home at last...

First let me thank each one of you for the prayers during the last 2 weeks while I was in the hospital. Thank You... Ü

Well, this stay really ended up being my worst. The sores from head to toe were just beginning when I was admitted. I couldn't eat anything or even swallow pills for over 15 of the 19 days that I was inpatient. I was on constant antibiotics, had several platelet and whole blood transfusions, a constant flow of fluids and then anything that my body was low on over the entire stay. My immune system is really low and that is what was keeping me from healing. Because the sores will not heal until my blood counts start getting higher and this stay they dropped very low and at one point my ANC was .0 ! I can't explain how that is possible except I can tell you it was a true measurement of how I felt. I could not come home until my blood started to build so a .5 ANC was my goal and today was the day. If you remember back the ANC is the number that indicates my ability to fight off even the smallest of infections and even though my other numbers as you will see are much higher, the ANC is the measurement of how my immune system is doing.

So now the plan is to go back to on Monday for labs to see if the numbers are still climbing and if I need anything to continue to boost my immune system and then from there I am not sure. Once my ANC is at .75 and my platelets are at least 70, per the protocol, I am ready for the next dose of chemo. This last dose was clearly too high and pushed my body to the extreme, so more discussion needs to be done among the study guru's and I will find out that plan on Monday. 

Anyway, I'm happy to be at home to rest and get back on the road of life. 

Here are my counts...

WBC: 3.5

RBC: 3.49

ANC: .5 hoot, hoot!

Hemoglobin: 11.4

Platelets: 295