August 18, 2003
Friends!
Today was another pretty uneventful day overall. I got my 4th dose of high ARA-C this morning. It went a little long, but we still got out of the hospital at about 11:30am. From there my parents took us out to lunch again. I quickly became very exhausted at the restaurant. I went back to the car to rest. I suggested to my Dad that we tell the restaurateur that I had to leave because I had been poisoned. Of course this was true, however, the hospital poisoned me, not the restaurant:-))))) The chemo is really beating me up. I came home and slept the rest of the afternoon. I feel ok, just really tired. I go back to the hospital tomorrow afternoon for doses 5 and 6, the final doses for this course. Then we wait again. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I will be meeting with doctors from City of Hope in Duarte, California. We will discuss with them the plans for bone marrow transplant. I talked to one of my doctors today about transplants. He said that while an autologous transplant was easier on the patient, they don't usually work as well or last as long as a transplant from a matched donor. His recommendation is that I get a transplant from my brother. Having a sibling match is kind of like winning the lottery. It is a wonderful thing. Another wonderful thing has been having my parents here for the last 10 days or so. As they return home tomorrow I want to express my thanks for their support and assistance.
On the medical front, I got a dose of magnesium and potassium last night. I am also getting daily doses of an anti-nausea medicine. No other changes to my medications. As you can see from my lab results, the chemo is starting to take effect.
Lab Results |
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Blood Cell Type |
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| WBC | 4.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 2.6 |
| RBC | 4.30 | 3.22 | 3.19 | 2.88 |
| HGB | 13.9 | 10.8 | 10.8 | 9.7 |
| PLT | 130 | 119 | 215 | 150 |
Have a good night!
Ted
tw@wilcoxent.com