Ohhhhhhh We're Halfway There!

Whooooahhhh! Livin' on a prayer!
Take my hand, and we'll make it I swear.
Whooooahhhh! Livin' on a prayer!

I had it in my head I would post this once I got to 84/168 hours of my first round of chemo, but the time to do that had come and gone in one of my worst days since all of this began, so I'll just update you all now on where I'm at.

As of the posting of this... post... I will be 114/168 hours through my first major round of chemo. It's been a rough couple of days. I don't feel nauseous, but I also havent really felt all that hungry either, which is a little annoying. I've not eaten too much for days, and my diet has consisted of liquid supplements (if I do think of food, then I begin to feel nauseous). My temperature has shifted from 99.2 up to 103.7, with very little indication of infection. My LDH (lactate dehydrogenase, not to be confused with "good cholesterol") has been rising over the last few days. My blood spigot (those of you in medicine will know this as a hickman line) has not been properly healing as the chemicals in charge of coagulation have been thrown into near gimbal lock and my platelets and hematocrit have been dropping pretty steadily requiring blood and plasma transfusions.

Add on top of that my allergic reaction to the plasma and a very odd sunburn looking (but not feeling) puffy-lip, vienna sausage-finger, dry-skin reaction to.... something.. possible one of the anti-biotics, which led to an IV push of benadryl nearly knocking me on my rear-end, and I'd say this weekend could have gone better than it did.

But it could also have gone worse. Much, much worse. And all's well that ends well, so they say.

This morning I got my labs back to find that my LDH is beginning to fall, meaning that the first wave of cell death is nearing completion and my body is finally starting to filter out the LDH faster than those few remaining ass-hole rebels are exploding in an unceremonious way, without even a nod of contempt from their healthy brethren. They're ready for this to be over too (I've decided). It's down from 12600 yesterday morning to 10860 this morning. Normal is something around 100-250 I think.

My hematocrit is at 23.1 after a few blood transfusions, but we're hoping one more should put me over the 24.0 marker.

My platelets are at 18, which is below the 50 marker but above the 10 marker. Certainly below the 150 normal minimum, so I may be getting a round of platelets today if the doctors feel it's necessary. If so, I say, "Bring it on."

And the best news is this: My white count has fallen rapidly to 0.39 (down from 40.00), meaning my body is responding very well to the chemo. Onk came in to have a look this morning and was very happy to see the color in my face and a general level of energy that I haven't had for a few days.

So good news all around.

54 more hours of chemotherapy to go. Then I have a month of recovery, another bone marrow biopsy, and a long couple months of chemo and recovery, chemo and recovery, until every last one of these fuckers is gone.