November 17, 2008

Sunday was a major down day; I stayed in bed 1/2 of the day just resting. My low counts are starting to catch up with me physically. I talked to Aunt Lynn & Aunt Debbie for a while on the phone, I did not realize when Debbie donated blood for me it was her first time donating as well. There are so many first time blood donors that have been a direct result of my disease. There is a lot of good that has come out of such a terrible situation.

I received another card with a very generous donation from my colleagues in the Bureau of Public Health Preparedness - ODH. They have our heartfelt thanks. I am so encouraged by the support that keeps coming in. I know many people cannot send in donations & that is ok, you have no idea just how important the phone calls, e-mails, letters, visits... keep me motivated. I am very lucky to have so many people out there that love & care about me. It encourages me to fight that much more even on the toughest of days.


We all watched the Jeff Dunham Christmas special last night on TV it was pretty funny. If you have never seen him you should check it out. He is a ventriloquist

I was really surprised this morning when I woke up & saw snow covering everything! We had flurries Saturday but nothing stuck. Spike got his first experience in it. He was prancing around all over the place. He was so excited he wouldn't go to the bathroom for a while because he wanted to play so much.


After we got Zack on the bus I loaded Brandon & Katie up & dropped them off at school on my way to Madison County Hospital for my lab draws.




Sue, my RN was ready for me when I got there, it’s a pretty nice chemo lab they have here. We talked about the side effects I have been having. She drew my blood from the purple port & my red port on the PICC would not flush, so a little heparin in & it was cleared. I was in & out in less than 20 minutes.



When I got back from the hospital I took a short rest on the couch with spike & then went up to take a shower. I knew my counts were low, but I did not realize how low until I saw...




I know the pictures are gross, but this is the reality. I have pinhead bleeds & brusies all over my body. I had to take some nausea medicine because the blood keeps pooling in my mouth & it was making me feel real nasty. Hopefully when I get juiced up this afternoon it will be enough to clot them off.

Sue just called me with my labs

Date------Day----WBC----ANC--------Hgb--------PLT---- Transfusions
8 Nov------67-----6.4-------6000--------9.0--------109----------N/A
10 Nov------69-----8.8-------8200-------9.3---------74----------N/A
13 Nov------72-----0.5----------0-------9.2---------22----------N/A
17 Nov------76-----0.7----------0-------7.9---------03----------pending

We are waiting for the James to call me & see what they want to do, no matter what I have to get an infusion of platelets, possibly 2 if the first one does not bump me up enough.

In the mean time I am just waiting & playing with Spike. More to come tomorrow.