It's a Numbers Game

So it’s Wednesday and Chemo Day. My mom was coming with me this week so I had to switch my labwork appointment to Monday. See it’s a game when it comes to the chemo room. It’s like those college classes where you needed to come early to get the best spot. There are 12 cubby’s in the breast cancer center. Only one has to recliners. Seeing that my mom is in treatment as well I knew she couldn’t sit on one of those hard chairs for 3 hours. So with all that in mind we had an 8am appointment and came in two days early to do my labwork. As soon as we got here (8:13 am) there was another lady here with her husband. So I was like ohh Crap we needed to be so much more ontime. But God was looking out for me! The lady had to do Labs so I was called in first and was able to go on back.

On Monday I had two appointments. The first one was with the plastic surgeon to get fills and the second was with my Oncologist to get my White Blood Count (WBC). During my PS visit the nurse went over how many fills I had. At first she was counting incorrectly and said I had seven. By the time she recounted and looked closely I only had 5. So that was 300 cc’s of liquid not counting how much ever I got during surgery. She says for a fuller size they usually go to 480 or more. So that’s at least two more expansions but we’ll see how much my skin can take. Needless to say the FOOBs (fake boob expanders) are getting a little offensive. I told ppl at the end they would be really offensive in size so I’m interested to see what the next fill looks like.

So here’s your educational lesson for today. Your WBC’s fight off an infection. When ppl have chemo it kills all kinds of cells including WBC’s. That’s why my hair is falling out and my skin is SUPER smooth J. In any case a cold to a chemo patient could be death because of the body’s inability to fight it off. In any case before you can get chemo  they check your counts. If it’s too low then you have to get a shot. I wrote about this last week http://pandthebigc.blogspot.com/2012/05/ok-so-its-been-while-since-i-posted.html. So my doctor is like your counts dropped so low from the first chemo that you need to get a shot ever round. Instead of getting the less harsh drug she’s going to give me the more harsh one at a lower dose. So we’ll see how it goes this time around. I only have to do one dose the day after chemo instead of with the other drug I had to do two shots the week after. In any case I’m in chemoland today so I’m of to drink my fluids and get back to work. Yes I am working again today during chemo.. Why not. I have to keep it moving!