Well, Dave had his Rituxin today, even though his White Blood Count was still down, and in fact seems to be dropping for some mysterious reason. I scoured the internet and asked friends in the medical field ('tho not anyone in the CLL specialty) and I wasn't able to come up with any explanations. I asked Dave's doctor today, and she said, "I can't explain it."
His Neutrophils and Platelets both took big hits this past week (his absolute Neutrophil count is only 429, platelets down about 20 per cent but still normal at 169.) The Lymphocytes are down slightly, to 605. This is in spite of the fact that he has had no Fludarabine since September 19th and he hasn't had Rituxin since November 7th.
Strangely, his Red Blood Cells are improving - his Hematocrit is up to 28.5, so it's not like his bone marrow is giving up the ghost.
His doctor wants to go ahead with the next round of Rituxan, which means he'll be going in once a week for the next 6 weeks for more infusions. And they said to stop the Prednisone (he's only been getting 15mg/week for the last few weeks.)
He's still getting his blood drawn every week, so we await next week's results with some anxiety . . . or at least, I do (I hate not knowing what's going on.) Dave is confident that things are going just fine.
1 comment:
It is always possible it is a Lab anomaly - badly processed specimen or whatever. It can happen and so best to see what the next test says.
Post a Comment