Well, here’s a little piece of good news!
As you will recall, two weeks ago, our heroine’s platelets were too low for round 3 of chemo, so she got a week off to recoup. When she was tested last week, her platelets were ready to party but her neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) had pooped out. We were given a nerve-wracking choice between skipping chemo another week in the hopes that her neutrophils could catch up, or resuming chemo supported by shots of Neupagen, a white-blood-cell inducer with notoriously painful side effects. After some blunt yet confusing advice from the doctor (which sent us into a renewed tailspin of cancer fear), Val chose Door Number One. Plus acupuncture, tinctures, herbs, broth and rest.
We went to the coast.
Yesterday morning Val had some more blood tests with the disappointing result that her neutrophils were still in a slump. The relevant number was 800 (somethings per something) and it needed to be over 1500.
Still, they gave chemo the green light this morning, with plans to start Neupagen on Thursday. Val’s lesson on giving herself stomach shots was scheduled. But they do one more blood test the morning of chemo, just to see what the various levels are. And we were hanging out in the infusion roomlet, Benadryl already dripping into Val’s arm, when TerriSue appeared in the doorway with a piece of paper and the look of someone who is planning to enjoy telling you something.
As Val put it in a text message to the troops a few minutes later: “But wait! In a stunning last minute upset, Val Garrison’s neutrophils have rebounded overnight! No Neupagen for now! … from 800 yesterday to 1556 today. Which is 56 more than I needed.”
Three more weeks of clear-headedness. Three more weeks without significant pain. Three more weeks of a body strong enough to let the chemo in to wear that cancer away.
She thanks (and I thank) everyone for their help: bone marrow broth and acupuncture and rides and prayers and visualizations and herbs and meditations and emails and letters and love and energy.
Go chemo go!
D
One of the worst parts about a serious medical condition is that you have to make a zillion decisions in a short period of time and without all of the information you may want, like: will the white blood cells rebound on their own in two days? And it’s not like you can just go ask all of your friends & co-workers to see which course of treatment they decided to use… The HGTV channel doesn’t have a hip show on DIY health care decisions either! My partner was on Neupagen from practically start to finish of her chemo and she still had all of her fingers and toes at the end of it all. Good luck with keeping your numbers up!
Happy to know you won’t have to deal with the added pain right now. Great job Val and community, keep bustin it up!!
You badass! You, with the eleventh-hour neutrophil surge—they should put a medal around your neck for that. I just got back into town and was able to catch up on this latest part of the rollercoaster all at once. Good lord, what a conundrum! Phew. Lovely posts from both of you, as always. Congrats on keeping your numbers up, Val. Huzzahs, kudos, high fives, and wiggly victory dances to you!