Chemo today

Chemo this morning – prayers and positive thoughts are welcome.

Last time around was my first time on a new chemo. They gave me the usual anti nausea meds (which knock me out) plus (new for me…) the maximum allowed dose of IV Benadryl. I was out of it for three days total. Going to see if we can jiggle that a bit!

That assumes that my white count is high enough to even get chemo today. As a normal person walking around before chemo, my white count tended to run low, though it was never a problem for me. However, when I started doing chemo, we learned that the drugs wiped out my white cells.

The answer to this is to get an injection of Neulasta (or something like it) every time I do a round of chemotherapy.

Your white cells, as an adult, are made in the bone marrow of your large bones, like your hips. Neulasta rushes that process along, so i think of it as speed for my bone marrow.

The process is painful, and getting that shot every other week over these many years (which, yes, I am blessed to have), I developed hip pain.

BUT – now that I am doing a new chemo regimen, maybe it won’t be so hard on my white cells? So I asked if we could skip the Neulasta, and my doctor agreed to try it.

My hips feel great, and I’m hoping my white cells are swimming along enough for me to get chemo today.

Love,
Marie