Dear Friends and Family,
Nancy and Jayna spent much of the day shopping for hats on line.
Why?
Nancy just completed the last dose of one of her chemotherapy drugs, Idarubicin. Idarubicin’s job is to attack bone marrow cells, but it affects other rapidly growing cells, like hair, as well. Though it often upsets the GI tract, it hasn’t even made Nancy nauseated. My strong woman—a woman, nonetheless, whose hair is falling out in clumps. (I am afraid to share with you that very soon my bride will have less hair than me.)
Idarubicin is very ascetically impressive when administered because it is a bright red, almost fluorescent liquid. Anyone witnessing it trickle down the IV tubing and into Nancy’s vein can’t help but believe it must be powerful.
I think all IV meds should have color. But even if Idarubicin wasn’t red, it truly is a potent medicine. I have therefore nicknamed it “The Assassin Drug” because it is meant to obliterate Nancy’s entire bone marrow.
At the suggestion of our good friend Marion Wheaton (a nurse), each time Nancy gets it, I visualize miniature “Pac-Men” entering her bloodstream to eat up the “evil” white cells. As an alternative, Marion suggested thinking about little soldiers marching to battle, so I now ask Nancy to visualize an army parading into her vein. (She gives me that “Yes, dear” look.)
The Assassin Drug, full of “Pac-Men” or soldiers, has been busy.
Nancy’s white blood count (WBC) is now a shadow of its former self, a mere four hundred. Not the 89,000 WBC it was on admission. Or the 4,000 WBC that would be on the low end of the normal WBC range of about 4,500–10,000.
FOUR HUNDRED!
This very low number is really good news, leukemia-wise. It means, as far as we can see in Nancy’s peripheral blood, the evil cells have been wiped out. The only bad news about a four hundred WBC means that Nancy has little, if any, immunity left.
We have to be ever vigilant for infection, which is why Nancy can’t have live flowers or fruits in her room. We also have to be very careful with visitors. And it’s why I wash my hands so many times a day that they are as dry and as rough as sandpaper.
The rest of Nancy’s blood count numbers are also good in comparison to her numbers upon admission. Her doctors were not exaggerating when they said she could easily have died in the first twenty-four hours. She was lucky to have received such prompt and competent attention.
Nancy also continues to receive a second chemotherapy drug, the pill ATRA, which I have nicknamed the “Parent” medicine.
Though a large part of Nancy’s problem is too many of the white cells called myelocytes, the other part of the problem is that those white cells are immature and therefore don’t function properly. ATRA helps new myelocytes grow up and mature. You may remember when Nancy started the ATRA, it caused fluid to form in her lungs, nearly requiring a transfer to the intensive care unit and, potentially, a respirator (which would have put me in the cardiac care unit, or CCU).
I am happy to report that since the first day’s scare, Nancy is tolerating the ATRA. We look forward to hearing that like the Idarubicin, it is doing its job.
Summary: The chemotherapy is going well at this point, and Nancy has finished one of her meds for this first round.
One down, and many to go.
Best,
Winnie