Thursday I went to get my PICC line before chemo. That went fine. It’s kind of cool to think that you can get this catheter that goes from your arm all the way to your superior vena cava just outside your heart. From that catheter, which has two exposed ports, they can either take blood or hook up an IV. With chemo having destroyed my veins, they decided to put this in. It’s on the inside of my right upper arm, and I go every week to have the dressing changed and to make sure no infection starts around the entry through the skin.
When they got my lab results from earlier that morning, it turned out my neutrophils and WBCs were too low and they couldn’t give me chemo. I’m rescheduled for Monday, and if that goes well, we’ll reschedule the rest of my dates on Thursday starting 10/21 and get back on track. I’ll be one week behind — not too bad; I hope not to have to skip any more treatments.
They are also changing me from Leukine® to Neupogen® — the injection to increase my WBCs in hope that the fever problem will dissipate. Leukine works on a more basic level of WBC production and affects all the WBCs; Neupogen works at a higher level in the process of WBC production and affects only the neutrophils, which, I guess, is the most important of them for consideration during chemo.
I’m disappointed at not being able to have my scheduled chemo and falling a week behind, but I’m also feeling better — don’t have that constant sick, nauseated feeling that I had before. That’s very, very cool, and I’m enjoying it.
Today I feel like chassés, delicate and small. It reminds me of my baby classes who loved chasséing across the floor to Baka Beyond; they would get so excited it would be hard for them to wait for my count . . .
5, 6, 7, 8
Donna Peach 