Tuesday, June 3, 2008

red, white..... and blue :(

so trish, her brother steve and myself headed off to chemo today...

trish had her blood drawn around 10:30am from nurse kyla, and by 11:45am we were back in the chemo chair getting ready for treatment with nurse chris.

unfortunately, nurse chris came back with trish's blood test results, and they were not what we had hoped. trish's white and red blood cell count were down from the week before, and her white count was at a point where dr. carlson canceled trish's weekly dose of taxol.

nurse chris continued on with trish's dose of herceptin around 12:15pm and about a 1/2 hour later trish was done. (the good news here is that trish didn't need the 3 pre-drugs that she would typically get with the taxol)

dr. carlson and nurse jan prescribed Neupogen (Filgrastim), a drug that helps convince the bone marrow to produce more white blood cells.

trish will get three shots of this a week, beginning today... administered by Dr. Oak, after the superb training i received by nurse chris today.

aside from an emotional blow of a skipping a treatment, trish is feeling good, but it is clear that her immune system is pretty much at an all time low.

it is now more important than ever
we keep trish from getting sick


this means caden will be limited in the activities he does with other kids (gym, story time and swimming) for the short term, we ask friends and family to call prior to any potential visits, and please no children even if you think they are healthy.

the neupogen shots should get trish back on schedule with her taxol and herceptin regimen next tuesday, and she will continue with the shots 3x a week until her blood counts stabilize.

this isn't a huge shock, as the doctors have prepped us for this possibility since the beginning of chemo, nonetheless we dont like it. the reason trish gets weekly blood tests is to monitor her blood counts, and low blood counts are all part of the chemo ball game...

so it wasn't necessarily bad news today, but it wasn't good news either.

home around 2:30pm... but we would have gladly stayed longer if taxol was an option.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Trisha,
Stay strong and keep smiling, I know that your immune system will bounce back! Friday was so much fun and it went by way too fast! You're such an inspiration and so positive and I love that! You've inspired me to by a juicer, so send me your best concoctions!:) Can't wait to see you all soon!
xoxo,
Lyndee(and Family)

p.s. Thanks to Oak for the update..he's so great! Hugs to little Caden!

mamafish said...

I just learned about Trisha from Becky's email this morning. I am so sorry to hear this. It sounds like she has a ton of love and support surrounding her and I know how valuable that is. Trisha, fight hard and I will join in supporting you from Tracy. I wish you and your family the best. Thank you Oak and everyone for updating through the blog.

Hanna (Agresti) Zepeda

Anonymous said...

So sorry about your counts today, Trisha. Hoping they'll just continually give you Neupagen each time. Don't let it crush your spirits, remember chemo's cumulative and this happens to most everyone from time to time......
Hang in there.
Thinking of you all the time!
Happy Birthday to you on Thursday!!!
Love,
Marit