A Frightening Halloween

On Tuesday night (October 30), I began feeling extremely tired.  I could barely move across the room without feeling like I was going to fall.  So, on Halloween morning (Wednesday), I decided to call my doctor's office and let them know.  They had me stop by the office for some labwork.  Unfortunately, I found out that nearly all of the important tests came out showing I was low.  For example, my white blood count was once again in the "critical low" state at around 1 (should be 4).  Also, my neutrophils, which seem to be the most important number we pay attention to these days, was .2 (should be 1.5).  Perhaps I took advantage of the excellent lab results from my one-week follow up appointment in round two and did too much.  I was thinking that day 7 was the low point of the chemo cycle for my immune system (the nadir), but perhaps it was later.   I was really looking forward to spending some time with our neighbor friends that night for a little block party before trick-or-treating, but that was now out of the question.  But, we still managed to do some walking around the neighborhood for trick-or-treating.  We had SO much fun.  I was pretty tired after walking down our street, so I stopped back by the house to hand out candy and get Abbey down for bed while Drew and Luke went out for some more trick-or-treating.  Luke LOVED trick-or-treating.  He practically ran from house to house.  Here are some photos of this year's costumes.  These were taken before we went out trick-or-treating.

Little Robin, scoping our his trick-or-treat route.

Batman (aka Daddy) with his little fairy and sidekick, Robin.

Two fairies, Abbey and me

They liked riding in the wagon together.  Abbey dropped something in the wagon, here, and was trying to retrieve it.

I contacted the Oncology office again this morning and had some more labs drawn, because I am still feeling extremely tired.  We think it is due to the severe neutropenia, because my ANC (neutrophil count) is still only .3 (again, needs to be 1.5 before I am able to get chemo again) and my WBC is still critically low at 1.15.  So, the plan is to check again on Wednesday morning (my chemo round 3 is scheduled to begin on Thursday morning).  If I am still low on Wednesday, they may try Neupogen very cautiously (due to my allergic reaction to Neulasta, which is in the same class of drugs).  The hope is to be able to stay on my chemotherapy schedule.  I have read that if I get off schedule, the success of the chemotherapy can be negatively affected.  Also, the severe neutropenia puts me at extremely high risk for acquiring illness and infection.  As I have said in another post, if I get sick while I am neutropenic, it could be EXTREMELY serious.  This is why I have to stay away from anyone sick and wash my hands constantly.

So, prayer warriors, you have been so good to us.  We have some more prayer requests today:

• Please pray that all of my white blood counts (including neutrophils) go up dramatically by Wednesday morning.  I would love to avoid the Neupogen injection! 
• Please pray that I do not get sick while on chemotherapy.  Getting sick with my counts this low could be very bad and would mean hospitalization, and likely a delay in treatment.
• Please pray that I am able to stay on schedule with my chemotherapy and that it is extremely effective in ridding my body of this cancer.  

As always, thank you so much for your continued prayers!  I pray that I will be writing my next post in the chemo chair on Thursday, letting you know my numbers are great, I feel well and I am able to stay on schedule.