Dear Family and friends,

We have good news this chemotherapy cycle about Ginny – finally.   Today she had a blood draw in the Hematology/Oncology clinic.  Her hemoglobin (red blood cells that give her energy) was now up to 8.8 g/dL today (with normal range 11.2-15.7).  The nurse told us that Ginny’s number is still low, but for a patient with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), 8.8 is “fabulous.”

Her white blood cell (WBC) (that prevent infection) count is 1.5 K/uL (normal range is 4.0-10.0).  Her Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) is 95 K/uL (normal is 1.6-6.1 – up from 750 last blood draw.  If it were under 50, she would start on an antibiotic, but she doesn’t have to!

Her platelets (coagulating factor that prevent her from bleeding) were 73 K/uL (normal is 150-400), so they have almost doubled since the last blood check where the numbers were 38 K/uL.  The nurse said that Ginny’s count today was “halfway until normal.”  She didn’t need an injection to boost her platelet count today. 

Moreover, with these counts, she can go ahead with the Lumbar epidural steroid injection (LESI) scheduled for Thursday (May 30), which should alleviate her lower spine pain that’s contributing to nearly constant sciatica and Bakers cyst pain.  Ginny is feeling apprehensive about the injection because it’s more drugs and she’s already on so many. (16?  I’ve lost count.)  And, she wants to try to manage her pain with mind over matter.  I told her the LESI injections have made a huge difference for my back and sciatica pain over the past few years. We’ll see what the decision is and I’ll keep you all updated.

We learned two big surprises today:

1. The blood draw and visit with Ginny’s Hematologist/Oncologist, Dr. McMasters, is cancelled for tomorrow. And, she has no need for a 2^nd transfusion within a week.

1. Each chemotherapy cycle, Ginny’s counts will become lower than the lowest point from the previous cycles. That’s why she felt so completely horrible last week before the blood transfusion.  This was very sad – actually frightening – to both Ginny and me.  We have to remember to take it one day at a time.

Positive news:

Ginny gathered a gardening clean-up crew for each day of our three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend – thank you to Elena, Aya, Carla, Rita, Maya, and an angel named Cindy who appeared even though we didn’t know her previously(!).  Here are three photos of Ginny demonstrating her strength in the cleanup process!  In the 3rd photo, she's proudly showing how the strawberries that she had planted last year had multiplied!

Love,

Fern