Kristina is starting to feel the effects of the chemo, her blood pressure is very low, she's neutropenic (ANC= 300), and she has had some neasea . She is still fielding many calls sorting through the transplant. The long and the short: she's exhausted. If you want to visit, call her first to ensure she has the strength.
Last night was the 7th day of the chemo, she has 3 more days of another chemo drug which will mark the end of the chemo treatment. Over the next several weeks, the doc's will be monitoring her white blood cell count (WBC), platelet count (PLT), hemocrit % (HCT)and neutropenic state (ANC). I will try to post these measures daily. The chemo will make all of these measures drop dramatically low (I think - I'm not a sure what it will do to the HCT count).
Here are some of her counts. 8/23: WBC-1.2, HCT 29, PLT 21, ANC 300. 8/22: WBC 1.4, HCT 30, PLT 30, ANC 1232. The ANC count dropped dramatically from day 6 to day 7.
Day 14 is a big day. They will do another bone aspiration/biopsy to measure the blast count. Basically, they want that to be 0. This says whether the chemo did it's job. If the blast count is not at an acceptably low level, they will administer another round of chemo. Day 14 is Thursday, Aug 30.
Janet Bien
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