day 36 of 56...

delayed intensification...

hello to all...I realize now that this has turned into a way to keep track of my journey and also keep those of you who are faithful followers and prayer warriors up to date. So let me start by saying thank you for checking in and remaining on this journey with us.

this cycle of Chemo has brought it's very new challenges. It involves a being in the Out patient clinic 4 or 5 days a week for a minimum of 4 hours. It requires 6 kinds of chemo and steroids. One of the chemos that is called PEG (short name). It is the one that is injected into my thighs and in combination with the steroids has caused my pancreas to not want to do its job and therefore has cause a Blood Sugar issue. So I have been started on Insulin to keep it under control. This is a pain in the butt, I have to check it when I get up, before I eat, which is followed by a self injection via a insulin pen and then at night before bed which is followed by a different insulin injection, that is the long acting kind. This keeps my sugars more stable throughout the night. This is called situational because of the chemo I am on and my body is doing a better job each day at maintaining on its own and my need for the insulin has become less. The docs don't expect this to last, it just becomes a problem on certain chemos. God thing. 

Something else that has happened this round is that there is a lab marker that can be run to see how well my immune system is holding up despite the 3 antibiotics I take twice a day and it has dropped which is requiring me to add another whole day to this week so that I can get IV antibiotics to raise my levels and my bodies ability to fight of viruses.

This round has also affected my blood counts and zapped my energy and my hair. Despite all of this, I still push on and enjoy going to the local pool hall and play pool. It is something that I can do and really enjoy. I have join the Pool Player Association and play in tournaments on Wednesday nights. Being able to do this, makes the long hours at the clinic worth it. (kinda Ü)

So that's about it, here are my current numbers:

WBC:1.5

RBC: 2.69

ANC: 1.0

Hemoglobin: 8.7

Platelets: 47 then 70 after a transfusion (in order to get the chemo they have to be at least 70)

your prayers give us enough strength for each day...