Chemo 3 - Over and (hopefully) Done With!!

I had chemo #3 on Monday and so far (knock on wood) it has not been too terribly bad.  Today is officially Day 5, and so far the biggest issue has been extreme fatigue -- more so than the first two, I think.  I literally have done nothing but lay in the bed or sit in the Lazyboy since about 2:00 on Wednesday afternoon.  LOL.   I need to get up and do something!  Ken and I are hopefully going to Tuscaloosa tomorrow for the Bama/Arkansas game -- unless I get up in the morning feeling bad.  Hopefully that won't happen.  I've missed going to the games this year.

Last week I went to the beach with six girlfriends and had a fabulous few days.  I was pampered, spoiled and totally overwhelmed with love and support for five days!  Thanks to my sweet friends.   While there, we finished off my "buzz cut" with the razor, so now I'm truly a "baldie"!!  Although I had taken a bunch of headcoverings with me, I actually went "baldie" inside the beach house a lot of the time.  My girlfriends love me bald or not and didn't seem to mind my skinhead!!   I cannot tell you how liberating it is to be able to truly be yourself around good friends and Christian sisters!!

My beach buddies (minus the two or three that couldn't come this year).  Saturday morning on the front porch with no makeup, in our jammies, and all wearing some of my doo-rags!   What sisterly love!


Erin came down from Huntsville Wednesday morning and stayed until about 5:15 yesterday.  As usual, she was a big help and a great nurse.  Thank you, Erin!!!

Apparently, chemo really played havoc with my white blood counts after Treatment #2.  I had a regularly-scheduled appointment to see my internist, Dr. Clifton, on Tuesday of last week.  As usual, he did blood work.  His office called my cell phone and left a message that my blood work was fine (i.e., blood sugar (A1C), cholesterol, etc.)  When I got home from the beach on Sunday night, I opened the envelope and was reading the results indepth.  Surprisingly my A1C was still pretty good, despite being on steroids.  My cholesterol was great -- 129!!  Not sure it's ever been that low.  Haha.  But when I looked at the sheet on white blood counts, red blood counts, neutrophils (whatever that is), that's where the results took a sharp turn.  Apparently the lab doing the testing was totally flipped out by my WBC (white blood count) reading of 300 (normal is 12,000, I think) because there's a note that says "panic call to Dr. Clifton's office."  Of course, the lab had no way of knowing that I was on chemo and that my blood counts would tend to be low from treatment. 

When I went for Chemo #3 on Monday, I showed them the blood work results from the prior week, and even they were shocked at the 300 WBC reading.  Apparently that is dangerously low and means that I had no immunity whatsoever.  I was told that if I began to run a fever, with counts that low, that I'd have to go to the hospital and get mega doses of antibiotics.  Thankfully, nothing bad came of those low counts.  By the time I went for Treatment #3 on Monday, my WBC had risen to 19,000 -- above normal -- thanks to the Neulasta shot, I guess.  I'm not sure why it took the Neulasta shot I had gotten after Treatment #2 so long to kick in and do its magic, but thankfully it did. 

All in all, things are going well.  Three down, five to go!!  I continue to be amazed by my support system -- so many friends, family, Christian brothers and sisters and others who don't know me personally.  I am being "loved through" this journey. 

Love you all,


Rachel