Days +90: Chemo going well

The first day, December 15, 2013,of chemotherapy (Vidaza) went off uneventful. Todd received treatment at our local cancer center in The Dayton area. Todd was even assigned his former nurse Dinah to resume his treatments. To show you how Todd has retained his sense of humor, he couldn't wait to tell Dinah that he has a Hickman catheter, because she often struggled to get the needle through his "thick skin."  

They ran a CBC before starting treatment and the results were encouraging. The showed a good bounce from the transfusion he received last Friday. We were glad to see he was able to hold the good stuff from the transfusion. His whites went from 1.28 to 2.0; hemoglobin from 8.1 to 10.5; and platelets from 22,000 to 27,000.  Sometimes patients receive transfusion, but have a hard time keeping the cells from them for various reasons. Todd had this problem in the hospital with his platelets. So, this is good news. 

 

I think the local oncologist draws a CBC every 3 or 5 days. It is common for counts to drop the first few days of chemo, but as the treatment begins to work, suppressing the growth of blast cells, counts go up.