Blood Counts

Melissa and I made a trip up to the Chicago area last weekend and got to see a lot of the family. I'm feeling much stronger now but my energy is started to decrease again. On Saturday, I pushed myself too hard (as a lot of you saw) but it was nothing a quick trip to the ER couldn't solve. They checked me out and found that my blood counts had dropped significantly since I got them checked on Thursday. They're not quite as low as they were last time but they've dropped more quickly, although I started lower. Blood tests yesterday showed similar results. I'm not neutropenic but my white blood cells are low so I'm back to brushing my teeth 4 times a day with prescription mouth wash and using hand sanitizer all the time. I'm supposed to stay away from sick people and crowds which is going to be tricky this week because we're heading down to St. Louis for Melissa's brother's wedding.

I've also been talking to a few rheumatologists. When I was receiving my last round of chemo, they spent some time looking at me and thought that when I was sedated and wasn't' moving, my tendons may have attached to different parts of the bones in my hands causing them to lose range of motion. They assured me that the pain isn't hurting them so they said that I just need to break the connections. They said that if I do something and it hurts, keep doing it. If this doesn't work, a potential next step is to go in and snip the tendons where they are attached in the wrong places.

After this, another rheumatologist in Lafayette concluded that I may have gout since my uric acid levels are borderline too high. Our family doctor, however, says that since I'm on the larger side, higher uric acid levels are too be expected. She thinks that it is right in the normal range for someone my size and doesn't conclude I have gout.

Each doctor we see has a logical opinion but none of them seem to agree what is causing the pain. They do all agree that the pain won't cause further damage though.

Eric