14 May 2006
Sunday, 10:40 PM
High-Level Journal Summary: Updating some comprehensive data regarding my Hematology Reports. Including results from blood tests done today, my Neutrophils and Platelets have been in the NORMAL range 84.2% and 89.4% of the time, respectively. On the other hand, my White Blood Cell count has only been in the NORMAL range once in the past 6 months (i.e., 5.2% of the time).
But based on today's blood test results, I am now proceeding to my 8th 5/23 Temodar chemotherapy cycle starting tomorrow morning.
Countdowns:
1.) Day 28 of 28 in my 7th 5/23 Temodar chemotherapy cycle.
2.) Quarterly meeting with my local neurologist, Dr. Amy Stone, is on 5/16/06. The purpose of this meeting is to keep in sync with her and my primary neurologist, Dr. Steven Pacia (NYU).
Seizure Activity:
1.) Last Grand Mal Seizure was on 6/30/05.
2.) Last Simple Partial Seizure, or SPS, was 5 days ago (10-second sharp seizure).
3.) I have now had 19 SPS's in the past 143 days. This is an average of 1 every 7.5 days.
Medical Goals:
1.) For brain cancer, take Temodar chemotherapy for 2 years. This will improve the chances of stabilizing my brain cancer to keep it slow-growing. This will also "buy me time" as new treatments are found.
2.) For partial epilepsy, get better seizure control. Medication, stress reduction, and healthy sleep patterns are all needed. I cannot change medications while on chemotherapy. Still, the ultimate goal is to eliminate seizure activity.
3.) Game Plan. Treating my chemotherapy treatment as my fulltime job continues to be my overall game plan. This allows me the time and energy to employ the best practices I have learned from my virtual medical team.
Actual Journal: At 10 AM this morning, I was in the lab of the Fairfax Northern Virginia Hematology Oncology office. Janet was once again there to greet me, actually working on this Mother's Day. She took 4 viles of blood for 4 different tests.
As always, I followed her back to the testing equipment to peer over her shoulder as some of these tests were run. I wanted to see the numbers as they were spit out of the computer. I wanted to see the WBC, NEU, and PLT numbers while the ink was still wet.
But today, I had to wait a moment before seeing the results. Just before the tests were run on a vile of my blood, the phone rang.
"Hello, this is Janet."
"Happy Mother's Day to you. Happy Mother's Day to you. Happy Mother's Day to you-ooo. Happy Mother's Day to you!"
It was so cute, especially Janet's expression. I stepped back and let Janet be a Mom for 5 minutes before we got back to looking at blood results. The last time I was tested was 2 weeks ago, so waiting another 5 minutes for these magic numbers was not going to kill me.
Blood numbers from today
In any case, here are partial results from my latest Hematology Report, as compared to data since the start of cycle 1 of chemo. As usual, I only focus on 3 markers from today's report -- White Blood Cells (WBC), Neutrophils (NEU), and Platelets (PLT). These are counts that could stop me from taking Temodar chemotherapy if they are too low.
White Blood Cell Data
The "expected range" for WBC is 4.60 - 10.2 THOUS/MCL. This is what normal people NOT on chemo would be expected to have if randomly tested.
10/29/05: 3.90 (Before cycle 1) - LOW
11/14/05: 3.50 (Mid-point, cycle 1) - LOW
11/26/05: 3.00 (Before cycle 2) - LOW
12/11/05: 3.52 (Mid-point, cycle 2) - LOW
12/21/05: 3.80 (Prior to Perfusion MRI) - LOW
12/24/05: 3.06 (Before cycle 3) - LOW
01/08/06: 5.66 (Mid-point, cycle 3) - NORMAL
01/20/06: 3.84 (Before cycle 4) - LOW
01/22/06: 3.53 (Before cycle 4) - LOW
02/05/06: 3.81 (Mid-point, cycle 4) - LOW
02/17/06: 3.87 (Before cycle 5) - LOW
02/19/06: 3.66 (Before cycle 5) - LOW
03/05/06: 4.20 (Mid-point, cycle 5) - LOW
03/17/06: 3.06 (Before cycle 6) - LOW
03/19/06: 4.03 (Before cycle 6) - LOW
04/02/06: 3.65 (Mid-point, cycle 6) - LOW
04/15/06: 3.29 (Before cycle 7) - LOW
04/30/06: 3.27 (Mid-point, cycle 7) - LOW
05/14/06: 3.46 (Before cycle 8) - LOW
Neutrophils Data
The "expected range" for NEU is 2.00 - 6.90 K/uL. This is what normal people NOT on chemo would be expected to have if randomly tested.
10/29/05: 2.46 (Before cycle 1) - NORMAL
11/14/05: 2.00 (Mid-point, cycle 1) - NORMAL
11/26/05: 1.70 (Before cycle 2) - LOW
12/11/05: 2.11 (Mid-point, cycle 2) - NORMAL
12/21/05: 2.38 (Prior to Perfusion MRI) - NORMAL
12/24/05: 1.71 (Before cycle 3) - LOW
01/08/06: 5.21 (Mid-point, cycle 3) - NORMAL
01/20/06: 2.27 (Before cycle 4) - NORMAL
01/22/06: 2.04 (Before cycle 4) - NORMAL
02/05/06: 2.51 (Mid-point, cycle 4) - NORMAL
02/17/06: 2.19 (Before cycle 5) - NORMAL
02/19/06: 2.06 (Before cycle 5) - NORMAL
03/05/06: 3.07 (Mid-point, cycle 5) - NORMAL
03/17/06: 1.89 (Before cycle 6) - LOW
03/19/06: 2.68 (Before cycle 6) - NORMAL
04/02/06: 2.41 (Mid-point, cycle 6) - NORMAL
04/15/06: 2.06 (Before cycle 7) - NORMAL
04/30/06: 2.15 (Mid-point, cycle 7) - NORMAL
05/14/06: 2.12 (Before cycle 8) - NORMAL
Platelet Data
The "expected range" for PLT is 142 - 424 K/uL. This is what normal people NOT on chemo would be expected to have if randomly tested.
10/29/05: 304 (Before cycle 1) - NORMAL
11/14/05: 301 (Mid-point, cycle 1) - NORMAL
11/26/05: 339 (Before cycle 2) - NORMAL
12/11/05: 285 (Mid-point, cycle 2) - NORMAL
12/21/05: 274 (Prior to Perfusion MRI) - NORMAL
12/24/05: 215 (Before cycle 3) - NORMAL
01/08/06: 81.5 (Mid-point, cycle 3) - LOW
01/20/06: 173 (Before cycle 4) - NORMAL
01/22/06: 173 (Before cycle 4) - NORMAL
02/05/06: 238 (Mid-point, cycle 4) - NORMAL
02/17/06: 143 (Before cycle 5) - NORMAL
02/19/06: 147 (Before cycle 5) - NORMAL
03/05/06: 229 (Mid-point, cycle 5) - NORMAL
03/17/06: 159 (Before cycle 6) - NORMAL
03/19/06: 140 (Before cycle 6) - LOW
04/02/06: 221 (Mid-point, cycle 6) - NORMAL
04/15/06: 172 (Before cycle 7) - NORMAL
04/30/06: 237 (Mid-point, cycle 7) - NORMAL
05/14/06: 159 (Before cycle 8) - NORMAL
Observations
So far, I have had a total of 19 blood tests since 10/29/05. Some analysis:
1.) White Blood Cells
- LOW 18 out of 19 times
- NORMAL only 5.2% of the time.
2.) Neutrophils
- LOW 3 out of 19 times.
- NORMAL 84.2% of the time.
3.) Platelets
- LOW 2 out of 19 times.
- NORMAL 89.4% of the time.
Conclusion
Again, I am only looking at 3 of the key markers from today's Hematology Report. As usual, my White Blood Count is lower than normal. No surprise. Temodar chemotherapy hits my White Blood Cells hard, and there is not much I can do to restore my WBC count. However, my counts are still considered favorable for where I am in my overall chemotherapy treatment. Therefore, I am now proceeding to my 8th 5/23 Temodar chemotherapy cycle starting on 5/15/06.
All this is basically good news. I'll take it.
