the last day of round two...

so trish and i got to the infusion center today around 8:20am...
by 8:30am, we were sitting in window seat C4 awaiting the beginning of the end of round 2.

we are waiting on getting orders from the dr. carlson to run a blood test for trish.
typically trish doesn't get her blood counts on the 'herceptin only' days, as she can basically get the herceptin regardless of her counts.

her counts have been really low recently, so we want the piece of mind of knowing exactly where they are at... for better or worse..
so.. we will wait until we get the ok from the docs..


so the weekly rewind... let me see what i can remember..


last tuesday morning, we headed off to the stanford ER.. it ended up trish has a bacterial infection that some antibiotics knocked out. trish's blood counts were really good, eventhough she felt like crap for a little bit... but she did get her herceptin, and stayed on schedule.

wednesday:
she was released after an overnight stay in the hospital, and one of the dishcarge orders was to watch for any sores in her mouth. trish has been lucky throughout the chemo, and has only had one or two small sores that didn't last long.

thursday:
a cold sore began developing on her lip, so we watched it.. she felt good, no fever, eating and drinking well. she heading to healing touch that evening for her standing appointment with chanda..

friday:
we went to the cancer center to have a doctor take a look at her cold sore. dr. holbrook kohrt was the oncologist on call, and he came in to take a gander at trish's cold sore.. he saw it, he wasn't concerned, said there wasn't any reason to prescribe even more meds.. he said it was more to do with the infection still lingering in her body than any chemo related stuff.. he said to keep it clean and it will go away in a few days, no biggie.. nice to know it wasn't anything to worry about.

the nurses also drew blood for some blood tests to make sure everything was looking good.

this past weekend was my sister, monya's, wedding in the san francisco. friday was the rehearsal, and trish was one of the bridesmaids. we decided trish has walked down enough aisles in her life that she could skip rehearsal, stay home and rest up for the big show on saturday. caden was the ring bearer, so caden and i drove up to SF on friday afternoon for the walk through. on our way up, trish got a call from the nurses at the cancer center letting her know the results of her blood counts.

unfortunately, trish's white counts had dropped to their all time low, 0.36, although her reds remained consistent hovering a bit above 33.

there was no way we could let trish be around so many people, without fearing for her health. a simple cold would surely result in days in the hospital battling it.
the wedding on saturday was sadly just not an option for trish. it was heartbreaking for trish, as she really wanted to be by my sisters side for the big day.
but trish's health is the most important thing right now... and that even meant kicking our dog out of the house for a while... sorry bella..


saturday:
wedding day... trish felt great, looked great so it was crappy that she had to stay home. as much as we tried rationalizing a plan for her to make the ceremony, in the end, common sense prevailed.

caden and i left trish in the early afternoon to head up to the city.
it was sad heading up there without trish, but everyone, including monya & trish, knew it was for the best.

my sister looked beautiful, her husband, russ, was dapper, caden did a great job walking down the aisle/beach at crissy field, much to the aide of his new cousin in law, zoey... the adorable flower girl.
(my money was on the caden seeing the crowd and burying his head in the sand like an ostrich... dad was wrong & zoey kept him moving..)

it was a really nice day for monya & russ, and i have since shown trish plenty of video and pictures so its was almost as if she was there...


sunday:
lazy day around the house.. the low counts haven't changed how she feels, again trish felt great and looked great... the cold sore is drying up and going away... trish finally gave in and tried out the new master shower.. (each of us wanted the other to use it first, so its sat unused for the last couple weeks).

caden, having never taken shower before loved it... once he realized he had a shower head that fit him... and it was removable... it was tough getting the kid out of the shower..


monday:
another good day.. trish was up early and did some chores around the house, some watering out back and playing with caden in the front...

our friend lyndee was nice enough to stop by and drop of some din din, and the (masked and purrelled up) newlyweds stopped by prior to their drive back to LA.



tuesday:

and here we are.... today...

9:20am: nurse kyla got the 'ok' for the blood tests, drew blood, gave trish her premeds of benadryl, decadron and pepcid... she will get her 1/2 hour of herceptin beginning around 10am..

trish is looking and feeling good. keeping her in a bubble the past few days has really helped keep her healthy. we are hoping her white counts are up... her bones have been realy achy the past few days and this has typically been a sign of her blood marrow working in overdrive to produce some whiteys...

the blood tests will give us some piece of mind of how drastically we need to treat bubble girl over the next few days... hopefully they are high enough where things are normal, and maybe the dog can come back home..


thanks for checking in... ill update trish's blood counts when i get them..
but this is the last treatment of round two... only 3 more weeks of visits to the infusion center before chemo is OVER.. 1 more big day next tuesday, followed by 3 short trips on friday, the following tuesday and the following, following tuesday!

only 21 days of chemo left, but who's counting...

caden & zoey heading down the aisle...

caden watching auntie M & uncle R
take pics after the ceremony

caden giving the new shower a try...

the afternoon update...
-------------------------------------
trish finished up her herceptin around 11:00am, and we headed home.

trish's neutrophil counts are still down, so we are gonna need to continue being careful with her.

blood counts:

white blood cells, Absolute neutrophil count (ANC):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 0.36
is 0.78

* 1.4 is about the lowest she can go and still receive chemo. although she is low, the good news is that she more than doubled her count since friday. we expect this to continue to increase as the infection disappears and she finishes up her antibiotics in a few days.

nonetheless, we left a message for trish's nurse asking if we can get back on the neupogen shots that i was administering... they seem to keep her ANC counts more consistent than this once every three week neulasta shot..

red blood cells, hematocrit (HCT):
--------------------------------------------------------------------
was 33.1
is 31.6




the white counts dont really have any bearing on how she feels...
aside from being tired (mentally and physically), she is feeling well.. eating/drinking relatively normal, but the infection has made her gums sore, so hard breads, cereals, etc have been uncomfortable for her.

the big concern with the low counts is that she is very susceptible to getting sick, and not having her immune system strong enough to fight off even common coughs, colds, flus, etc..

so as long as we keep her not sick... she will be fine... so while the stock market is a little shaky, it may be a good time to invest in purel & lysol cause we are going through it pretty quickly.


thanks for reading..