Treatment 4 - Wed 13 April

Half way through or more? I met with the oncologist before my treatment. He gave me the results of the blood test that I went for on Monday. Even with a 4 week cycle my white blood cell count had not fully recovered as I was sensitive to the intravenous chemo. It should have recovered to 1.5 where as mine was 1.2. This meant that I could go ahead with the treatment but the dosage was reduce again. This should mean that the side effects will be less.
 
I am back on a three week cycle and we will have a discussion on 3 May when my next treatment is scheduled to see how many more treatments I will have. He was pleased that we had to got to 4 treatments as this a milestone as some oncologists believe that this will provide optimum coverage where as some err on the side of caution and insist on 8 sessions. In my case it depends on how the white cell count recovers as if it continues to drop then the dosage of the chemo has to be reduced and then the question has to be what benefits are being obtained from it. The biggest risk is that if the white blood cell count continues to drop then this leaves me open to other infections and viruses which I am currently managing to escape.

He hopes that if we have to drop the infusions then we will be able to continue with the tablet form of chemo and I have not had a problem with that in the past. So let's see what happens in the  next 3 weeks and there is nothing I can do to increase my white cell count it is just that I am sensitive to the drug. But at least we got to 4 treatments and I hope that we might get 1 more session.

So today I have had much the same in the way of side effects - tiredness & tingly hands. Strangely my face has been red for most of the day. It looks just like I have too much sun. As the day has progressed it has faded so now I look like a bit tanned - not that today was even sunny. I have spent most of the day resting and reading. I have spent the last year it seems reading and enjoying it immensely. I was chatting to Philip last night about the The BBC Big Read - Top 100 Books. I was surprised to find out that I had only read 30 of them! I thought that I was seriously not well read until I looked more closely at the list which has all the Harry Potter books on it as well as 3 by Jacqueline Wilson ( who I have never heard of.) - now wonder when you see the cover!

Doesn't look like one for me!

 So I need to revisit the list as it doesn't seem so high brow as I thought it was and so I may be more well read than I initially thought! But it did stir me into joining Philip and a colleague of his in reading" Love In The Time Of Cholera" by Gabriel García Márquez so we can discuss this in our own little book club - I just need to get a copy of it and even if it is a bit high brow I will have to finish it so we can discuss it! So I will be more well read!

And a blog entry would not be the same without a mention of Colin! As I have a bit more energy this evening I managed to make it to dog obedience classes. I only managed to hand Neil the treats while he and Colin did all the hard work. Once Colin got over the initial excitement he concentrated and did very well -so well in fact he has collapsed with exhaustion since we got home.

So all in all a good day for the first post treatment!