Reprimanded to my Home

If you remember, I was supposed to have 6 rounds (12 doses) of chemo and then we would do Round 7 for “good measure.” Well, this “one more round for good measure” is not working out so well for me. It has landed me in the hospital and has now confined me to my home. If my oncologist ever wants to do “one more round for good measure” I’m just going to have to say no.

I had my blood levels checked this morning and the GOOD news is that my platelets are up to 44. While that isn’t exactly a stellar number and is a far cry from a normal count of 150, it is a heck of a lot better than 8 where I was at risk to bleed to death! I’m still at risk for bleeding at 44, but I’ll clot eventually, so as long as I don’t get in a car accident or have a major head trauma, I should be fine. I need to be cautious, but not live in a bubble. Also, the fact that I have 44 means that my body is finally starting to produce its own platelets and I don’t have to depend on the kindness of donor platelets. That is great news. Hopefully by next week’s blood checks I’ll be up over 100.

The BAD news is that my white count has bottomed out again and I am severely neutropenic. That means I’m at risk for infection and I’m back in that bubble. I cannot be in public, so any activities that I had planned for the weekend that involved being in the general public are out. I don’t have to be hospitalized, but I do have to stay home and away from people.

I had a busy weekend planned too. I was scheduled to do the curtain speech at the Nutcracker this weekend as a member of the Mid-Columbia Ballet Board of Directors. I had already worked on memorizing the speech, because I always do it sans script because I think it is more personal that way. It is tough to hold a microphone in one hand, a script in the other and still have personal contact with your audience. Luckily, I was figuring this might happen, so I had given the producers a head’s up to have a back up ready for me. So Joel Rogo (owner of the dance studio) has dusted off his tie and will be handling the curtain speech this weekend. I also won’t be able to attend the Nutcracker as planned, and will be missing the performance for the first time in more than seven years. The Kadlec Holiday party was scheduled for tomorrow night, so I’ll be missing my company holiday party. Then there is the shopping. I have Christmas shopping to do. Christmas isn’t going to be happening if I can’t go shopping!! So my bone marrow better get back on track. I have things to do!!

Looking at the bright side, I get to stay home and catch up on movies, read books and rest, rest, rest. I am still pretty tired and the shots to improve my white count make my bones hurt. So I will embrace this coveted rest time. How many people wish they could take a break from the hustle and bustle of everyday chaos and do nothing for a few weeks? So eat your heart out all of you crazily going from one activity to another, caught up in the holiday madness, I’m going to go take a nap.

Besides. There is always online shopping. :-)