If you wanted the quick version of what happened, the title of this post will be enough. We were fired from chemo on Wednesday again. We knew it was a possibility going in so it wasn’t as disappointing as last time. We almost made it…
It started with a 5am wakeup call (…zzzz) to have everything ready and get breakfast into Ken before leaving. We left the house around 6:15am to be in London in time for 7:30am blood work prior to chemo. First stop was chemo department to check in and get our pager (#167). Then off to the lab with their paperwork. Our regular lab volunteer was there with his cheery smile and welcome. “Reg” is there half days 4 days per week but not Tuesday's! I admire his commitment and enthusiasm as a volunteer. Then back to the waiting area to fill out the clipboard wellness form – again. And wait. It was quiet being there so early. The regular staff was still filing in. CP24 is on every TV there. It’s nice to have a feeling of normal away from all of this. Checked email. The ‘Wagjag’ deal of the day was a ‘spa-liday’. That sounded good about then. Wonder where it is…where can we go besides here? I hadn't been here since last Wednesday (thanks to drivers SB MC DL RB SM and holiday Monday). It feels like the movie 'Groundhog Day'! Round and round we go. Same thing different day. We left things with the Universe (insert your higher power here). If Ken was meant to have chemo...he would. If not, off we go to radiation and beg to have our 2:55 time moved up so we wouldn't have to wait until then. We could always eat our picnic lunch on the way home. I always have lots packed due to past training of going to tournaments with the girls. Sarah said she could feed the whole team with what I sent J. At 9am we were still waiting. Hmmm. Results should have been back by then.
We heard the other pagers going off and watched the other chosen people get their turn. It was like the school yard teams. We're being picked over for the popular people! I left to get a coffee for Ken and came back to find him standing at the door into chemo with his pager going off talking to a nurse. Yeah! We got in. She wanted to take him back to start the IV drip. Really really?? We passed the blood test??!! “Well, I was told to bring you back and start”. We excitedly went to get our stuff to head into chemo! As we gathered everything, the nurse came over and apologized that they made a mistake and we weren’t getting chemo again. She was told to bring us in, but the lab had sent a request to the Dr. based on the results. They were concerned about them and needed the decision from them. The Dr. felt Ken needed to wait another week. Close but not close enough. Try again next Wednesday. They need his “ANC” count higher. It was 1.1. They like 1.5 – last week was 0.4 so we thought it was good for us! For those keeping track of Ken’s platelet count, we got a 156! The highest ever (lowest was 61 – last week 75). So that was exciting.
Techie definition: Absolute neutrophil count (ANC) is a measure of the number of neutrophil granulocytes[1] (also known as polymorphonuclear cells, PMN's, polys, granulocytes, segmented neutrophils or segs) present in the blood. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that fights against infection. The ANC is calculated from measurements of the total number of white blood cells (WBC), usually based on the combined percentage of mature neutrophils (sometimes called "segs," or segmented cells) and bands, which are immature neutrophils.Easier definition: stay isolated and away from germs because you don’t have anything to fight sickness or an infection.
Chemo printed yet another new schedule for us and off we went to radiation around 9:30am. We tried to move up our 2:55pm radiation appt but one of the machines was down. That meant Ken’s machine was doing overflow. We waited for a bit do see if someone didn’t show but that didn’t happen. We asked again at reception and there were 7 people ahead of us. At approx. 15 minutes each, that would be a long wait. So we left the clinic and ventured out into the real world. It was nice and sunny. When we got back, they let us go in early.
And with that Treatment #20 was done. Yes…20…over the half way mark for radiation. So now we are going downhill time wise. Unfortunately, side effect wise we will be going uphill. We still have to get 2 more chemo rounds in so we’re hoping next week will be a go. Blood work will be done at our chemo Dr. visit Tuesday that will give us more notice this time. We finally made it back home around 3:30pm…long day…again.
"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever."
~ Lance Armstrong
Xx
S
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