "things happen for a reason", and this happened to help protect me from getting an infection which could end up being worse than the cancer itself.

Laura scheduled me to see Dr. Coplin on Wednesday, July 3 before chemo #2 to re-assess and make sure this is the path we want to continue.  I believe there is an injection that can be given to help those wbc mature faster if this continues to be a problem.

So Connie and I went and did a little shopping.  We had a good time, got turned around trying to find a couple of specific places, but eventually got where we wanted to go.

On Thursday, June 20 I had physical therapy again with Kristen.  She really gave me a workout as she is on vacation next week and I'm heading to Joplin.  She really pulled and stretched my arm in all different directions as well.  It didn't hurt as bad as that first time, but believe me it wasn't a picnic either.  I am getting good range of motion now and still doing my exercises faithfully.  The two spots of possible lymphedema are better, but still evident.   I will be going back on Tuesday, July 2 to see where we stand and if I will be needing further pt at this time.

Oh yeah, my eyebrows are growing back and so are my eyelashes.  Hair doesn't seem to be doing much more than a couple weeks ago.  So stay tuned.  I probably won't post until after my next appointments!