Blood
I didn't find this out till late Saturday, but apparently my counts, which I knew had dropped a bit from their high of 2, were really low. Over the last few days, I presume when I was having all the fevers, my white blood counts had dropped to .4, and had only risen to .6 by my Friday midnight labs.
This called for more blood. In addition, they wanted to open up the wound on my lip, so that meant they boosted my platelets even more than normal. So over the course of Friday morning and into Saturday I had 2 bags of platelets and two bags of blood. I also discovered for the first time that the blood transfusions are of red cells only--the white cells are irradiated out.
The good news is--by Sunday morning--they are 1.6. Incidentally, my weight was 186.
The Continuing Saga of the Lip
My Lip, and what the next step was, was the point of hot contention for Saturday morning. I was still mad no one had explained it to me. It was Saturday, so it also meant that none of my regular doctors would be in--instead others covering for them--would be making rounds. But I was sure they would know the story.
The big difference today, was that my lip was unquestionably less swollen. Hurray!
Main Doctor's Opinion
Around 10:45 AM the doctor covering for my main doctor came in. I explained my concerns and he explained his. The main reasons for doing the swab as he explained them were:
- I am having unexplained fevers and they want to stop them.
- By waiting they could be letting something take hold that will do more damage, and they don't want to drop the ball.
- I am taking a lot of antibiotics, and sometimes even those can cause fevers. So, if they know which things to use to target the lip, they might be able to remove some of the other drugs.
That all made sense, but I was still not 100% convinced it was all worth a new wound that might gt a new infection in an area where all sorts of things (food) could work their way in and cause problems.
Plastic Surgeon's Opinion
Now, of course, the plastic surgeon is the same one that originally suggested we not open it up. The main doctor said that of course its not really up to him though, but I did figure he knew most about the healing and issues with it.
He said a healthy person would take 2-3 days, but with me and my really low counts he did not know. That seemed like a really long time to me.
The ID Doctor
In the end, one of the doctors (forget who) called my ID doctor and discussed it. They backed off from it for now, saying they can always go in on Monday if need be.
So for now--new wound averted!
Fevers
On Saturday I didn't have one fever. I think the highest I got was 99--which for me is nothing. It's Sunday morning as I write this.
WATCHMEN
So, how did I spend this feverless day? Well--I'm still pretty idle and not quite for of vigor yet, so I read. I started the WATCHMEN which is also coming out as a movie. I started while I couldn't sleep at around 3 in the morning on Friday and have spent most of the day reading it. It's really good. It won a Hugo award and is in Time Magazine's top 100 novels since 1923.
Anyway--looking forward to the movie--but it will be a different experience--there is so much depth in this book (which is the first time at lest that I have encountered that in a graphic novel) that it will be hard to get all that across on the screen--but it looks visually great on the screen from the trailers as the link above will show.
Night Sweats
One little annoying thing is night sweats--even without fevers I still get these, which I understand can be a side effect of the chemo. I have been changing out the sheets each time, but this will be impractical once home. Its awful to awaken up drenched--you obviously don't want to go back to sleep in it.
But there it is...
Looking forward to a nice Sunday.
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