This is Grignan, a village with a magnificent Italianate chateau about halfway between Rémuzat and Montélimar. We'd just reached it yesterday when the phone call came to say my white count is too low for a chemo session.
To be fair, the hospital had called the house at 8:00 and must have missed us by seconds. And, since Nick was going to go to Avignon, anyway, we headed for the autoroute and I went with him. The day was not totally lost.
Technical paragraph: My poly neutrophiles, which should be at least 1500, are at 878. Wonder what it would be if I weren't having the injections? My platelets have gone from 20, after the transfusion, to 126. They should be between 150 and 450. Most of my other white counts are low, but the C-Reactive protein, although still elevated, has halved to 6.1. And -- this is the good one -- CA-125 is down to 113.6!
The hospital re-scheduled me for treatment on 22 December. I asked if I could speak with Dr. Litor about my vacation, because we're supposed to go to Spain.
"Oh," said the nurse, "Would you like to wait until your scheduled 2 January appointment"?
"Would that be too long?" I asked.
"Not if you really want to go on vacation," she said.
"I'd rather get well," I said.
She laughed. I laughed.
Dr. Litor isn't available until Tuesday, so I don't know what's happening until then.
So the technical paragraph means things are mostly good except WBC is still too low (but improving?) I had to google poly neutrophiles. Or, for English results, poly neutrophils. I wonder how similar your experience and treatment is to AIDS people who can have extremely low WBC?
ReplyDeleteAnyway. Get well! And go to Spain!
Here is a good article on ANC (absolute neutrophil count) that is what they use to designate neutropenia.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absolute_neutrophil_count
Enjoy your vacation!!
Karen
Go to Spain and have a good time!! If the doc says you can wait until Jan 2, then wait. :) Besides, if you are feeling better, better to have a Christmas with no ickies from chemo - unless the chemo is not making you feel as bad as it once was :) Glad to hear the numbers are trying to get where they are supposed to be getting.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. forgot google put me in under the business name... that was from me - Cheryl.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Karen. That information was much more useful than anything I'd found.
ReplyDelete(I knew it was you, Cheryl. :-) )
Yup, I'm voting for going on Vacation too if the Dr. says it's ok. Hope you feel better and can enjoy the trip to it's fullest. And tell your polyneuters to smarten up!
ReplyDelete