Tuesday, May 22, 2007 6:16 PM, CDT

Hello,
I’m home!!!! I was able to leave the hospital around 12:30 today. I feel good but am totally wiped out. I spent the majority of the day on the couch in and out of sleep.
Today, my white blood cell count rose to 900, which isn’t 1,000 (wow, look at that, I can count!!!). However, once your counts go up they continue to rise. Therefore, Dr. Walsh felt I was pretty much out of the woods. While I was in the hospital I was on an IV antibiotic every eight hours. Dr. Walsh sent me home with an oral antibiotic just to be safe.
Where do we go from here? Well, apparently once your white blood cells fall, the likelihood that they’ll fall with subsequent rounds of chemo goes up. 24 hours after my next round of chemo, I will receive a shot of Neulasta which helps promote white cell growth. There is no guarantee that it will work but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
What if it doesn’t work? Then Dr. Walsh will consider lowering my chemo dose, which I absolutely do not want to happen. I want to continue to be treated as aggressively as possible as does Dr. Walsh. However, if the Neulasta does not promote white cell growth, Dr. Walsh is willing to “roll the dice” and give me more full doses of chemo. Why? Because I wasn’t that sick this time and my white blood cell count only fell to 600 AND because I am young and healthy (other than the cancer).
I wholeheartedly agree with Dr. Walsh. I’m six rounds in and will go another three rounds until I have another CT scan, which will bring us to nine total rounds (see I can still count!!). Eradicating this cancer from my system is most important to me. I don’t want a wimpier dose of chemo; I don’t want a chemo vacation. I want them to hit me and hit me hard until these tumors are gone. I will be devastated if I have to lower my chemo dose. But for now, I’ll take it one day at a time and thank God for modern medicine and the hopes that Neulasta will help me.
At this point, I’m going to rest for the remainder of today and poor Greg will be in charge of this crazy house for another day. Thank you Greg. I’m hoping I feel better tomorrow and I will look forward to the amazing forecast and the brief chemo respite I will get because Monday is a holiday. I don’t have to get chemo until Wednesday, May 30….didn’t I just say I didn’t want a chemo vacation??? J I’ll take a chemo long weekend though. Doesn’t’ everyone appreciate a long weekend?
Thank you to Donna Stone for cooking us a great meal for tonight and as I told her, I should be able to eat cold things like ice cream soon. And as I’ve told you, ice cream is a comfort food for me. I told Donna, that what I’m hoping to have is a great big huge five scoop Reeces Pieces Sundae from Friendly’s this weekend. Plus, Greg bought me Ben and Jerry’s Heath Bar Crunch for Mother’s Day and I didn’t have a chance to eat it. PLUS, one of Greg’s very generous colleagues, Pete Nikitas, sent me six pints of Graeter’s Ice Cream from Ohio: mango sorbet, chocolate, black raspberry chip, black cherry, cookie dough chip and buckeye blitz. The buckeye blitz of course is for the Ohio State University Buckeyes, where my favorite Patriot player Mike Vrabel graduated from. Don’t you just love how the players introduce themselves as graduates from the Ohio State University??
Oh and speaking of Mother’s Day (it’s buried in the last paragraph as I’m rambling about ice cream), I forgot to mention that I absolutely kicked Greg’s butt in miniature golf. My score 50, Greg’s 65. I was on fire!! I even got a hole in one. I don’t think it was a mother’s day gift either, I think Greg just had a bad day on the golf course. I’ll challenge him to a rematch….and maybe I’ll let you know the score. J
Have a great day and thank you for your posts and your email when I was in the hospital. I’m glad to be home and Greg DVR’d the Sopranos for me so I can watch it tonight. I was most stressed in the ER on Sunday. Why? Not because I was afraid they were going to admit me but because I was afraid they would send me home too late to catch the Sopranos—there’s only a few episodes left and I’m still hooked.
Anyway…I will post again soon.
Love,
Kim