hipgrandma's Cancer Blog
November 6, 2006
| neutropenia | Views: 123 |
Today is the last day of cycle one of chemo, which means that tomorrow I have chemo #2. This almost didn’t happen as my pre-chemo blood work last week indicated a rather serious case of neutropenia, which means a crash of white blood cells. In this condition, people are very susceptible to infections, and small things can land chemo patients in the hospital. When I found out on Friday that I was dealing with neutropenia, I was really scared. It seemed to me as if someone coughing near me in the store could kill me and I suddenly became an obsessive hand washer. While I initially got really sick from the chemo, this seemed much more serious. Deadly serious.
I got this news on Friday afternoon and Dan started me on an intensive herb program right away. All weekend long he was bringing me little cups of herbs and capsules to take. I started to feel better right away. I had started feeling sick sometime around Tuesday afternoon, with flu-like achiness, chills, and fevers—symptoms of neutropenia. All weekend I still had fatigue but otherwise continued to feel better and better.
When Dr. Tangir got the news this morning about the neutropenia, he said chemo would have to be postponed. No one wants to have chemo, but, on the other hand, delays are not considered a good thing as to final outcome of the treatments. Later in the day he decided to have me get a re-test to see if things had improved. 4pm Dan and I got to the chemo center for the blood work. They told me that if I hung out awhile the results would be ready for me, so we did that. The outcome was great! My white blood cells went from 1900 to 5900. Please read that AGAIN. 1900 to 5900! An incredible improvement. And the neutrophils went from 40 to 78.2.
I credit the herbs with this rather miraculous improvement. And the prize is, I get to have chemo tomorrow. Holy shit, I can’t believe I’ve got to do this all over again.
After tomorrow I will be over half done with radiation and one third done with chemo. Wish me luck!
01.09.07 - 
Thanks for your support -
Sound like an extremely scary couple days for you. I am SO glad you white blood cells are back up. keep taking those herbs!
I wish I knew about those herbs when my blood was tanking. Good job on getting back up!
Glad they didn’t have to postpone your chemo. Good luck to you and keep on writing!
Jane – Hope you are doing well. Haven’t heard from you in while and wondering how your chemo is going.