Yesterday was supposed to be the last dose of my AC or red devil chemo. I was not looking forward to it after how I felt last time, but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. I showed up and got my blood drawn, then went to meet with Dr. Wells.
The Bad News
That’s when I got the bad news. No chemo for me. That is because my absolute neutrophil count (ANC) is low. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell which help fight infection. It is a common side effect of chemo to have low counts. To combat this issue, I have been wearing a device home that gives me a shot of a drug called Neulasta that signals my body to make more bacteria fighting neutrophils. Sometimes these devices fail, which is what we are assuming happened to me.
Yesterday and today I am receiving a shot of a drug similar to Neulasta to get my body to produce more neutrophil, so I am no longer immunocompromised and I can get chemo. There is a 50/50 chance my body will bring my numbers up high enough to get chemo by Monday. The reason I am pushing to get my numbers up by Monday is because we were to go to Colorado on Wednesday to help my father get some affairs in order as he has some health issues as well. Time will tell if this trip is happening or not.
Meanwhile there isn’t much I can do to get my numbers up. Some people think getting enough protein and vitamin B12 help, but there isn’t solid scientific research to prove this. If I was earlier on in my treatment, there may have been discussions about lowering the dose of chemo. But it’s my last dose of this AC chemo, so as long as we can get my numbers up we will continue on.
Cause & Effect
I’m glad we have a reason to why I was feeling so shitty the last two weeks. Once my counts come back up, my throat should heal from whatever sore is deep in there and I will be able to eat regular food again. Right now I’ve been stuck on a soft diet of Ensure, soup and noodles.
I’m super stressed about being immunocompromised and getting to Colorado. There isn’t a better time to reschedule this trip as my next chemo will be weekly. Plus just being immunocompromised means I can’t have any visitors and have to avoid people in general to reduce my infection risk.
So that’s where I’m at. A little hiccup in the road, but I’ll keep pushing on.
With all our faith & prayers, let’s hope for the best. As tough as it may be, stay strong.
We Warriors appreciate being educated.
Julia! I’m so sorry and am praying daily that your counts come up. As we discussed, I was really worried this would happen, but always remember God has a plan and we will get through this hiccup together. Even though I can’t physically be there, I promise to send funny videos of the kids snd snarky memes to keep your spirits up. Good luck!! ❤️????
I hope that the new drug boosts your numbers so that you can get this last dose of red devil chemo out of the way.
What a bad bit of timing! I too hope you get your numbers up. We didn’t wear devices 21 years ago—I just had the school nurse give me a shot if I needed the boost. Then, I often fell to the floor hoping for some sympathy, but all I got was, “get up off the floor you big dummy!. No respect. Sometimes she just told students to step over me!!!