Date
27 28 29
30 1 2
3 4
Day 7
8
9 10 11
12 13 14
ANC
Count 0.01 0.01 0.03 0.3 1.0 1.05 1.05 0.87
Numbers. Lots of
them. Assuming the formatting doesn't mess up when I post this they're in a nice
little table. The bottom line is the one to watch. ANC stands
for <mumble> Neutrophil Count.A= aggregate
perhaps.. Neutrophils are one of several types of
white blood cell - their job is to gobble bacteria and fungi. I need lots
of them.
The fact that those
numbers are non zero is a Good Thing! It means that some of the friendly orange
strangers have taken up abode in my marrow and are making white blood
cells! This isn't full engraftment - the docs will agree that has
happened when I have 3 days with out artificial help and a rising count over
1.0. So far the count has risen dramatically because they've been
taking lessons from old school Tour de France cyclists and giving me hormones to
up the neutrophil production. We stopped the booster jabs for a couple of
days and the count held and then dropped. No problem. Another
'vitamin' shot today and I'll be back over 1.0 again
tomorrow.
The level 1.0
(billion per litre) is a support level at which I can pretty much maintain my
body against normal levels of attack so they will maintain that until I can do
it myself.
In the meantime
progress - my mouth is getting better - I can breathe, sleep and swallow without
pain. we've stopped the morphine so I can pee without 'hesitancy' (a nice
medical term). The various rashes on arms, legs, chest, and back are
subsiding - but my ears are hot, scratchy, and sensitive - perhaps the first
signs of GVHD.
I'm still not
eating. I tried and managed a boiled egg this morning. at lunch I had a chicken
wing and half a tinned peach - but my stomach, er, rejected them an hour or too
later. And the diarrhoea is back.
So - some good
- some less pleasant. But its all change, and change is progress, and
progress is what I need. I'm still weak and tired - sleeping a lot and
keeping still most of the time I'm awake so as not to disturb my
bowels. I haven't checked my mail for days - so it's not just you I'm
ignoring - no one is getting replies :-)
