Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Asshat Update - August 12

Luke was scheduled to start the next round of the consolidation phase today but his blood counts dropped from last week. He did not pass go and did not collect scheduled chemo. Chemo kickoff has been postponed for one week. Doc Wells was not surprised with having to delay the start of this round. He said being on chemo as long as Luke has has worn down his body's tolerance and he is not able to recover as quickly. The steroids Luke was on also may have served to elevate his counts so when the steroids were dropped his counts followed.

For those plotting lab results this weeks number were white cells 1.9 (normal 4-11), red cells 2.72 (normal 4.5-6), hemoglobin 8.6 (normal 14-18) and platelets 77 (normal 140-440). ANC was at .66. Normal level for ANC is 1.7 to 7.7. To have started chemo ANC needed to be at least .75.

Luke's only recent complaints have been thinning hair and joint pain. Hair is looking pretty thin but I still have him beat. Joint pain is being attributed to his coming off steroids and/or bone marrow making a comeback. His lab work shows a lot of immature blood cells - which is a good sign - but it may be causing the bone pain.

The upcoming phase of chemo looks rough. Next Wednesday is going to be an all day affair. It includes cyclophosphamide via IV, the first of 4 days of cytarabine (injection), an intrathecal dose of methotraxate and the first of 14 days of 6-thioguanine (oral). Cyclophosphamide is rough on kidneys so Luke gets put on an IV drip for six hours to ensure that this renal system is flushed.

Luke came prepared for today being a long day with his guitar in tow - but it never made it out of the case.

Appetite remains good. Today Luke weighed in at an all time high of 144 pounds. He would have gotten knocked out if he got the intrathecal methotrexate today so he had no breakfast this morning. After getting word that chemo was off for the day he consumed a PB and fluff sandwich, fruit snacks and a bag of gold fish followed by a sandwich and bowl of soup at Don's sandwich shop on the way home.

Nikki from U of Miami via New Jersey made her first trip Texas. Family benefited from the visit as Nikki's mom sent some of her cranberry cookies. Nikki spent a few days with us and then visited friends in Austin/Dallas.

Nurse Kendall was in town for the weekend and continued to demonstrate a great propensity to spoil her younger sibling by lavishing him with food and monetary enrichment.

We have been asked by MDA blood bank if we would consider doing another blood drive. Suggestion was a Saturday in October. If we can do it I'd like to repeat the evening concert without the fund raising. Would appreciate any feed back on interest.

Doc Wells was on vacation in Alaska the past 10 days. Today was the first time we have seen him in several weeks. He has apparently been impressed with Luke's t-shirt collection. He told Luke he saw a t-shirt that he tried to get for him but it was only being sold a flea market in Anchorage and he did not have the time to get to the flea market. This year is the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood. Doc Wells described the t-shirt as an outline of the state of Alaska with an outline of Texas inside Alaska and the t-shirt read "Alaska - 50 years of pissing Texans off".

Luke is schedule to play at Berry Hill in Champions tomorrow (Thursday) and I think he is back a Rudy's on Saturday. He did not play at Wine Styles last week but Rick is still trying to schedule him for a date in the near future. Luke bid Cristin a farewell with a few songs at her going away to Qatar party last Friday.

Well that’s it from asshat central. Sorry about the gap on updating the blog but things have been quiet.

1 comment:

  1. Hey, babe. Get through this next bit and keep smiling and playing!

    Things are okay here. Loggie was home for 10 days and Mikey is getting through football. Tomorrow I'm making 4-dozen cinnamon rolls for Moms Club bake sale at the annual football scrimmage on Saturday.

    Wish I was there to share a laugh and, most definitely, to hear you sing and play and that sense of humor only some of us share!
    Love you mucho and miss you bunches!
    Aunt Jacquita

    ReplyDelete