C-day plus 42 - Halfway Point

It's the halfway point of her chemotherapy if you consider that each of Carolyn's chemotherapy "cycle" is three weeks long consisting of an infusion of several potent drugs followed by three weeks of recovery.

Carolyn was actually scheduled for her 3rd infusion today. In preparation for it, she had some required lab work done yesterday. The lab work showed her white cell count significantly lower than it needed to be.


The normal range for the Red Blood Cell Count is 3.6 to 5.1 so as you can see that is comfortably in the normal range. However the White Blood Cell Count (WBC) is normally between 3.5 and 12.5 and her count has been going steadily down. Before the last infusion she was just barely below normal but they couldn't ignore how low it was this time.

We were all ready to go to the hospital this morning. Carolyn had taken her pre-infusion meds. Then the doctor's assistant called and said to forget the infusion today. The doctor would be calling and discussing the new plans based on her low White Cell count. Carolyn was assured that this was nothing to be alarmed about and that this would simply delay the next treatment a week to allow her body to rebuild the white cell supply. It did kinda mess up her day as the pre-infusion meds that she took left her in a drowsy stupor that makes it difficult to concentrate on any projects she might have worked on or even read. If only she had just gotten that call an hour earlier.