The Bottom

Dr. Goldberg told me at my appointment today that I've hit bottom. No, not in the "my life is in shambles and I've taken to the bottle" sense. My white blood cell count is 1.4 (average healthy range is 4.3 to 10.8).

Waiting for Bad Weather

 

Actually, this is more like waiting for a hurricane, but I don't want to spread a false rumor that another real storm is brewing.

After my Idarubicin chemotherapy last spring, I experienced tremendous leg pain as my bone marrow regenerated with the help of a booster drug. This morning I woke up with back pain. I told the nurse about it at my appointment today, and she said it's likely an indicator that I will be experiencing a lot more pain over the next few days as my bone marrow regenerates after being knocked out from the Duanorubicin.

The back pain reminds me of those first winds before Hurricane Irene struck. We knew we were getting bad weather, but we didn't know how bad, and there really wasn't much to do but wait for it to strike. Hurricane Irene turned out to be less severe than the media had predicted it to be. Hopefully this bone healing process turns out to be nothing more than a tropical depression.

Double Rainbow

This evening we went to the doctor to have her give me the Neulasta injection. The Daunorubicin I've received over the past three days is wiping out my bone marrow cells. As they regrow, the Neulasta should spur them to produce white blood cells to help me fight infection. The Neulasta is similar to the Neupogen I was given in the spring that gave me horrendous leg pain.

On the way home, we saw a double rainbow stretching across the sky. Hopefully it was an omen that I won't have a repeat of the side effect.