Bummer

My third round of R-CHOP was scheduled for this past Wednesday at Georgetown.  Andrea and I drove back to DC from RI on Tuesday (horrible traffic again - I despise driving through NY/NJ) to make sure we were back on time for the treatments.  Woke up bright and early on Wednesday morning eager to get started with Round 3. I showed up around 7:30 and was shortly informed by Linda, one of the infusion nurses, that my some of my blood counts (from a sample taken the previous day) were pretty low and that she wasn't sure I'd be able to get treated. 

According to Linda, my neutrophil count (neutrophils are white blood cells that carry oxygen and help fight infection) was less than 700 cells per microliter.  The minimum required count for chemo is 1,500; counts for a normal healthy person fall anywhere between 1,500 and 7,800. Any additional chemo could have wiped out even more of my cells, forcing me down below 500 and into a condition called neutropenia and much more susceptible to infection.  So, after chasing down the oncology doc covering for Dr. Cheson (almost all of the Lombardi docs are on vacation this week, so it took a while to get a final answer), they decided to skip the chemo and give me a Neulasta shot instead.  Neulasta is a white blood cell booster that helps the body increase production of cells and fight infection. 

It seems a little weird to say, but I actually look forward to getting these infusions now and this news was definitely a disappointment to me, especially since I've been feeling pretty normal the past couple weeks.  Since Dr. Cheson won't be back until next week, there's still some uncertainty about my treatment schedule going forward.  Not sure if we'll skip this treatment all together or if it'll get pushed back to next week.  And what will happen to the following three treatments?  Typically the docs prefer to stay on strict treatment regimen, with infusions exactly 3 weeks apart.  Lots of questions I can't answer, so I guess I'll just have to wait until next week to hear from the doc.  To be safe, Andrea and I went ahead and booked additional appointments just to be safe; I'm hoping that they tell me to come in next week for Round 3. 

Andrea and I are headed to West Virgina today to spend a few days honing our (lack of) snowboarding skills.  Everybody was kind of scattered in their New Year's plans this year, so we decided it would be fun to get out of town for a few days and hit the slopes (not to mention I bought a new snowboard this past spring and I've been dying to test it out for the first time). 

I want to thank everyone again for the amazing support you've provided over the last few months.  And thank you so much for all of the awesome donations to Team in Training and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  As of this morning, you've donated over $3,500!  Thank you again and Happy New Year!  I look forward to seeing all of you in 2010!