Platelets, Infection and Match

Three things I want to talk about today.

Monday was my day one of Cycle 6 which should be my final cycle before having my next stem cell, more about that later though. I had my blood taken for  full count to make sure I was ok to start the Doxorubicin and Velcade, but when the results came back, my platelets were showing over 232, so I had to have another test done as this is the highest they have ever been and there may have been a mix up in the blood. However the really good news is that there wasn’t a mix up and my platelets have increased by that amount which means that something is working the way it is supposed to for a change. So with everything going OK I was attached to my pump for the next four days and given my Velcade and issues with my 40mg of Dexamethasone (Dex) a day for the next four days.

The Dex stops me from having a good nights sleep, if any at all, but makes me feel a lot better during the day and as if I have a lot more energy than I really do. I try to do more when I’m on the Dex but still get exhausted afterwards, even if my brain thinks I can do more.

I was back at the hospital today (day 4) to have my next dose of Velcade if the blood results came back ok. They were a bit short staffed to get someone to sign off on the results to give me the go ahead and although the blood test is very quick everyone on the ward who was having Velcade has a long wait. Someone did eventually come over to me and as I think I have mentioned before when they come over and close the Magic Curtains (the curtains that they close around you when they want to tell you some bad news, as if nobody else can hear through the curtains!) Arianna informed that she wanted to exam my chest as the results have come back showing a possible infection and I am dehydrated. She listened to my chest and after me telling her about an infection in my thumb last week, she said that could possible be it, but she wanted to check with Dr Lee and would be back shortly. 10 mins later they both came back and closed the curtains again (oh no!) but after a bit of a chat, they realised that this was not day one but day four of my cycle…. once the confusion had been cleared up the results that they had been seeing was to be expected because of where I was in the cycle and I had nothing to worry about phew!! In fact that brought him on to my point three.

He told me that the they have got the results back for Nigel’s stem cell match and it was a PERFECT MATCH so some really great news. he wanted to know if he was the oldest or youngest brother and after after I told him he was the oldest he said they would prefer the youngest, but they hadn’t got those results back yet, but either way at least I have a match.

So although a little worrying throughout the day it turned out to be a really good news day.

My para-protein is at 11 which is about what it was last time before the stem cell (plateau), but Dr Lee said there was really any evidence to show that having a zero or low lower level would make any difference anyway, which I knew really anyway from others blogs that I follow that are in the same predicament as me.

I got an appointment through for Liverpool to go tomorrow, but I cancelled that one until next Friday which means I would have just finished this cycle. I may have to have another one as an interim while I’m waiting for the Transplant but I will wait to see what they say at Liverpool next week.