Dr. Barnette was happy to see Kaitlyn looking so great with a "big cheezy grin" on her face as he put it. Her hair is growing thick now and her color is good. She feels like her energy is good and he talked with her about her plans for the rest of the summer--Make-A-Wish is sending us to Maine for a couple of weeks in August--and for when school starts in September. He was happy to hear about her visit to Saipan for graduation.
What about the labs? Okay--I felt like everything was good. Everything seemed to be going right. Still, it was nerve-racking for me, so finally I asked. (Sheesh! You would have thought that would be the first thing he would have addressed with a nervous mother sitting right there instead of shooting the breeze with the kid!)
Her labs are GREAT! Her white blood cell count is still slightly low--3600 whereas normal range is 4500-13000--but considering 9 months ago her WBC was 185,000 I have no problem whatsoever with it being slightly low. He said that many of his patients take 6-12 months to return normal counts after treatment, but at just 3 months out almost all of Kaitlyn's counts have already completely recovered and even the WBC is very, very close.
So, no more clinic until sometime in September. The doctor said to just call for an appointment sometime after we get back from Maine and to have a great trip. We plan on it! :)
Thursday, July 11, 2013
Friday, July 5, 2013
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Awww--Ain't That Sweet?
We have neutrophils! ANC this morning is .2 and white blood cells are .3!! It's beginning to look a lot like an immune system! :)
On top of that Kaitlyn's shingles are resolving nicely, her kidney function indicators are back down to normal, and she's eating well and looking good! If her counts are up again tomorrow--she's outta there!
 |
| Awww--here's a little 'phil--isn't it cute? |
Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Expect the Unexpected
Darn. I wasn't expecting this to be the next post. I was expecting to say that we're done, but that was before shingles. And Acyclovir.
Acyclovir is an anti-viral medicine that the doctors started Kaitlyn on as soon as her shingles were diagnosed. Viruses pretty much have to run their course, but there are some anti-virals that can shorten them and lessen the intensity which is especially important in immuno-compromised patients like Kaitlyn. Acyclovir works great! Her shingles were not painful or itchy and they were drying up quickly. Yay!
But last Saturday Kait started having some pain and other issues. On Monday morning she was continuing to feel miserable and her labs (they draw them every day now looking for a bump in white cell counts) showed an irregularly high level in her creatinine which is an indicator of kidney function, so she was wheeled down to ultrasound. Sure enough when the results came back they found that her kidneys were swollen and inflamed ("insulted" they said). A nephrologist came to consult on the issue and guess what "insulted" Kaitlyn's kidneys--Acyclovir! Sigh.
The good news is it's an easy fix--stop the Acyclovir. The other good news is that her counts haven't "bumped" yet, so all of this hasn't really delayed anything. The bad news is that since her white cell counts haven't bumped it's risky to stop the Acyclovir.
Where oh where are you White Blood Cells?
Acyclovir is an anti-viral medicine that the doctors started Kaitlyn on as soon as her shingles were diagnosed. Viruses pretty much have to run their course, but there are some anti-virals that can shorten them and lessen the intensity which is especially important in immuno-compromised patients like Kaitlyn. Acyclovir works great! Her shingles were not painful or itchy and they were drying up quickly. Yay!
But last Saturday Kait started having some pain and other issues. On Monday morning she was continuing to feel miserable and her labs (they draw them every day now looking for a bump in white cell counts) showed an irregularly high level in her creatinine which is an indicator of kidney function, so she was wheeled down to ultrasound. Sure enough when the results came back they found that her kidneys were swollen and inflamed ("insulted" they said). A nephrologist came to consult on the issue and guess what "insulted" Kaitlyn's kidneys--Acyclovir! Sigh.
The good news is it's an easy fix--stop the Acyclovir. The other good news is that her counts haven't "bumped" yet, so all of this hasn't really delayed anything. The bad news is that since her white cell counts haven't bumped it's risky to stop the Acyclovir.
Where oh where are you White Blood Cells?
Wednesday, April 10, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
Bone Marrow 101--uh...make that 91
Big week! Daddy comes tomorrow, Mallory and the grandkids on Wednesday. The question of the week though is when will Kaitlyn's blood cells bump up?
Just to review, once a chemo-interrupted bone marrow starts producing again it generally goes white blood cells first, red blood cells next, and finally platelets.
This morning's labs show a small increase in Kaitlyn's red blood cells which probably means that the white blood cells are also in production, but are racing around repairing chemo damage in which they must give their lives in the line of duty so they don't show up in the lab results yet.
The point is: Kaitlyn's bone marrow has started producing blood cells again! We are down to the last few DAYS! Woohoo!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)