Day 20 in Sam’s cycle…back to clinic

Another trip to clinic for bloodwork since Sam’s counts were low the last time tests were ran.  Sam was on the borderline for receiving a platelet transfusion the last time we were in and Dr. Pradhan wanted to make sure his numbers were headed in the right direction.  Dr. Pradhan let us go home without a transfusion last week if we promised to keep Sam quiet over the weekend-no rough housing, no swimming or jumping into pools, nothing jarring-just resting and recovery.  Low platelets could mean internal bleeding, so it was important for Sam to keep a low profile until his numbers came up.  We were also told to watch for bruising, nose bleeds, and bleeding gums.  And of course, Sam had some bleeding gums over the weekend!  Gahhh!  Always something it seems!  After watching Sam closely and talking it over, Jere and I decided that Sam’s bleeding gums were the result of biting into a delicious chocolate chip cookie (made by me, thank you very much!) and not a platelet issue.  Sam had lost a tooth earlier in the week and we think that when he bit down on my delicious cookie, one of the chocolate chips or M&M’s hit right where he had lost a tooth, causing it to bleed again.  After rinsing his mouth and laying on the couch for a bit, we were happy to see that there was no more bleeding.  There were, however, more chocolate chip cookies!

Back at clinic on Tuesday, Sam’s platelets had risen to 27,000.  Still quite low, but no need for a transfusion.  His blood count had dropped too since the previous week, but again, not low enough to require a trip back to the infusion room.  Sam would be leaving today without blood products!  Hooray!  His ANC level, however, was a different story.  165.  Wow!  That is truly the lowest its ever been.  I feel like I keep saying that…”The lowest it’s ever been.”  Well, this truly is the lowest it’s ever been.  The longer you go through chemo, the longer it takes your body to recover with each round.  The drugs are powerful, but destroy the healthy cells as well.  With an ANC of 165, it was lockdown time again!  That meant, staying inside, no visitors, lots of hand washing and just a lot of waiting for the numbers to rebound.  We are all not a big fan of lockdown time.  Cabin fever can set in quickly.  However, with all the heat and humidity that we have been having here lately, we actually didn’t mind too much this time.  Sam will have his numbers checked again Thursday, August 5th when he is back at Riley for his End of Treatment MRI.  This will be an hour and a half scan of his brain and spine.  Please pray that it is clean!

Until next time,

Erica