Blood and Ducks

4th blood draw:
White Blood Cells: 3.7 (up .8)
Red Blood Cells: 4.89
Platelets: 165 (up 19)

All of my counts are up quite a bit and that is a good thing. The other good thing is that my Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) is up above normal now too. The ANC is a good gauge of the body's ability to fight disease. So, now the only things that are below the typical low mark is my WBC's and my lymphocytes (a subset of wbc's). The doctors were wondering if I was particularly stressed the previous weeks, but the truth is that this last week was my most stressful week in a while, and my counts went up.

My apartment complex started heating the pool again so I swam the last two days. It was a nice day out with the sun shining and the ducks quacking and all that good stuff. I swam 14 laps each day. I felt like throwing up afterwards - I don't know if that is from the lactic acid build up in my body or if it is from the salty duck excrement floating in our pool. Either way, it was invigorating.

3rd Blood Draw

Today's blood was about the same, my RBC's were now just a little below the low mark, but the WBC's and platelets hung in there about the same. They are all just a little bit low. I talked to the advice nurse today and she said that they are mostly concerned if they continue to drop, but if they stay the same at the current slightly low level, then they usually just note it, but do nothing.

This Week's Bloody Details

White Blood Cells: 2.9 (the low is 4.0)
Red Blood Cells: 4.57 (low is 4.50)
Platelets: 146 (low is 150)

So, they are still low, but they didn't drop any lower. WBC's actually went up a little. I'll post again when I speak with a doctor.

Low Platelets and WBC's

My lab results from last week show that my white blood cells and my platelets are a little low. I now need to go in once a week for a regular blood draw so we can keep an eye on it. This is as low as my white blood cells were when they gave me the white blood cell booster back in June while I was undergoing chemo treatment. Now the doctors will be monitoring my counts, especially since I have this fungus lurking. I will start the weekly blood draws this Wednesday.

Rare Toe Fungus

I have a rare toe fungus called Fusarium species. It appears that the Fusarium caused my toe-nail discolorations a while back. I think there is some live Fusarium in there, even though my nail almost looks back to normal. The doc says that my fungus is usually not pathogenic, but sometimes immune-suppressed patients can develop disseminated disease. I am not immune-suppressed though, I just had my blood count done and I have a decent amount of infection fighting cells. Next week my docs will confer and decide if I should get some harsh IV drugs to fight the fungus...it has to be harsh (on my liver) because this fungus is really tough...it has to be intravenous because a topical treatment would not penetrate to the center of the nail.

Other than that, my energy is returning and I am getting better rapidly. My hip still hurts a little, but it is getting better too. Getting back to normal is harder than I thought it would be. I still get really frustrated with not being able to move around as freely as before. Lately I have been thinking to myself "man, I can't believe I had cancer last year!". It is slowly shifting from an every day reality to a memory.