Infusion #3

After what seemed like an eternity. but was actually only a week's delay, Carolyn's doctor finally approved the third infusion for Carolyn. Carolyn is anxious, of course, to be finished with the chemotherapy and delays such as this one are just major frustrations. As you can see from the graph above, a week's delay allowed Carolyn's white blood cell count to increase almost 500%. It certainly seems to have been the right thing to delay this infusion.

We're getting to be old hands at the routine although it does change a little each time. The whole process is down to about 3 hours. However, the wait to get a chair this time was longer than we've had before so we didn't save much time.

The last time I blogged about the infusion nursing station, several people commented on the starkness of the room and scarcity of resources. Actually, as I look around the room I see almost all the patients have "visitors", one has several family members and friends, one is using a laptop computer while her companion reads, and one is watching a movie with her husband on a portable DVD player. It appears that Kaiser is accommodating the patients without making the place look like an airport terminal.

If the next two cycles act like the first two Carolyn will be pretty tired this coming week, much more "with-it" next week, and the third week she will be almost the usual "letss-take-on-the-world" Carolyn. Since with the delay Thanksgiving will now be in her second week of the cycle. With company all over the place, she'll need all the energy she can get. We are looking forward to seeing so many of our kids and their families as well as my sister RevaBeth.

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Just saw the sad note from Jenny and Philip about her impending miscarriage. The baby according to ultrasound images measures 6 weeks old with no heartbeat. Jenny's uterus on the other hand measures large enough for a 12 week old baby. She will need to have a D & C to preserve her health and future maternity possibilities. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jenny and Philip.