Day +14

I’m sorry I haven’t written for a while. I’m actually writing this on Sunday, but I think I’m going to make this just for Friday and then write again. I’m not planning to write every day now. For instance, Thursday was pretty uneventful, so I didn’t plan to write then. On Friday, Day 14, I went in to the bone marrow clinic for my first of some number of weekly outpatient visits. My counts were really good and the doctor seemed almost ecstatic. They had ordered red blood cells to transfuse me, but it turned out they weren’t needed because my hemoglobin went up. My WBC and ANC are both well into the normal range, the platelets are near normal, and the hemoglobin should get there before long. They did give me two hours worth of intravenous magnesium because my levels were so low. My next visit is scheduled for next Thursday, and they also scheduled me for a bone marrow biopsy on Friday.

WBC 5.0
Hgb 10.4
Plt 99
ANC 3.5

Subsequent to the clinic visit, I developed quite a fever in the afternoon, and it lasted well into early Saturday morning. I called the clinic at about 5:00 PM, when I noticed a fever of 100.7° (I’m supposed to call if it exceeds 100.5°) and they told me to come in if I started feeling a lot worse or got shaking chills. My temperature went up to about 101.4°, but I never felt a lot worse, so I just rode it out. My fever broke at about 4:00 AM Saturday morning. I felt really weak from the fever and essentially ate nothing all day Friday, but I was still glad to be at home.

BTW, the hair loss has started in earnest. So far it is mostly coming off the top of my head and is making a mess everywhere I rest my head.

Love,
Justin