Tuesday, March 8, 2011

I think I've done enough

So, Friday I was on my way to to Cancer Center to have my labs drawn and see Dr. V.  Half way there my Engine light came on and it said my Engine was overheating.  So I pulled over and called Lar.  He had my car towed to the dealer and we found out the water pump had gone out.  I just thought to myself  in a sarcastic voice.. "Yay! One more thing to deal with!"
   Well, I thought if I didn't get my labs done, then I would not be able to have the chemo on Monday.  So I called the nurse and she said I could have the labs done on Monday morning, and then Dr. V would just come out and see my in infusion.
  So Monday I got to the infusion clinic mentally prepared to have my last chemo treatment.  The nurse came over and drew my labs.  20 minutes later they came back showing my white counts had dropped back down.
My white count was down to 2.5 and my ANC was down to 1100.  So Dr. V came out and said she was going to call Dr. Glenn at Huntsman to get her opinion, but she felt like we would not be able to finish that last round of chemo.  It has been 7 weeks since my last chemo, and after so long it would almost be like starting over.
  For some reason, I feel really good about this.  I feel like I've done enough treatments, and knowing that I will continue to do the Rituxin maintenance makes me feel reassured as well.
  Dr. V mentioned having me come in for more Neupogen shots this week, but I told her I would like to wait and let my body recover on it's own.  The Neupogen shots are boosting my numbers up (like they were last week), but then they drop back down.  They're not as low as they originally were, so that's a good sign.  I just want to let my body work on it's own and let it rebuild those counts slowly.
  She did have me do a bunch of new labs testing for a bunch of different viruses to see if that is what's causing my counts to stay low.  She also mentioned possible doing another bone marrow biopsy to rule out any cancer possibly being in my bone marrow  (which would be very unlikely since I just had a bone marrow biopsy in December and it was cancer free).
  So yesterday I just had another round of Rituxin.  And today I feel so good.  I'm going to start exercising again.  I've been waiting until I was done with treatment because I just felt so weak.  But today, I'm dusting off the treadmill and going to start getting ready for a 5k in May.
     When I left Dr. V's office yesterday she had me schedule my next Rituxin treatment and labs in one month.  So the next thing I have coming up is a small surgery the end of March to have my port removed.  YAY!

GOOD THOUGHT:

I'm going to miss this little friend trying on my wig every chance she gets.   But hopefully I'll be putting that wig away soon because......


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I have hair.  Not a lot of hair yet.  But I think by late Spring, I could be sporting a short hair style and be wig free.
(Don't you love the little friend I have in my lap??  Somehow, she's always by my side..or close by!) 
Dear Cancer Center waiting room,
I won't be seeing quite as much.  I'm not really sad about that! 

4 comments:

  1. I agree Jen! I think you've had enough!!! So glad to hear you can let you body heal. Yay!!!

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  2. Absolutely fabulous! I'm glad things are going well and that your hair is growing back!

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  3. You are so smart to listen to your body when it tells you it's had enough poison. Hooray!! What a great feeling that is. A 5K in May is pretty ambitious but you do not shrink from a challenge, that's obvious.
    Love ya, Diane

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