Monday, January 28

Dear Family,
As you probably remember, Mom had a second round of chemo last week. One kind was administered by an IV drip at the clinic on Monday and Tuesday and the other was in a constant drip in her picc line from a pump that Mom carried around with her in a fanny pack. On Saturday morning, she had the pump disconnected. She still has the picc line (single port) and they expect it to stay in until she is finished with all her rounds of chemo. She has been home all through this treatment and is much happier about that. She met with Dr. Wallentine on Friday and he felt that things were going well but he did expect that Mom's blood levels would drop by the first of the week. Mom went for a blood test this morning and called me a few minutes ago to give me the results--
Hematocrit - 32.6 (normal range 37 and above);
Platelets - 42 (normal range 140 - 440);
Neutrophils - .o [nada, nothing, zip] (they would like these to build back up to 2.0)
We will all be hoping that Mom's neutrophil count will come back up faster than it did last time. She now has no white blood cells to fight infection and is keeping fairly isolated at home. She had been on coumadin to thin her blood, but she stopped that on Friday. On Saturday when she had the pump disconnected, she also received a shot of a drug called Nulasta which is a long lasting drug which stimulates the bone marrow to produce blood cells. Yesterday she was feeling kind of crummy all over and she is feeling about the same today but hasn't run a fever. However, the doctor called in a prescription for Cipro for her so it can start fighting infection immediately. Mom thinks she will feel much better when the Cipro kicks in. She wants everyone to know that she is still on her feet, doing well and taking care of Dad. Food has started to taste bad again. She is thirsty all the time but water tastes metallic and so she is trying to find liquids that taste okay enough. She will go in again on Wednesday for another blood test.
She still enjoys getting emails to keep in touch.
We'll continue to keep everyone posted. Keep praying that her counts will go up quickly.
Love,
Kathie