Living Right Today - April 6 2012

I drove myself to UCH this morning...a beautiful day and the drive was uneventful. I left home in Greeley at 8:20 AM.

Used Valet Parking per usual and was up in the BIC on the 2nd floor quickly. RN Brooke drew my blood via my PICC Line and off I went to the pharmacy to pick up my Fragmin Rx. I was ABSOLUTELY the only person at the normally VERY BUSY pharmacy with waiting lines. Got my Fragmin quickly and went up to the 11th Floor to visit Shawn Egle who is getting her 3rd Cycle of VD-PACE. We had a great visit and it is always good to connect with her!

When I left from visiting Shawn the elevator was actually open on the 11th floor and went all the way down to the 2nd floor without stopping!!!! If you're ever used he elevators at UCH, you'd realize how unusual and wonderful this was for me!

Back in the BIC, RN Brooke had my lab values and shared them with me.

My white blood cell count is still low at 1.9 (norm 4-11.1); my hemoglobin is hanging in there really nicely after my blood transfusion on 2 April 2012 at 11.1 (norms 12.1-16.3); and my platelets are soaring (although low) at 75 (norms 150-400. RN Brooke checked with Nurse Practitioner, Karley, to see if I needed to increase my Fragmin (blood thinning injections) dosage from 7,500 units to 15,000 units since my platelets are up over 50. They decided to wait until Monday to see if my platelets are trending up or down before they change my Fragmin dosage.

 This graph show my platelets in light purple. My platelets have been up and down and up and down I've required 5 (five) platelet transfusions since the end of my 1st VDT-PACE Chemotherapy Cycle. The blue line represents my hemoglobin which dipped just once requiring a 2 unit blood transfusion. The green line is my white blood cells which tanked the week after the 1st VDT-PACE cycle and have recovered some (still too low) after that.

The differential on my white blood cells shows my Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) low at 1.3 (norms 1.8-6.6), so I continue with the mask in public and good hand washing.

The graph of my Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) from March 16 2012 to April 6 2012 demonstrates how the 1st Cycle of the VDT-PACE lowered my resistance to infection. 

My comprehensive metabolic panel is all normal.

 My LDH is at 136 (norms 98-192) and seems to be trending up. Not sure how to interpret.

 Graph of my LDH from March 18 2012 to April 6 2012.

 My magnesium is normal at 1.8 (norms 1.3-2.1).

 My phosphorus is normal at 3.6 (norms 2.7-4.5).

 My uric acid is normal at 4 (normal 2.6-8.7).

Was back at Valet Parking waiting for Bart at 10:30 AM. This is record time!!! In and out of the BIC in 1 hour! And home in Greeley before noon!