When you say Neutropenia out loud it sounds a little like a character from the Harry Potter books (or films, depending on your preference). And if it was, she would be a villain! But alas, it’s really what the medical world says when a special type of white blood cell is running low. Karen recently shared an article from the University of New Mexico that tells a little more. Unfortunately, we can’t just pull through the hospital for a fill-up.
Karen has been suffering from neutropenia, and this has been leaving her tired and prone to illness. This week her neutrophils were so low that the rest of her chemo cycle was cancelled altogether, not just postponed. She’s on cipro to fight infections, and we’re limiting her exposure to the world to give her some time to recover.
Next Wednesday the Cleveland Clinic intends to perform another PET scan to gauge the effectiveness of her chemo regimen. In the mean time, she’s just trying to recover and manage her symptoms. I don’t expect that we’ll throw any parties, or take many trips around town, but if we do happen to see you, wellness and personal hygiene is particularly important right now. You’ll never offend by refusing to shake hands or hug. If you’ve had the sniffles and aren’t sure whether it’s allergies or a “touch of something”, it’s better to err on the side of safety right now. “I’ve been at the daycare, so can’t shake hands,” or “I just took out the trash, so I can’t hug,” show you’re thinking of her, so please don’t hesitate to say them.
Yesterday Karen spent a little time with Kubota, so she is on the upswing. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to take some walks over the weekend. We still have to explore for our table and chairs. The flooding last week carried away the cast iron table and chairs we have down at our picnic spot. Yes, in if we had a rock/water/iron contest, water beats all! It runs so fast sometimes that it carries rocks larger than a softball around (no kidding). We have an array of them inside our culvert pipe.
Fortunately, we weren’t otherwise effected by the flooding. Our house has a pretty nice stream that is about 7 feet lower than most of the property, so it collected all the runoff and carried it away. But the stream was about 30″ higher than normal and ran over the bank where we have our little picnic spot. The rains happened when we were at the clinic, so we explored when we got home. Here’s a picture of our path down to our table and chairs. For reference, that’s supposed to be a 4′ stream…
With luck she’ll be back to form over the weekend, and there is no chemo next week. I’ll report back when there is something to report, which may not be until the test results. I’m not sure when to expect those, but hope to have something to report by next weekend.
Love the posts, Charlie. Thanks.
Love and continued prayers for you, my darling daughter.