Saturday, January 8, 2011

end of round 2...

with my second round of chemo on board, I had a pretty good night. Mom tells me that I talked in my sleep a lot and she could not make sense of what I was say, so she would just tell me, "everything is ok" and I would say "oh" and go back to sleep. I was also up at least 5 times, getting rid of all the fluids they are pumping into me. They do this because the chemo kills just about every cell in my body the good and the bad and of course the white ones are the ones that we are after, so they push fluids in order to flush them out of my body. It is amazing how much has been learned about treating this and they seem to know just how far and hard they can push the body in order to force it to return to a normal pattern. Normal is to constantly be producing good blood cells that will push out the bad. 
I was able to stay asleep despite all of the vitals and blood test that are so necessary during the night, when I'm suppose to be SLEEPING! The doctor came in and woke me up, to ask his doctor questions (I'm not sure how he made it past my moms "look" that said "he's sleeping!") and he said "you have a day off" to which I said back "so that means I can get out of here today?" to which he promptly chuckled and said "no, just around the 6th floor" and left. I was thinking, "my brother, Kent is coming to stay today, while mom regroups and if anyone could figure out how to get me out of here, it was him". Anyway, I was able to go back to sleep until about 9.

Here are my day 8 numbers:
WBC: .30
RBC:  2.60
Platelet: 64
Hemoglobin: 8.6
Glucose: 286
Blasts: 22%

and for you medical followers, another number that seems to be an indicator is what is called "blasts". The easiest way to explain these is to say that are the bad cells multiplying/blasting or growing. In normal blood there are 0% blasts. Over the last few days my have been going up. The goal is to kill theses cells with the chemo. They also measure these in the bone marrow which is why I have to have that procedure over an over. In bone marrow they want the number less than 5%.

My test results came back today, bone marrow has dropped to below 95% leukemia cells and the bone sample showed some blank spots which is all GOD NEWS - GOOD NEWS!

Kent arrived with his computer and a ton of cd's and we both spent the day installing music on our computers and phones. It was great to have this as a distraction and even better to spend the day with him. Thanks, Kent. I love you!


3 comments:

L & L Connard said...

Love the picture of you and your bro.
Big hugs to you and your family!

Unknown said...

Your so right, I WILL figure out how to get you out of there one of these days. Just wanted to tell you I enjoyed your company yesterday, and to tell you how proud i am as to how strong you are and positive your being. Have fun with music and remember I Love You Too!!! see you soon

Anonymous said...

We love you too, Tippy! We hope you're up for a visit soon. We are praying for you and are VERY proud of you. You're a fighter!!! Keep on keeping on! Here's to even better numbers soon. BTW, we're loving the info on your blog. It helps us to feel connected to you! LYB~UP & AL