August 12, 2003
My Friends,
I promised an update today. THE PLAN. Well it is sort of "The Plan" instead. The results of the Biopsy were not in yet, so we have to wait a while longer for them. However, the doctor scheduled me to be re-admitted to the hospital on Thursday to start Consolidation Chemotherapy, round 1. The biopsy results will determine what kind of chemotherapy is done. If the biopsy shows complete remission, I will get a standard course of High Dose ARA-C. It is administered twice a day, every other day on three days. That means that I will get two doses on Thursday, two doses on Saturday, and two doses on Monday. Then we wait until my immune system dies and comes back to life again just like the last time. More fun than I have a right to expect! I am not particularly looking forward to this, having been through it once before. This update is kind of hard to write, because I have been avoiding thinking about all this as much as I can today. Oh well, the marathon goes on. I must run the race to the finish.
On the other hand, there was also REALLY GOOD NEWS! My brother is a match for a Bone Marrow Transplant. This gives us some options with regard to the transplant, and we won't have to go to the national registry for a donor. This is very exciting.
On the medical front, no changes really. I finished up my Difloucan a couple of days ago. The biopsy has pretty much healed, and my lab results look pretty good. I have been doing lots of walking around, staying pretty active, although I am still somewhat anemic. I feel better now than when I started all this. Until Thursday, that is.
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 3.6 | 3.0 | 3.0 |
| RBC | 4.30 | 3.47 | 3.19 | 3.50 |
| HGB | 13.9 | 11.3 | 10.5 | 11.8 |
| PLT | 130 | 220 | 178 | 213 |
Look for an update Thursday!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com