Next Chemo Delayed

I just heard from the nurse at the hematology department that Eric's blood counts have not rebounded enough for him to get another round of chemo on Monday (4-26). (The earlier reporting of his bone marrow rebounding was a fluke.) His hemoglobin and platelet counts look good (10.9 and 190,000, respectively), so they think that his bone marrow is working OK. However, his white blood count was only 1500, and his neutrophils were 700. They require the neutrophils to be higher than 1500 before they will give another dose of chemo, so they are pushing back his next hospital stay. The nurse said that no one is really concerned because his hemoglobin and platelets are rebounding, and that they see this pretty often. He is at day 23 of this chemo treatment, and they said it could take up to 30 days for the bone marrow to fully recover.

Otherwise, Eric seems to be feeling pretty good! He's been pushing himself quite a bit this last week. We were able to go to the Indianapolis Symphony on Friday night (Dvorak's New World Symphony!!), and he did several house projects with my dad. He was pretty exhausted after all of that, but you could tell that he really enjoyed getting out and doing some of that stuff again.

He was also able to get some more X-rays and blood work done for some pain he has been having in his joints. We've been mentioning this to the doctors as we see them, but nobody has really given us an answer other than, "Let's see what happens", though they seem to think it is because of withdrawal from the anti-inflammatory steroids. Our family doctor finally ordered this lab work to be done to rule some things out (like arthritis). It'll be nice to get some firm answers, even if it is only a negative test result.

Until next time,
Melissa

Driving

Look out folks, I'm driving again.

After rehab today, I drove the Jetta to get my blood checked and then back home. I had been holding off driving until now because I was concerned about being able to move my feet fast enough to get on the brakes. As it turns out, that isn't as much of a problem as I expected but the inflammation in my hands really was painful.

At rehab, my therapist and I concluded that not only do I have inflammation in my hands and elbows but also in my knees and feet. I had thought that it was just weakness but after doing some exercises they had for me, it became apparent.

My strength is coming back each day and I'm sleeping a lot less but my schedule is all messed up. I'm sleeping ~3am to ~11am. I've tried waking up early to get back on schedule but when the options after getting out of bed are to: 1) lay on the couch 2) clean the house (which will tire me out enough to need a nap) or 3) do my prescribed rehab exercises, it's really had to get going.

Eric

Eric's Blood Cells Already Rebounding!!

I just got the call from the hospital with the blood lab results from yesterday. His white blood cells were already 2200 (which is higher than it was on Monday), with 73.8% Neutrophils (which fight infection). The other counts included: hemoglobin at 11.1 and platelets at 157,000. All of this is looking really good! The nurse said that they don't even consider him neutropenic (susceptible to infection) anymore. :) I am so relieved!

Melissa