This better be true. It's been too long since I've blogged, my bad. But with good reason, as I was thoroughly enjoying the company of my husband. Granted he was only here for 10 days but, it's the whole pre-and-post process of prepping and then decompressing that I like to include as well. So how am I doing in this Christmas Eve-post-husband's-visit state of existence? I'd say that I'm doing pretty well, still having some ups and downs with side effects but staying stable with my blood levels. I dealt with a really bad week of awful nausea as a result of coming off of a medication (yay!!), which I could have helped with adding another medication, but you kind of get to a point of "I don't really want to take anymore pills"... And, I totally hit that point. I still have some nausea but have really decreased any caffeine consumption and have something to take for nausea when it's more than manageable.
I am still receiving transfusions for RBCs and platelets but they are slowly (very slowly) becoming less frequent. So, it was a nice surprise to go in today for labs and not need to get anything. Early Christmas treat for me! It's been eight days since I last received platelets (the longest I've gone so far) and just over two weeks for RBCs. I had three rounds of Neupogen shots, with my last on the 8th and while they were not the most comfortable thing to experience, they did help boost the growth of neutrophils. I crossed that tricky ANC "barrier" of 1.0, getting as high as 2.07 (which kind of floored me) for a day before it came back down and has been hovering just above 1 (literally, it's 1.01 today). Now I have at least some sort of immunity but still need to continue to be cautious and do the mask thing when around crowds and (especially) in the hospital. I can't let this freedom go to head and start doing crazy things like eating sashimi or licking handrails, haha.
At this point, three months out from my ATG treatment we were hoping that things would have progressed a little quicker with cell regeneration, but it does look like things are progressing, only at a slower pace. So, it's still really just a waiting game, until my levels are high enough that I'm not needing transfusions and can have my PICC line removed. Well, at least I am getting the white Christmas experience without the annoyance of shoveling!
I am still receiving transfusions for RBCs and platelets but they are slowly (very slowly) becoming less frequent. So, it was a nice surprise to go in today for labs and not need to get anything. Early Christmas treat for me! It's been eight days since I last received platelets (the longest I've gone so far) and just over two weeks for RBCs. I had three rounds of Neupogen shots, with my last on the 8th and while they were not the most comfortable thing to experience, they did help boost the growth of neutrophils. I crossed that tricky ANC "barrier" of 1.0, getting as high as 2.07 (which kind of floored me) for a day before it came back down and has been hovering just above 1 (literally, it's 1.01 today). Now I have at least some sort of immunity but still need to continue to be cautious and do the mask thing when around crowds and (especially) in the hospital. I can't let this freedom go to head and start doing crazy things like eating sashimi or licking handrails, haha.
At this point, three months out from my ATG treatment we were hoping that things would have progressed a little quicker with cell regeneration, but it does look like things are progressing, only at a slower pace. So, it's still really just a waiting game, until my levels are high enough that I'm not needing transfusions and can have my PICC line removed. Well, at least I am getting the white Christmas experience without the annoyance of shoveling!
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