We haven’t written in the blog for a few days but things are going incredibly well for Brian. Not only did he have a good “first week” after chemo, his second week was even better. We were waiting to get a “second wave” of not feeling well which the pharmacist at the chemo clinic says sometimes happens. I thought that may happen too since Brian finished his last Prednisone doses on Sunday but incredibly he feels pretty good. He says that if there is anything he has it is a very dry mouth, his taste is different and his sense of smell seems to be affected. Brian is now drug-free until December 6th, when we do it all over again.
I phoned the supportive care coordinator at the Cancer Clinic today as I was very anxious to know how his blood counts had changed since chemo. Brian had blood work last Thursday and this past Tuesday. What I found out completely astounded me. When Brian had his original blood work in September, the abnormal results were a high white count of 43.3 (normal 4.0 to 11.0) and an extremely high lymphocyte count of 34.1 (normal 1.1 to 3.3), and a low hemoglobin 126 (normal 135-180). These counts were even worse when we went to see the oncologist in October and along with an enlarged liver and spleen; why she recommended chemo start right away. Well, by last Thursday – two days after chemo – his hemoglobin had dropped to 105 (this is expected after chemo), but his white count had dropped to 17.4, his platelets to 55 (which is expected too) but his lymphocyte count had dropped right down to 4.9 which is a huge jump from 34.1. I was very happy to see that. The blood work on Tuesday showed his white count to be 10, his platelets still low at 212, his hemoglobin up to 120, WBC 10 and lymphocytes further reduced to 3.9. His electrolytes were normal and his kidney function was normal. (I am writing these in here for our purposes in case we need to look back again in a few months). Anyway, we are very very happy with the results and that Retuximab-CVP seems to be doing the job it should be doing.
The other good thing from Brian’s point of view is that his “itchy skin” which he has had for over a year and is one of the symptoms of lymphoma is completely gone. He is not driving me crazy with his constant scratching anymore! Brian was feeling a little antsy today, so decided to try running and he did 4 and 1’s (if you are not a runner – it means he runs 4 minutes, walks 1 minute and repeats) and ran 4K; came home and was feeling great!
So now we have one more week of feeling “normal” and drug-free before it starts all over again and we hope that we get the same reaction to the chemo with absolutely no side effects but we are still saying that with caution as maybe the more times you zap the body with these drugs, the body may start to say ‘wait a minute, not this again” and maybe start to give Brian a few of those side effects!
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