Today we went to the clinic for the usual tests.
We found out that Tom has 0 neutrophils right now, and therefore, no immunity. So, except for required medical appointments, we'll be keeping him at home under "house arrest" until his counts come back up. Hence the blog post title, "0 is the loneliest number"... His body is reacting to that big 5 day round of chemo - even with the daily GCSF injections to try and boost his white cells and neutrophils, he is back to where he was in October after his last 5 day round.
His platelets have dropped to 14 (from 125 just before the last round of chemo), so he needs a transfusion. Unfortunately, with the MRI at the General this afternoon, there was no time left today to do so at the clinic before they closed today. So, unless something develops overnight - like a nosebleed or a fever, the plan is to go back to the clinic at 9 AM tomorrow morning for a platelet transfusion. Hopefully, they will be able to get single donor platelets and he won't get a reaction this time. They will pre-medicate him with Benadryl and Hydrocortisol (a steroid) in hopes of preventing an allergic reaction. They will likely hook him up for a day's worth of hydration, to counteract the effect of the chemo on his bladder - he's finding it hard to drink enough fluids.
We didn't know how low his counts were, so he was out and about a fair bit this weekend: Dylan's BD party on Saturday, church on Sunday, a visit to EB Games to trade/swap some of his video games... lucky for him I didn't know where his numbers were at! Steph was here to visit this weekend, so she and I went to see The Blind Side while Tom was at Dyl's party. (great movie by the way).
Laura was part of a business case study competition in Prince George this past weekend, with a team from the U of R Hill School of Business. She and the other 2 students assigned to International Business took home 2nd place, and the Hill team as a whole placed 2nd overall. Competitors were from business schools from Winnipeg west - the only larger school missing was Calgary. UBC placed 1st, and U of A placed 3rd - proving the U of R students are definitely not disadvantaged for attending a smaller school.
(Can you tell I am a little biased? Sorry. I'm a proud mama, what can I say? But then, I am proud of all my kids!)
I know how lucky we are, despite the ups and downs. I suspect this week we all feel the same.
Thanks for checking in on us,
Thomas' Mom
