Monday, April 8, 2013

Set Back

It certainly wasn't in my plans to not blog for almost a month.  I had a good rhythm going and then - boom!

So what happened?  I had an oncologist appointment and it did not go as expected.  It was my 1 month post chemo follow up visit.  The Dr. had told us, if all went well at that appointment that they would contact the surgeon's office and arrange for me to have my port out.  Yes!!!!!!  I'll talk about my port some other time, but needless to say, I'd like it out.

The appointment did not go well.  My white count went from 3.7 (slightly below normal range) to 1.7.  That was a surprise.  And not a good one.  I was put on an antibiotic since the low count made me very susceptible  to catching any illness that was out there.   As an added bonus I got a shot of Neupogen to stimulate white blood cell production.  As my sister Ruth would say - fum.

It gets better.  Before I go off to schedule my next appointment and head off to the chemo room (which I thought I was done with), the P.A. tells us that I might need maintenance chemo. 

WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now, I've heard of people having maintenance chemo, but, the doctor never said anything about it to us.  Of course, she told us she wasn't sure about that, but it was enough for Jim and me to receive this bit of information and go about our business stunned and probably with a deer in headlights look on our face.

So we leave, with questions coming to us fast and furious.  And with two weeks to wonder about it all.  And in those two weeks I had a lot of different emotions going on.  I was stunned, I was mad, I was scared.  I also was in no mood to write or blog.

When we went back for the 2 week follow up; we found out my white count had gone up, from that low of 1.7 to 3.2 - yea!  It's headed back up to normal.  And when we asked our questions about maintenance chemo, we found out it is not necessary.  I don't have lymph node involvement or anything else that might indicate the need for it.  That's quite a relief.  My next appointment is in 2 weeks (April 22) and hopefully then I'll be scheduled to have my port out.

As for how I'm doing.  Tired is the word I use a lot.  And we were told it would take 6 months to a year for me to recover from chemo.  Okay.......I would like that to be NOW please!  But okay.  In the meantime, I've been taking it easy.  This week I'd like to start stepping it up a little bit, try to do a little more each day.  I'll let you know how it goes.

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