A cancer biology lesson for the day...

10 chemo treatments down... 2 to go... blech.

I had my 10th treatment today. At my last treatment my doctor didn't want me to get the Nulasta shot that I've been getting this whole time. The shot makes your body go into overdrive producing white blood cells so that when your white blood cell count drops the new cells take over and you don't have to worry about low blood counts too much. At my last appointment my white blood cell count was around 20,000 (normal is 10,000) so I was way over. That's why the doc didn't think that I needed the shot.

Well today, I was at 2,000 (again, normal is 10,000). So not good. He said that if I had any other type of cancer than Hodgkin's he would not have let me have chemo this time. The reason he went ahead with chemo is because Hodgkin's is curable, but you get the best results if you stay on track with your chemo treatments and don't delay a treatment. So even though my count was super low, we went ahead with the treatment. I should be getting my shot tomorrow ;). It kind of bothers me that he didn't have me get a shot last time. I really don't care to be a Guinea Pig... and wait and see if I get a low white blood count. That's what these shots were invented for! So that people fighting cancer didn't die from a cold. I wouldn't be so worried about this if I didn't have a two year old that likes to lick the bottom of this dad's shoe (yes, I caught him doing that the other day... stinker!)

The problem with low white blood cell counts is that white blood cells are what fight infections in your body. If I don't have the cells needed to fight infection, then if I get sick my body can't fight the infection. See the problem? So if you are sick, think you could be getting sick, were sick a week ago... please don't come near me ;).

I've been starting to get a little lax in the "rules". I ate the apple slices that Tru didn't finish a few days ago, I ate a few bites of the salad that I made Trent also, and I was thinking about going to enrichment next week because it's been sooooo long since I felt like I had a social life. But this is a good reminder to me that I'm not done playing the cancer game yet. I may be close, I may be almost done... but I'm not done. I've come so far without getting sick, I really don't want to land myself in the hospital the last month of this chemo. So frustrating!

So anyway... that's what's new this time around. That and my port has been giving me grief... it hasn't been working the way that it should and so it's taking the nurses a really long time to get it to work before they can start my treatments. My body is "young and healthy" and it's trying to make this port a part of my body. Basically it's growing little fibers on the end of the tube that goes into my vein to make it into a one way valve instead of a two way valve. With the type of port I have they have to be able to put things into my bloodstream and take things out. The going in part is fine, but they aren't able to pull blood out of it, which is a problem. They just don't want to be putting these extremely toxic chemicals into my port if they can't tell for sure if it's working right, and the only way they can tell is if they can pull blood out of it, which it doesn't want to do anymore. So ya, it's been fun... I think I'll stop the blood talk now. I grossing myself out thinking about it, and I deal with my blood on a weekly basis! Anyway... I'll just be glad when this is all over...

Still in the game here... exactly one month from today is my last treatment... let's hope that's the truth!