The Schedule is the Thing

On Monday, my lab work was done and I got a call late in the afternoon that my white count had dropped below the range that was considered OK for chemo so I was cancelled!!!

This wrecked my world, since I have carefully constructed a calendar based on it all happening when it is supposed to and people are scheduled and I have vacations booked on the "off" weeks, etc.

So needless to say, I was pissed and a bit sad. But this is always driven by the labs so it was useless it seemed, to protest. They are giving me big dollops of the drugs and if the WBC was too low, I was cancelled. Period.

Tuesday, I went in for the "other" clinic appointment, the coagulation clinic (this is follow up to the emboli in January, I go there monthly). They drew levels for the blood thinners at 9 am, and I left to return for my 1:30 appointment. When I did, they provided the lab results and I noticed that for some reason, they drew the blood counts again, even though they had been done by the other clinic a day before. But...... the WBC was in the "normal" range (albeit in the lowest possible end of that). I immediately went down to the Gyne Oncology clinic to speak with Teri, my nurse.

She must think I am a bit nuts, but they know I am a control queen, so they ran one additional test (a differential, I have no idea what that is) to confirm I was good to go. I cannot figure out how a lab result can transform overnight, unless my being pissy about it was one of those mind over matter situations. Anyway, I was "borderline" but they went ahead and sent me up for treatment! It did not start until after 4 PM, but this one is a quicky, so I was home by 6:15, and made dinner, chicken fettuccine alfredo, Sofie's current favorite thing after steak.

We then celebrated one of her snake's birthdays and I celebrated being back on schedule. I hope that I can stay there, for several reasons, the vacations (June and July) that area already scheduled and not changeable, and the fact that the deductible and co-insurance levels "renew" on July 1 and I would really, really not like having to get into more Duke debt the first week of July, which will happen if a chemo is deferred again. It could still happen, but I will work on that mind over matter thing and hope the next three treatment cycles (total of six infusions) will go right on their little schedules. I am trying to plan my life, after all, and these changes don't make that easy.

My doctor (Dr. Valea) came up to chat with me during the infusion, he is a good guy. I reminded him I was able to go to Disneyworld and not collapse, so I should be able to maintain this treatment schedule!

He is changing the order of which drugs (one or two) go in when, and thinks that might address the possible dropping of the WBC if it happens again. Hope so, because the other thing I am loathe to give up at all are manicures and pedicures (yes, you worried readers, I do them extra specially carefully, my own instruments, lots of extra cleaning of things, etc) but those are part of my good mental health routine and I don't want to give them up.

I am now officially at the half way done point of this treatment plan, if the numbers continue to go down (next lab for that is May 7th), I should be done in the end of June, and hopefully back to work within two weeks of that time. After the cruise.

More on the cruise later, but wanted to update all of you on this treatment. I am still a bit sleepy, although I took extra nap today. But that is the drug stuff, they give me, I suppose. I plan to DVR Lost this evening and watch it when I have more alertness. It is hard enough to follow the storyline sometimes when I am not tired!!

Sofie has homework to do this PM, so I have to go get her soon and get that started. Plus make a tasty dinner for three (Jamie is here babysitting me, just in case something happens).

More updates soon, and thanks for reading.