White Blood Cells

You might say that the last seven days have been interesting.

Last week, I mentioned that my white blood cells were low. What is more, with the chemo, they go even lower.

They obviously got very low by the weekend as I came down with a cold, the first in 30 months! My immune system was shot.

The research manager prescribed lots of vitamin C and, of course, Chaga Mushroom tea. That seemed to do the trick and I began to improve by yesterday.

When I had my blood test yesterday and the results confirmed my suspicions. The white blood cell count was disastrously low, well below the minimum acceptable level. As a result, I was given Neupogen by needle. The needle goes into your underarm with a sharp prick and seems to stay there forever as the precious liquid gets squirted in and starts to promote the development of white blood cells from you bones. I got a second shot today and the shots do wonders. I feel like a million bucks, well, at least $900,000.

By the way, Ariana Grande was in Tampa to do a concert yesterday and had to cancel it because she got sick. I'm just saying.

The research manager continues to try to keep tabs on me. When she felt that I was not taking all my pills properly, she taped a close up of an eagle's head above the pills, with its "eagle eyes" staring at me. I dealt with that by fashioning a blindfold out of paper and putting it over the bird's eyes.

She also read about the fact that it is not good to keep the TV on over night while you are sleeping. The blue light and flashes of light are particularly bad. I have been sleeping in a separate bedroom due to my cold and had the TV on last night. I woke up in the middle of the night to sleepily observe the the TV was not working properly. The picture on both sides of the TV was faint and there was a black strip down the middle. I went back to sleep quickly. When I got up this morning, I discovered that the research manager had crept in and covered the TV with two pillowcases. Where they overlapped, it caused the black stripe. I just had to laugh.

In any event, things are on the mend and I am feeling much better than I did a few days ago.

As always, thanks for your interest, concern and prayers.