And the beat goes on- or maybe it doesn’t!

Welcome to pod #62 again! Another long day at Dana Farber. We are here today for treatment #11 which should mean one more to go. Not so fast! Today’s blood results were a mixed bag. Red blood count was down and platelets were way down. The platelet count was in the 70’s and they usually want it above 100. Usually if it is that low, they put off treatment but after consulting with my oncologist, Dr. Enzinger, it was decided to go ahead with the treatment. The low red blood cell count and especially the low platelet count accounts for my being exceptionally tired over the past two weeks. Fatigue is cumulative under any chemo treatments but low red count makes it worse. As a result, they are doubling the dose of nplate to try and up the counts quickly. Besides my regular chemo, I was scheduled to have an iron infusion which would add an extra 1 1/2 hours to my treatment today. We decided to postpone the iron infusion until Friday when I come back to have the pump (Tina) disconnected. That way, even though Friday will be a somewhat longer, at least we will not be here until dark today.

There was also some discussion today about what happens when treatment #12 is completed hopefully at the end of June. I will have an extra nplate infusion and blood work done on June 21 and hopefully if that looks good, my last (yea!) chemo infusion will be on June 26 and I will say goodbye to Tina one last time on June 28. I am trying to decide how to celebrate the end of chemo so any and all suggestions are welcome. We will meet with my oncologist, 
Dr. Enzinger, on July 17 ( a very special day for someone else which I will explain in my next blog) to review everything and to set up an appointment in September for blood work and  CT scan. It has been a long journey getting to this point and Ellen and I are looking forward to getting some degree of normalcy back in our life and hopefully to start traveling again.  I have said it before but I will say it again that my admiration and respect grows every week for anyone who has or is or will be undergoing chemotherapy. Wish I could say it has been fun but I cannot. What has helped us through this journey is the outpouring of support from our family, friends, neighbors and strangers and a very special thanks to the team at Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Chestnut Hill. 

Once again, thank you to all of you and please keep those good wishes and prayers coming so that we can finish this chemo journey on time and with positive results. I promise that when I write my next blog on this site, I will try to be a little more positive and a little more humorous.

Ray