November 19, 2008

Nothing like starting out your day with a little blood work...
I talked with my Dr. about all of the side effects I am having, she is most concerned with my vision problems & is contacting my Ophthalmologist to get additional information.

My labs came in
Date------Day----WBC----ANC--------Hgb--------PLT---- Transfusions
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-------1 Unit P
19 Nov------78----26.9------14,000------8.3---------11---------1 Unit P

We were at the James until about 2 in the afternoon. One thing seemed to lead to another. My ANC & WBC counts went through the roof so for now she is pulling me off the neupogen shots. If my counts drop then I will have to start them again but for now my levels are very high. Although I am nervous about not taking the shots since my levels can rise & fall so drastically. One nice thing about it, this should save a little money since the neupogen shots are my most expensive medicine at $469.15 each. To date I have racked up $15,049.20 in prescription costs at home. I must admit that I am very blessed to have decent insurance, they have covered the bulk of this bill, but there is still a hefty sum that I pay upfront, so again thank you everyone who has donated money to help with the costs.

My doctor was a little concerned because I am still having some shortness of breath. She ordered some Blood to go with my Platelet infusion. I told her I would like to try & hold out until Friday for the blood infusion. I want to see if my body will continue to make more blood & correct itself. She went ahead & gave me a standing order to give to Madison County Hospital for infusions. This will allow Sue, my RN, to give me an infusion of Platelets any time I drop below 20 or my Hemoglobin drops below 8. No more waiting for an order like last weekend & the other day.

As you can see Marcus got real bored waiting...

We did find out when they do the Platelet infusion out patient it only takes about 30 minutes to an hour, but when I was in-patient it took about 2 hours. Blood infusions only take 2 hours but when I was getting that it in-patient it took 4...

When they went to give me the platelets, my purple port would not flush at all. They drew my labs out of it earlier with ease so I was surprised it clogged so fast. The whole time my PICC has been in the red port is usually the sluggish one. They tried to flush them simultaneously to see if that would be enough pressure on it to open up, but we had no such luck.
They had 3 different nurse come in & try it. Sharon will be going nuts when she sees these pictures because one of the nurses didn't wear gloves. I was so out of it from the pre meds for my infusion I was looking right at her & didn't even notice.
They finally brought in a PICC Nurse, after using altaplase (kinda like roto rooter for your veins) & a stopcock they were able to get my lines cleared.


Needless to say it was a long day, we stopped at Sams Club to pick up a few things for the house & headed home. Zack has been having a much better week at school. Misty is sick with the Stomach virus Zack had. Paige & Brandon are engaged in cheer leading & wrestling every week night & Katie well, she draws & reads a lot. She has no desire to participate in school sports & there are no art programs locally to put her in. Marc & I lounged the rest of the night.