Yesterday's worries

Hi everyone:

Yesterday morning, Kathleen took a call from her oncologist's office to confirm her appointment for this coming Wednesday. When the nurse asked how she was faring, Kathleen admitted she was feeling run down, dizzy and nauseous. Her oncologist asked that she come in for blood tests. When Patty and I arrived to take Kathleen to her appointment, she felt very weak; she took a sip of pop and said, "I hate how even that feels like a big deal." Whenever she stands and tries to move too quickly, she swoons.

Kathleen's blood tests revealed that many of her blood markers are depressed, even though she received two units of blood and four units of platelets late last week. The blood products gave her a boost over the weekend (a typical, short-term response that is wonderful, because Kathleen has a chance to be mostly herself again, if only for a short time), but she was running on empty by Monday morning.

As of yesterday afternoon, Kathleen's hemoglobin measured at 6.4 g/DL (normal is 12-16), and her platelets sat at 15 K/ul (normal is 140-440). In addition, five other measures were flagged for being outside normal ranges. Although such results are nothing new--most have been out of whack each of the last four times they've been measured--the hemoglobin level was especially concerning, because Kathleen received blood last Thursday and the number was still lower than the last three times it was measured. What's more, Kathleen has been experiencing headaches and racing of her heartbeat that both she and the doctors find worrisome--when she first arrived for her appointment, Kathleen's heart rate was 138 beats/minute. Our understanding is that this happens because she has too little blood for her body's needs, so her heart works harder to send it to her extremities.

After her appointment, we brought Kathleen to the hospital to have her blood typed and crossmatched so she can receive two units of blood today. Don plans to spend the day with Kathleen at the hospital's infusion clinic while she receives the blood, which should take about four hours. If after the infusion her measures improve, she'll head back to her oncologist's office tomorrow for her next round of chemotherapy. Her doctor mentioned yesterday that he won't know if the new chemo is working until she's received several treatments (so far, she's had only one).

In our opinion, Kathleen made a very good call yesterday. Had she downplayed her symptoms, her numbers would no doubt have been much lower by her appointment Wednesday, which very well could have resulted in a hospitalization through the holiday weekend.

Understandably, Kathleen is frustrated at times by feeling so sick, and by never getting much of a break from doctors and interventions. Still, she's a tough cookie. A brief flash of anger ("I'm NOT going to the hospital!") is often followed by a smile and a shrug when she later acknowledges, "Guess I'm going to the hospital, huh?" We continue to be impressed (and, at times, amazed) at how well she rolls with what has to be a crappy stretch of days.

We'll provide another update as soon as we have more to report.

Love,
Brian

P.S. I've snapped a few photos of Kathleen over the past few days; I'll try to post these soon.