OK. So I got the final portion of my blood tests from last Thursday's blood draw yesterday. So far so good. A couple of the liver function tests are still elevated, but they are the less important markers. My bilirubin count is back into the normal range, which you can see since my skin is less yellow than it has been in a good while. The other markers are all in normal range, so I'll be interested to ask my doctor on Monday how serious the elevated numbers are - and what they might indicate. Since he didn't call me the day after the blood test - and he said he would if there was anything we needed to discuss - I suspect that the slightly elevated markers may not be as important an indicator given that some of the stronger markers are back in normal range.
On the immune front, my white blood cell count, including the neutrophils, are all in the high normal range. At the end of the last chemo treatment they gave me a shot which is designed to increase the white blood cell production, and it appears to have worked. So my paranoia about getting sick and not being able to fight it off appears to be unjustified, at least for this time around. My blood did have a few lower values, especially the red blood cell count. This explains a lot of my fatigue. With my red cell count so low, that means that I don't have as much oxygen available to my system, so I end up being quite tired. This is especially true if I have to exert myself by climbing the stairs or similar exercise. Luckily, they also have a shot which will stimulate the growth off red blood cells. Unfortunately, they won't administer it until my counts are significantly lower than they are now. Of course, I don't know the side effects of that shot, so I might very well be better off dealing with fatigue and low red cell counts rather than getting the shot.
Interestingly enough, my blood sugar was also very low, even though I had just finished eating within half an hour before having the blood draw. I hope this is not an indication that some of the tumor is still very much alive and draining my blood of the available energy. As you can imagine, I am anxious to hear my physician's take on the low blood sugar.
I"m also feeling tremendously better - I'd rate it at about 70% of my normal before I developed cancer. Of course, that's just today, and I've noticed that my abilities can differ widely from day to day. Also, I'm almost due for another chemo treatment, and you expect to feel at your best just before you get the next dose. The goal is to let you get as close to completely better before each chemo dose so that your body has enough strength to withstand the poison of the chemo while at the same time giving enough chemo to kill the tumor. We'll really know how well it's working sometime in May when I get the follow-up CT scan and we see how much of the tumors have been destroyed.
Finally, we continue to receive letters and emails from many of you wishing us well. Many of these letters have included financial support as well, for which we are tremendously thankful. We are so grateful for this outpouring of love and support. It seems as if we are running out of ways to say "thank you" long before we can possibly express our gratitude to all of you. You have all been very kind and generous.
I'm scheduled to begin the third round of chemo on Monday and will let you all know how that is going - unless I am too wiped out to write. :)
Matt
