Going through it together

This last week has gone a little better.  I saw Dr. V on Monday and thought I would be having chemo that day.  But when my labs came back, she delayed it again.  My white blood cell count was really low.  There was another part of my blood count that has to be over 1500 for them to even do chemo.  Last week my count was at 1100.  And then this week it was down to 1000.  Even though Dr. V was no positive I was fighting a blood infection, she figured there was some type of infection going on, and my body was having a hard time getting rid of it with such low counts.  So Monday she started me on Neupogen shots every day.  Oh, the Neupogen shots.  Yes, they're the same shots that they gave me right before I harvested stem cells.  Remember, the ones that made me so, so sick??   So, I was expecting to feel really sick this week from the shots.  But surprisingly, I've felt OK.  I think the dose was much, much smaller.
  She also was concerned I could be having problems with my gall bladder or appendix.  So she sent me to have a CAT scan and chest X-ray and then scheduled me with a surgeon to go over those results.  Monday afternoon I saw Dr. M (Surgeon) and he said everything on the CAT scan looked totally fine.  He could see where the cancer used to be, but yes...it is still gone.  That's always good to hear!

   I had a follow up appt with Dr. V yesterday and this is what she said:


" You only need one more Neupogen shot, and then one more dose of Vancomycin (IV antibiotic) and 3 more doses of Levaquin (oral antibiotic) and then we'll schedule to have chemo next Tuesday.  Then after chemo we'll watch for your blood counts to come back up, and once they do we'll have your port removed.  You will come back every 3 weeks for 2 more cycles, but that will be for Rituxin only".


So see, I really am getting close to being done.

The last 10 days I have been taking an IV antibiotic.  The first couple of doses we had a Home Health nurse here to show us how to do it.  But since then, I have had my own private nurse (he's cute and nice).  Larry has always been in charge of my med's.  He just added this one to the list and became an IV expert.  Even though there were no needle pokes, it's still a lot to remember hooking everything up, and he's been a champ!  But I think he's super glad to have that part over too!

My oldest daughter Lauren has been so helpful as well.  She wants to be a Pediatrician when she grows up, and she loves to be right involved in anything medical.  So me having this done at home has been a dream come true for her.  She always wants to be right there and check things out.  I also got approval for her to be my "chemo buddy" for my last treatment.

My son Josh has been so sweet through all this.  He's always reminding me, "Mom, we're almost done."
I think it's so sweet how he uses the word "we're".  I know I'm the one that had cancer, but my WHOLE FAMILY (immediate and extended) have gone through this together.

GOOD THOUGHT:
My hair is growing back..hooray!