Blood counts stabilizing, energy up

Just a brief update. Thursdays are the day I am on medical leave to have labs tested until my blood counts stabelize. Until today I have gone to Gainesville, come home, collapsed in the recliner and sat in front of the TV for the rest of Thursday and Friday, and pretty much dragged through the weekend.

Today I had energy to spare after my labs were collected. Elizabeth, my chemo nurse, printed out my labs since I finished standard chemo and sure enough the hemoglobin (red blood cell count) had gone down, although not quite far enough to require a transfusion, but then come back up again. Last Thursday it was 10.4 - which is not normal but is about the highest my hemoglobins would get immediately after a transfusion. And my white cell count (the ones that fight infection) also had gone down but last week were about 4,000. 5,000 is the bottom limit of normal. So that was all good and is reflected in my energy and endurance levels.

Since I will continue to get the investigational drug Avastin the first Monday of each 3 week cycle for about another year, this coming Monday I will have to take medical leave to recieve Avastin. I will have blood labs drawn then as well. But if the blood counts are as good today and next Monday as they were last Thursday, possibly I will no longer be required to take every Thursday off for laboratory testing! That would be terrrific.

Whether I will still need to take Thursdays and Fridays off just because of general energy levels remains to be seen. But based on improvement to date, I am hoping to be back at work 5 days a week by the beginning of June. This week is the first week that I have come home from labs and actually been able to do chores at home, making it seem likely that within a couple of weeks I will be able to work full time. At least I hope so.

Again, thanks for your support.