Tough week this week. My first CT scan since my 8-month long radiation treatment along with bloodwork on Tuesday, an unexpected ER trip Tuesday night, my monthly injection on Wednesday, a recheck of bloodwork Thursday (twice), and an unexpected blood transfusion Friday morning along with a visit with my oncologist. Yay. Boy I wish my liver wasn’t covered in tumors - I could use a strong drink. I usually do pretty good at moving along with life as if I didn’t have cancer, but this was a week where there was no pretending - it was very much in my face all week, a painful and quite exhausting reminder.

Scan Results

Mixed results. I had some tumors on my liver disappear; lots of shrinkage. One tumor grew in size so onc is going to talk to tumor board about potential liver-directed treatment for that 1 tumor.

Hemoglobin

I’ve been feeling actually pretty great lately, even the past few months. Getting more and more active, stronger. Yet, after my bloodwork on Tuesday, around 9 pm, right as we were putting the girls to sleep, I got a call from the doctor. I know those late night calls are never good. She said my blood (hemoglobin) came in at 5.7, which is critically low. There is just no way - I had no symptoms at all for low hemoglobin. For reference, normal range is about 12-16, and I’ve been in the 8-8.5 range the last few months (I’m naturally low due to anemia). Below 7 requires a transfusion and below 6 is critical. I head to the ER, they recheck my blood, it’s at 7. They think because I had my bloodwork done right after my CT scan with contrast, literally with the same needle to avoid another poke, that the saline may have diluted my hemoglobin, causing an inaccurate reading of 5.7. So the ER gives me some iron and sent me on my way. I wasn’t too worried. The next day, my onc asks me to go get my blood rechecked and it came back at 6.9. Because I’m traveling this weekend, we agree to do an outpatient blood transfusion to kind of pump me up a bit, even though I still don’t have symptoms of dizziness, lightheaded, shortness of breath. My onc tells me he thinks I’m in the 2% (of course) of people who has bone marrow issues as a side effect from the lutathera treatment and worries my bone marrow may not producing hemoglobin, hence the low results this week. Now, I’m kind of worried.

Next Steps

Regarding the hemoglobin, my onc said time will tell. We’ll do bloodwork every two weeks to monitor and do a blood transfusion as needed. Regarding the tumors, after my onc talks to the tumor board, he’ll let me know the next treatment steps. It’s certainly not the “we’ll just see you in 3 months for another scan” result I was hoping for. In fact, it feels like I have even more questions and concerns than I did before, but that’s where we are at right now.