Update

          This post is going to be short. I'm pretty sick right now and hardly have any energy to do anything.

Monday night I started feeling pretty sick. Nauseated and spiked a temp. It ranged between 99.7 and 101.2. From past experiences, I know a fever while on chemo is not good.

Justin called Dr. Vukov's and Dr. Carpenter's and the radiation was put on hold yesterday until I went in for bloodwork and my weekly appointment.

Well, my counts are still pretty bad. Even worse than last week. That is one big reason I'm feeling so crummy.

White Blood Cells
0.53 (normal range is 4.26 - 9.66)

Red Blood Cells
2.76 (normal range is 4.20 - 6.02)

Hemoglobin
9.5 (normal range is 11.5 - 16.0)

Platelets
89 (normal range is 133- 382)


Between the brain radiation and my extremely low white count I am completely exhausted. Actually, exhausted is an understatement.

I went in yesterday and was put on an antibiotic (Ciprofloxacin) to get this fever gone but they don't think I actually have an infection going on anywhere. They think that since I'm having a fever it's from my body trying to fight off anything and everything that is trying to invade my body right now since I basically have zilch for infection fighters.

I also have no appetite for anything. Nothing sounds good. I'm trying to force myself to eat.

Same thing happened when I was in the hospital from Dec. to Jan. and I lost my appetite and ended up losing 48 lbs. in one months time.

I've pretty much been sequestering myself to our bedroom to rest as much as possible and to avoid germs (pretty tough with a 2 year old and a 4 year old running around)! But Justin's been fantastic with letting me rest as much as possible.

I was also given a shot of Neulasta in my stomach to hopefully boost my white blood cells. Hoping it works!!


Okay, longer than I planned but I wanted to give everyone an update.


4 radiation treatments down, 8 more to go!

Fever...

   I took a nap around 3:30 today and woke up about a half hour later and my temp had gone back up to 100.4-100.6 (if it goes any higher than 101.5 we have to go to the ER). I took Tylenol and I'm watching my temperature closely. I have my weekly blood work tomorrow morning at 8:30 and I'm supposed to see the nurse practioner afterwards so I'll hopefully have answers. Other than the fever, I'm not feeling too bad. No chills or anything.

Off to bed, I'll update tomorrow.




Kim