Luke is at it again

Counts are back up. Threshold for re-starting chemo is an ANC of 750. He came in today at 870. Dr. Wells said its not abnormal for Luke's counts to take that long to recover. The chemo just wears the body down.

Luke started back with a dose of vincristine and will be taking mercaptopurine, methotrexate and a steroid orally. Methotrexate will be cut way back (a dose of 4 pills down from 16).

Luke is now the fatasshat as he is tipping the scales at 153 pounds. He has also taken up genealogy exploring his Lithuanian roots. Pictured is his research outfit.

STILL NEED BLOOD. if you can donate please get back to me. Have close to 30 slots to fill the afternoon of the 7th.

Finally Bailey says GO HURRICANES!

Wednesday October 13

Luke had his counts check today and again failed. ANC dropped to 300 from around 700 hundred last week. He needs to have a minimum of 750 before they will start chemo again. Platelets dropped to around 60 from 70 last week (normal there is 140). Hemoglobin is low at around 7.

Luke was again assured response is typical for the start of maintenance. His blood did show a lot of immature white cells which will need to mature to kick up the ANC.

Luke's energy level is not great but he is not complaining about feeling bad.

That's the latest and greatest. Hopefully Luke will devote more time to studying this week and pass next weeks exam. With recieving a passing grade he can restart the chemo and get on with getting the right dose figured out.

Latest

Luke had his counts checked Wednesday, two weeks after starting maintenance. As expected getting to the right chemo dose is going to take some trial and error. He feels fine but his ANC came back low and platelets dropped. He will be off all chemo for a week to let his counts recover to acceptable levels and will then start anew with a lower dose of chemo.

Expect he will be playing at Rudy's Saturday night for anyone wishing to attend.