Good news today. The lab work shows that Dave's white blood count is down to 8,500 (nearly normal) from his pre-chemo level of 43,000. Unfortunately, his red blood cells were also whacked by the chemo and he was anemic before they started. It's amazing to me that he can get around as well as he does, with a Hgb/Hct of only 7.5/21.8 (less than half what it should be.) We parked about 2.5 blocks from the hospital, some of it an uphill walk, and he just kept on puffing up the street, with no complaints.
(We could have parked in the garage directly under the hospital, but it's about 6 stories below ground; dark, cramped, hot, with a constant, loud thrum. It gives me the heebie-jeebies, and at each bend in the ramp, I keep expecting to see the gates of Hell. Dave has kindly agreed to avoid it when I'm with him.)
Anyway, back to tomorrow's chemo - another round of Fludarabine, Mitoxantrone and Decadron. And the new addition: Erythropoietin, which is supposed to "encourage" his bone marrow to start making red blood cells.
The doc wasn't too concerned about Dave's swollen lymph nodes, saying that they were full of dead cancer cells, and would shrink soon.
So, we're feeling cautiously optimistic today.
(Photo is unidentified lab tech from 1950s, via NCSU library.)
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